New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects • Hacker News Board

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#51

Post by seiferteric » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #19

api wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. This is what happens when you're run by bean counters who don't understand your core business or industry.

In the same/similar vein it never ceases to amaze me how employers don't provide their employees with the best tools possible (within reason) to do their jobs. A company will give a developer a low/mid-range laptop/desktop pinching every penny they can then turn around any pay them a huge salary... Like do they not understand that running into RAM/CPU limits makes the developer less effective? I've had jobs where I'v…

I am living through this. It is especially true if you are at a company that does software, but is not their primary business. IT seems to have total control and puts very little thought into developer experience. Give everyone the same slow mid-tier machines, force everyone to use Windows whether they want to or not, then overload them with security bloat, then require a slow VPN connection. It's sad.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#52

Post by dv_dt » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

S_A_P wrote: post #40

alisonkisk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs, already legendary for avoiding paying engineers for their contributions, organized an industry-wide cartel to hold down wages, and he never had an MBA. It's a bad leadership thing, not an MBA thing.

Its not not an MBA thing either. Sure its fun to dump on MBAs as being ruthless, careless and thinking of resources as replaceable widgets. To some degree you are right in that bad leadership will make these sorts of short sighted decisions, but Ive met enough MBAs to think that that masters degree is a shortcut to being a "good" manager.

I think MBA here is a label to fill in for a cost-first mindset vs maybe a value-first balance. By that I mean a more balanced view of the company making money not by prioritizing first order mechanics of profits, but more in depth view of how the profits are maximized by actual product workings - which tends to be represented at secondary, tertiary, or even deeper level in the accounting structure if at all.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#53

Post by yaboy » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

langitbiru wrote: post #25

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

Reading all comments grilling MBAs in HN is one of my guilty pleasures. I think I need to collect them all and put them in one place.

I worked at a startup that was acquired by an unsexy behemoth. It was not covered in TechCrunch. We had a sales guy who easily cleared over $1MM in salary and bonuses, several times the CEO and founders, because he went above and beyond, closing $15MM of new business a year.

When the MBA consultants and salespeople from the acquirer found out, they couldn’t believe he made that much — all while they personally managed $2MM-$3MM books of business.

What do you think happened? He was slowly stripped of responsibilities and eventually forced out, for the crime of standing out as an exceptional performer.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#54

Post by lmilcin » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

I left Intel years ago to get almost 3x the salary as a software developer at... a bank.

At Intel engineers are paid supposedly similar rates at similar levels and similar locations. And given my level (two levels above Senior Developer) I estimate I was paid better than at least 90% engineers.

Where I worked in R&D the doors were constantly revolving and many people admitted they wait to register enough of prestigious time at Intel on their CV to get hired at a much better rate for another company.

--

I don't see these moves as encouraging, more like signs of complete and utter panic. You go to these moves when whatever you do isn't working and you don't have strategy to do something new so you try to default on what has worked in the past (this both for the choice of CEO as well as bringing retired people).

This doesn't necessarily mean it is a wrong move (see Steve Jobs coming back to save Apple as a proof it doesn't have to be bad) but I wouldn't call it encouraging.

Rehiring retired people to me signals the new CEO has no trust in people that already are there. And that is usually bad news.

Add to it outsourcing CORE competency to competitor (https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/intel-TSMC-5nm) and it seems that if there is a plan it is to keep the ship afloat for a little while longer.

Hopefully the ship is going to be afloat for as long is necessary to reshape the organization, but I think we haven't yet seen any concrete moves to see what is the strategy.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#55

Post by StreamBright » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

I think there is more to the story. Apple and the new M1 just shows the strength of vertical integration. Once you can collect data from millions of devices and apply statistics on the top of it you can make decisions that Intel or AMD could never make. Intel also fall victim of its own success, become slow, stopped innovating at the pace necessary for the future.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#56

Post by cma » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

IanCutress wrote: post #24

ItsTotallyOn wrote: post #7

Except he didn't re-hire him. As noted in the article itself, the architect was already in negotiations since November. Also, new CEO doesn't step in until next month. Clickbait title.

The effect of Gelsinger taking the CEO role pushed a hire that was on the fence into accepting the role. It means he's having an affect already. That's what the title is meant to convey.

> The effect of Gelsinger taking the CEO role pushed a hire that was on the fence into accepting the role.

That's what he says and it is probably true. But it could also be true that saying so would put him in good graces with the new CEO and he would basically be expected by everyone to say that's what pushed him over the edge even if it wasn't, so him saying so adds little new information.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#57

Post by treeman79 » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

DelightOne wrote: post #35

treeman79 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine gave me a top of the line MacBook Pro, fully loaded. Then loaded so much security crap on it that all cores are maxed out without me even touching machine. Base vim nearly unusable. Then they made it so I could only access things via a double Remote Desktop tunnel. Basically an expensive space heater. 3 months of nothing done until security software suffered an unfortunate accident.

> suffered an unfortunate accident scheduled or unscheduled?

I actually had a loop in background that would kill -9 various services every few seconds until I finally got them all uninstalled.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#58

Post by amelius » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:55 PM UTC

They should also be hiring fabrication engineers, to get that 5nm process back on track.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#59

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:55 PM UTC

seiferteric wrote: post #51

joshstrange wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same/similar vein it never ceases to amaze me how employers don't provide their employees with the best tools possible (within reason) to do their jobs. A company will give a developer a low/mid-range laptop/desktop pinching every penny they can then turn around any pay them a huge salary... Like do they not understand that running into RAM/CPU limits makes the developer less effective? I've had jobs where I'v…

I am living through this. It is especially true if you are at a company that does software, but is not their primary business. IT seems to have total control and puts very little thought into developer experience. Give everyone the same slow mid-tier machines, force everyone to use Windows whether they want to or not, then overload them with security bloat, then require a slow VPN connection. It's sad.

> IT seems to have total control and puts very little thought into developer experience

To be fair, I can assure you that developers give very little thought to the experience of people who have to support their software too.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#60

Post by prox » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 5:55 PM UTC

langitbiru wrote: post #25

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

Reading all comments grilling MBAs in HN is one of my guilty pleasures. I think I need to collect them all and put them in one place.

Look up some talks from Guy Kawasaki, art of the start for example, it’s quite good and harmless humor.