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Lambda School lays off 65 employees

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Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#51

Post by nr2x »

granzymes wrote: post #26
jampekka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What amazes me even more is how this doublespeak has any effect at all anymore. Are there still people who don't see through this? Or are the execs in such a bubble they believe it themselves?

I wonder to what extent it has simply become a term of art. In biology, a specimen that is killed in the course of an experiment is described as "sacrificed" and has been for over a hundred years. We expect certain words in a layoff press release, and so the writers of those press releases use those words.

It's like saying 'the n word' which makes somebody say the real, far more unpleasant, word in their own head.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#52

Post by azuriten »

> In fact, many things at Lambda School are working very well, and we believe we're on the path to proving this model successful and sustainable.

While that may be true (doubt it), I work at a startup with about 150 employees and if we lost 32% of our employees I'd be polishing my CV and wondering when I'll be cut loose. That's not to mention all the negative stories coming out of Lambda School.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#53

Post by breck »

teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

> Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months?

Doesn't it ring alarm bells that society attempts to herd 100% of students through 4 year programs? That sounds far from optimal, no?

It seems highly likely to me that if you get someone who excels on the steep parts of learning curves, 6 months studying the right things would be just as effective (if not more) than 4 years doing mostly busy work.

> What jobs do these grads walk into?

I think they walk into entry level jobs. I know I much prefer working with people that love to live on steep learning curve slopes over those who prefer to go at the pace of the system.

> remember what a dot product or a t-test is from week 1?

I have been in data science for many years and most of the terms I was taught college (like t test) never come up. Maybe once or twice a year I have to spend 60 seconds to refresh on dot product algo.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#54

Post by karmicthreat »

teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

Its enough that a certain percentage could survive in "fake it till you make it" long enough to gain enough experience to do well.

But you have to be a pretty determined self-starter.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#55

Post by [deleted] »

nr2x wrote: post #41
HenryKissinger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Ridiculous. Introductory statistics and linear algebra are two separate undergraduate level courses. And if you want a real grasp of statistics, you need to learn probability theory first, which is another semester long course. To say nothing of "data wrangling", whatever the fuck it means.

Pretty sure "data wrangling" boils down to god-tier regex knowledge - which is less theoretical heavy-lifting than an acquired art that comes with practice.

[deleted]

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#56

Post by rcthompson »

wbronitsky wrote: post #32

The levels of inhumanity and doublespeak in here are staggering. This post attempts to euphemize 65 people losing their incomes, and probably healthcare, to the point that it reads almost as farce. Not to mention what the impact will be on those remaining, students and staff alike. "...they believe it's impossible to make this model work. We strongly disagree." This is wildly insensitive to those involved. I find it…

I thought "right-sizing" was a fake term made up to parody the already euphemistic "downsizing". I can't believe people are actually using it.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#57

Post by teruakohatu »

nr2x wrote: post #41
HenryKissinger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Ridiculous. Introductory statistics and linear algebra are two separate undergraduate level courses. And if you want a real grasp of statistics, you need to learn probability theory first, which is another semester long course. To say nothing of "data wrangling", whatever the fuck it means.

Pretty sure "data wrangling" boils down to god-tier regex knowledge - which is less theoretical heavy-lifting than an acquired art that comes with practice.

It is more than that and it is what Data Scientists spend a significant amount of time doing. Real world data is extremely messy and a lot of time is often spent understanding what exactly the data is, changing it from wide to long, deciding how to deal with missing values etc.

This highly cited paper is a good introduction to the subject:

https://vita.had.co.nz/papers/tidy-data.pdf

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#58

Post by randallsquared »

wbronitsky wrote: post #32

The levels of inhumanity and doublespeak in here are staggering. This post attempts to euphemize 65 people losing their incomes, and probably healthcare, to the point that it reads almost as farce. Not to mention what the impact will be on those remaining, students and staff alike. "...they believe it's impossible to make this model work. We strongly disagree." This is wildly insensitive to those involved. I find it…

> these people will take all the jobs you're aiming for.

1. The market is pretty hot right now; 65 jobs is a drop in the bucket.

2. Do you really think someone looking for a senior engineer would have otherwise hired a brand new grad, Lambda School or otherwise?

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#59

Post by thelean12 »

wbronitsky wrote: post #32

The levels of inhumanity and doublespeak in here are staggering. This post attempts to euphemize 65 people losing their incomes, and probably healthcare, to the point that it reads almost as farce. Not to mention what the impact will be on those remaining, students and staff alike. "...they believe it's impossible to make this model work. We strongly disagree." This is wildly insensitive to those involved. I find it…

Austin seems to take corp-speak to another level. See his response when they settled with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26948258

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#60

Post by mrcartmenez »

potatoman22 wrote: post #40
HenryKissinger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Ridiculous. Introductory statistics and linear algebra are two separate undergraduate level courses. And if you want a real grasp of statistics, you need to learn probability theory first, which is another semester long course. To say nothing of "data wrangling", whatever the fuck it means.

Ehh, you could come close to condensing 1-2 college courses into 4 weeks. It wouldn't be fun though.

There’s decent science on why this isn’t possible. Basically you need to space things out to give the brain time to work out what to put into long term memory
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