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What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

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Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#341

Post by gumby »

pyb wrote: post #218
maybetoofast wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I joined Fast towards the end of last year. I didn't get as much exposure to the rest of the company as parent comment, but I'll say I saw a weird air of complacency and assumed success. I first ignored my instincts that something was wrong, but as I saw more of how the company operated, I became convinced that the single largest problem the company had was the culture. On the surface, I agree with the parent comment…

Good point, I am always surprise when well funded startups hire former big-tech engineers, rather than experienced startup engineers.

It’s a kind of cargo cult, cf the post “you aren’t google”. The kinds of people who succeed at FAANG (MANGA?) are used to a lot of infrastructure and are (at google in particular) mostly incented to ship rev 0, not build a sustainable system.

That’s a gross generalization, but gives you the flavor. I couldn’t do what they do (huge budget, low incrementalism) and would hate the environment. But they can’t do what I do, and when hired to do so, typically fail. Not because they are dumb, or lazy, or foolish, or anything negative — typically they are none of those things. Just haven’t experienced the startup environment.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#342

Post by omalleyt »

teruakohatu wrote: post #309
rockostrich wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty hilarious to read. I did an interview screen with them at the end of last year for a data engineering position (former coworker was high up on the design side of things and he gave a referral). The first bit of the technical question was just "write a SQL query" and boiled down to doing a group by, count, and limit. The second was something like "what if we needed to return this query from a distribute…

What is a time-windowed hash-map? Just a time based key-value store?

I think he means an LRU cache

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#343

Post by buf »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #128
buf wrote: post #13

Wow, I make the same revenue as Fast as a one-man entrepreneur. It really amazes me sometimes the strategies of these heavily funded companies. Why pile on so much burn so quickly?

What do you do?

https://www.siliconvict.com These days I just tinker with projects which are listed in that site. Taking a couple years off while I look for the next big thing.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#344

Post by panick21_ »

rileyphone wrote: post #131
Animats wrote: post #62

"Most engineers joining didn't know much about why the one-click checkout industry has the potential of billions." So why isn't this a standard feature of every shopping cart program, including the cheap ones? The complicated part is that you need "undo", valid for a while after ordering. That's what makes one-click buy feel safe for customers. This complicates inventory management. But you really need "undo" for an…

Amazon had the patent but it expired recently AFAIK.

How one can patent something like this is just beyond crazy.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#345

Post by panick21_ »

dmje wrote: post #338
jthrowsitaway wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What point are you suggesting with your Nepal example? It's a third world country. Fast presumably employed people in San Francisco. That weekly wage from Nepal might buy you a bag of apples from Costco here. An entire year's worth of wages in Nepal might pay for one month's rent of basic housing. Sure, nobody needs $250k per year to survive. CEOs also don't need to have an obscene compensation ratio compared to thei…

> We have a few other systemic issues I’d like to see solved first Insane levels of inequality is what’s on my list

Actually helping poverty seems like more important then any relative measure.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#346

Post by TideAd »

dmje wrote: post #339
cipheredStones wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're looking at the wrong level of the problem. Engineers in Big Tech can make $250k because they're making even more money than that for their bosses - if they were paid less, it would just mean that the bosses and stockholders got paid more. Same for startups, except there it's a VC betting that he'll make $50M if he gives 10 companies $2.5M so that they can each pay 10 engineers $250k. We don't live in a system…

Sure. I’m just expressing discomfort at how it became just “meh, it’s how it is”. My issue is I just don’t see the world in this money focused way. From out here, in the land where it’s sort of average to earn maybe $50k and feel pretty good about that, it looks pretty sick. I don’t get it, I don’t like it, it feels disingenuous to support it with what seems to be an endless “it’s ok, everyone does it” or “that’s jus…

Money is a tool for many things in life. Here are some things you get at $250k that you don't at $50k in a cheap place:

- Have enough financial security to know that you can weather most emergencies, medical bills, etc.

- Tip well and support your friends' businesses

- Retire before you're too old to enjoy it. Or take a sabbatical.

- Do good. Let's say you want to give $10k to charity. Very doable on $250k, but asking a lot on $50k.

- Buy more ethical products (whatever this means to you)

- Avoid a lot of the soul-crushing bullshit of everyday life. Car doesn't run? Landlord is trying to screw you? You can solve those problems with money.

There are a lot of rich assholes out there, but they would have been assholes even if they were poor. You won't turn into one if you have a different outlook.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#347

Post by yibg »

dmje wrote: post #318

Sorry, I read it all the time, but still - how the fuck is it suddenly normal for a fairly standard salary amongst any non exec layer in a company to be ~$250k? I know engineers and developers have to be skilled, but this is insane. No-one needs that kind of money. People in Nepal live for $10 a week. What an insanity.

How much do you make and do you need it? I’m guessing you make more than $10 a week.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#348

Post by retrocryptid »

Why is low (or falling) revenue grounds for a low (or falling) valuation? The fundamental feature of modern Intarweb companies is VC's just shovel money into startups indefinitely. The goal isn't for the company to make money, but to serve as a vehicle for selling their stake in the next round to a greater fool.

Something fishy is going on here

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#349

Post by hef19898 »

emgeee wrote: post #196

I was an engineer at Fast for over a year and wanted to clarify a few points-- - engineers did have access to data and could write their own queries to check revenue (but few people did until the article came out). - the strategy leadership decided on was to go after massive enterprise sellers which would, in theory, result in step-change functions in revenue. Many people knew about the low numbers but were willing t…

There is a lot of truth in that. Refusal to acknowledge failures and hard truth, ignoring the elephants in the room, default assuming success, hiding or keeping information secret... That's quite a risky combination.

Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast

#350

Post by kortilla »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #256
pyb wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point, I am always surprise when well funded startups hire former big-tech engineers, rather than experienced startup engineers.

There is a pretty good reason. If the experienced engineer worked at a startup that went anywhere, they have a lot of money and aren't coming to work for you. So the choice in many cases is big tech engineer or failed startup engineer. It's not clear which is better, it is clear (ish) which seems better.

> If the experienced engineer worked at a startup that went anywhere, they have a lot of money and aren't coming to work for you.

This is a stupid view of motivation and competence.

First, it implies people are only motivated by money. At the first startup I worked at, one of the senior engineers had been through 4 successful exits and was in the business to build things.

Second, competence of the engineering org and individual engineers is orthogonal to successful exits. An engineer can successfully ship many iterations of a product that are just a bad market fit and the company will fail. I’d still take that engineer any day over the typical FAANG cog who’s big project was a 2 year tax billing database migration.

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