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Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

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Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this argument about "knowledge workers" yet writers produce books, designers produce design documents, developers ship code. sometimes you slow down because you're starting something new or you're blocked by other people, but in general productivity measured in code changes frequency / volume and the impact of the feature being worked on is rather straightforward (how many users use the feature, how mu…

> developers ship code Developers ship solutions to problems, which often involves some code. A developer who solves the problem in a fast, cheap, maintainable way with an off-the-shelf package is superior to a developer who solves the same problem in a slow, expensive way with many thousands of lines of unmaintainable code. > but in general productivity measured in code changes frequency / volume Oh my. I don't even…

it's funny that you felt the need to point out the first part of my argument and forgot about the second one.

impact (feature $value * users using it) / change rate (frequency * volume)

is a full enough overview of an engineer's output in a crude manner.

if you implement a feature that makes 10$s per user for 100M users in 2 lines of code you're the best developer out there..... if you write 10000 lines of code to ship something that makes 0.005ct for 100 users ... you should not be employed.

As an engineering manager I advice every developer to find a way to learn to measure their output because that is a good way for them to know their value (ask for a raise, move to a different company ...)

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this argument about "knowledge workers" yet writers produce books, designers produce design documents, developers ship code. sometimes you slow down because you're starting something new or you're blocked by other people, but in general productivity measured in code changes frequency / volume and the impact of the feature being worked on is rather straightforward (how many users use the feature, how mu…

Developers do not just ship code. If you think developers only code you are naive and unfamiliar with developers' work. Developers solve problems and then ship implementations of those solutions. You can ship completely technically correct implementation to a wrong problem or wrong solution of a problem and it will look perfectly fine for an untrained eye. My O(n^3) solution that has 1000 lines of code would be 5 tim…

same as the other response I specifically linked the change frequency to impact

tldr:

impact (feature $value * users using it) / change rate (frequency * volume)

no need for long replies ;)

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#663
post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We honestly aren't treated better, and as you point out, are usually the first out the door. This has been my experience as a marketer over the last 16+ years. So, so many of my compatriots let go in these lean times (and often not backfilled), leaving those left behind to do 2-3X more work and get the ol "you're lucky to have a job!" speech. I've been laid off twice in my career, despite being considered a high-perf…

If you figure it out, let me know. I'm a content marketer recently laid off, and I've been dabbling in learning Python in my downtime as a general interest but also as a horizontal skill that... may prove helpful? In the meantime, kicking down every door I can to find a great company looking for great content.

Hey.. check out Superpath and Content & Pros Slack communities. They post tons of jobs and you can usually direct message the hiring managers - sure beats the endless blind application game. I can send you some other resources - DM me.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#664
post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my experience too. Worked with an Indian start-up and most of them were utterly useless. They also never managed to make any of their deadlines because they'd always say yes to whatever you asked. Thank god for the one guy who always fixed everything we needed. Of course, this is a broad generalization, but so is the idea that Indian talent will take over the world.

Seems like a culture problem and not a talent problem. Us developing world folks do not easily say "no" because we grew up in a top-down, authority-driven place. Americans are pretty uppity when it comes to taking orders if you compare to others. There is also a difference in interviewing. Only in America do you have to proactively market and sell yourself. Most other cultures are more timid and humble.

It's not about the yes or no culture difference, it's just the lack of autonomy to solve a known problem, root cause analysis, debugging skills, proposing a solution, empathy towards customers etc.

And don't get me started with the caste system making a bunch of clueless people arrogant to no end.

I spend these days 4h+ a day in calls to explain basic stuffs and basically debug a multi-awards SaaS application as nobody has a clue in that company.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#665
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize it's not something that happens, but I would say "taking responsibility" would mean taking, oh, I dunno, $50M of that $800M in compensation in 2021, and distributing it to those laid off? (How the hell is your life different with $750M instead of $800M anyway?)

For one thing, as another comment mentioned, he didn’t actually get $800M because that was contingent on hitting various price targets that didn’t happen. For another, it’s not like it’s just cash sitting in a checking account. It would be stock in the company. Since he’s a CEO, he can’t just sell it whenever he wants, insider trader rules mean there’s only certain windows when he could buy or sell, and the CEO selli…

To counter that a bit, rich people with these kinds of assets can take out loans or cash with their assets as collateral. And of course these loans have way better rates than whatever kinds of loans you and me could get. Even better - This way, they don't even have to pay capital gains tax.

What I'm saying is, Vlad could most likely buy an expensive yacht without ever having to actually sell stock, so the argument that "it’s not like it’s just cash sitting in a checking account" is not that fair as well. Makes it seem like the uber-rich are actually quite restricted and that all of their money is locked up in investments and other things. Which is simply not true, they can use these locked-up assets in very attractive ways.

See this article for a better write-up: https://www.businessinsider.com/securities-asset-backed-loan...

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source on your first point? Sounds a conspiracy from r/superstonk

I think the OP meant buying partial stock? afaik those are not real trades; robinhood has to house the trades on their books to some extent

Every brokerage does that with fractional shares though. It’s not unique to Robinhood.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#667
post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ridiculous housing appreciation is practically a global phenomena that is due to artificially low interest rates and easy credit driven by many of the central banks around the world. What you describe (housing supply restrictions) is a local phenomena in a few markets like San Francisco and not the primary reason behind the incredible speculative nature of the recent housing market. China has been building in hyper-s…

Japan has the lowest rates in the developed world and a very generous central bank but no housing appreciation. No one expects housing to appreciate (except in limited, specific situations) and then no one votes or sets policy specifically to prop up prices. There’s a dynamic market with plenty of development and supply in the right types of housing and price points and everyone’s happy pretty much.

Japanese homes are mainly prefabricated and are nothing like the type of construction you see in most other places. So of course a home doesn't appreciate because they are the same as a trailer. They only last 20-30 years.

The land does appreciate in Japan though. And if they built good homes, they would too. But they choose not to.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#668
post #632
post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SWE’s straight out of school made 90-100k in the late 90’s. Isn’t that what they make now?

I think the more accurate measure is the median salary. It’s not that high now and probably wasnt back then either.

I’d agree that these salaries are roughly the same if not less, adjusted for inflation, regardless of the actual number.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan has the lowest rates in the developed world and a very generous central bank but no housing appreciation. No one expects housing to appreciate (except in limited, specific situations) and then no one votes or sets policy specifically to prop up prices. There’s a dynamic market with plenty of development and supply in the right types of housing and price points and everyone’s happy pretty much.

Japanese homes are mainly prefabricated and are nothing like the type of construction you see in most other places. So of course a home doesn't appreciate because they are the same as a trailer. They only last 20-30 years. The land does appreciate in Japan though. And if they built good homes, they would too. But they choose not to.

Is this also true of better constructed housing say in high rises which would likely be built to last longer due to the heights of the building requiring concrete and steel?

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#670
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One estimate puts it at $170 billion extra flowing into retail investing.[1] Also, it may be reasonable to use the savings rate as a rough proxy. That rate was higher than it has been for decades when the stimulus was active and has since dropped. [2] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/business/stimulus-check-s... [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT

I am willing to bet they didn't factor in the whole meme stock craze. Zero of our stimulus went into buying said stocks, however I did make a bucket load from GME and AMC prior. Our stimulus went into further "stimulating" our savings account. The money I spent with Robinhood was entertainment money. It just happened to pay off big. A more conservative estimate places stimulus "meme stock" trading at less than 0.1% o…

I made a bucket load in 2020 and 2021 and didn't qualify for a stimulus check based on income. How are we defining bucket load?
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