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How to succeed at Meta

teamblind.com

201–210 of 211 posts

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#201
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying work for nothing. I'm saying that immediately fleeing every time you are asked to stretch because it isn't in your current job role is going to limit your career growth rather than enable it.

Obviously don’t flee. Negotiate a rise. And if they don’t take you seriously get a better job, because they don’t appreciate you at your current place.

But if you look at popular advice on blind, cscareerquestions, or from various youtube influencers they'll absolutely tell you to leave immediately.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to Kara Swisher interview some top Apple execs who used to work closely with Steve Jobs recently. Unfortunately I think we're now in an era where design and user experience is a lower priority when shipping new products. I'm not sure what the path to fixing this is, or if it even needs to be fixed, but I do think that Steve Jobs created a cult of innovation and a beacon to aspire towards creativity-wise, e…

Are there hard facts to support this view? I've heard such an opinion so many times that I'm always skeptical on whether this is just the popular thing to say.

I don't know about hard facts, but iOS has turned into a usability nightmare. Sedimentary layers of settings on layers of settings, unintuitive gestures that require perfect precision, and unstable behavior.

Try tapping the play button and guess what's going to happen. Try getting the passcode screen to actually appear when you want to get into your phone and your face/finger aren't working. You can feel the competing teams shoehorning their thing into a platform that's already overstuffed, with no top-down editor removing the bloat.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#203
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communism is when the threat of violence is used to enforce such a rule. I see it as a culture problem but do not wish to use violence to correct it. I think your boogeyman radar is off.

I think you’re falling right into the classic “that’s not real communism” no-true-Scotsman fallacy.

I think you're falling right into the classic "any kind of government or shared services is communism" fallacy.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. even if you are the owner of the business, or working for someone in your family's business, its still business. full stop.

If you're the owner of the business none of your conditions above would apply; they can't fire you and you're not contracted to it. You can of course have disagreements with the other owners, and it's not good to put your whole life into your personal business as if you were a subsistence farmer. On the other hand, telling employees they should own part of the business is bad investing advice; if you get shares of a…

when I say 'if you are the owner', I mean if you are the owner, the people who work for you (even if family) are employees, and anything you do in regards to the business should be with that scope. And that should be their scope as well. in terms of the business, its an employee company relationship.

Obviously if you own a business, you are much more vested in its success

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#205
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communism is when the threat of violence is used to enforce such a rule. I see it as a culture problem but do not wish to use violence to correct it. I think your boogeyman radar is off.

I think you’re falling right into the classic “that’s not real communism” no-true-Scotsman fallacy.

There are many kinds of communism, but someone asking others "please consider spending your privately-held money on slightly different private property and services" doesn't meet any definitions that I know of.

Communism as a political organizational principle requires by definition the use of force (via government) to enforce its dicta. Where did I advocate using force? Where did I mention or even imply the involvement of a government at all?

The word you may be thinking of is collectivism, as a counterpart to individualism, the axis of which obviously aligns much closer with the discussion we've been having above than anything on the capitalism/communism axis. But "collectivism" isn't a 20th century dog-whistle boogeyman so I can see why it dodged your reactionary tendencies.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#206
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it’s about gaining back time at the end, when I may be unable to work. Every additional $N/yr translates into one less year I need to work before I can retire. Even once all your needs are met, it still makes sense to further optimize TC because you save it and that translates into earlier retirement. I have a sign above my monitor that reads “The Goal Is To Not Have To Work”

So you got a shit job to shield yourself from a shit job in the future? Are you aware of other options, such as non-shit jobs?

I doubt this will be seen as there is no notification in HN but this is kind of what I was saying in my comment. the problem is a bit subtle if you think about it, in order to get paid more (& I mean significantly more) you'd have to be much better than others or hit some kind of a niche. issue is that if you are good then you don't necessarily want to stop working (maybe just stop on somebody else's schedule). Now that is fine but our ability to enjoy life or even enjoy work goes down significantly with age almost akin to a 1/x curve. so you are really trading your best years for some money that you may enjoy in later years, because trust me unless you hit some startup jackpot you arn't early retiring under 40. Plus you'd want a family before that at some point.

So then I say a better strategy is to do work that pays above market but you still enjoy instead of something significantly higher paying job that you dont enjoy. Just 2c from a middle aged techie.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#208
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you got a shit job to shield yourself from a shit job in the future? Are you aware of other options, such as non-shit jobs?

I doubt this will be seen as there is no notification in HN but this is kind of what I was saying in my comment. the problem is a bit subtle if you think about it, in order to get paid more (& I mean significantly more) you'd have to be much better than others or hit some kind of a niche. issue is that if you are good then you don't necessarily want to stop working (maybe just stop on somebody else's schedule). Now t…

It's probably the youngish HN demographic, but I'm not sure where this idea comes from that old people don't enjoy life as much as young people do. It's kind of--insulting I guess, like my brain's ability to feel joy has gotten attenuated at some 1/x curve??? Who told you that's what happens?

The one thing you probably can't 100% count on having the ability to do when you get old is work, which is why it's so important to "make hay while the sun shines" as they say--max that salary while you can. Especially in the tech industry where there's already so much ageism. I am not counting on my ability to pass an interview or actual physical do work, beyond like 60 or so, but still need to financially prepare to live to 90. I think some people on HN just assume they'll be capable of working up until their final day, so why save?

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how large companies operate once they surpass the innovation phase I heard someone smart (maybe Naval Ravikant) say on a podcast that this becomes prevalent in orgs which have two or more layers of management between real customer-facing work and business ownership (CEO, co-founder, CTO, etc). Having worked in several startups as well as F500 FAANG-ish valley tech companies, I agree. When a manager reports…

I don’t understand. Literally every company I’ve ever worked for, successful startup included, had at least an engineering manager reporting to a director reporting to a VP reporting to a senior VP reporting to a CTO. Is this not a normal or good way of doing things?

Startup with 6 levels of management? What kind of a startup is this? In my experience, working in startups for a couple of decades, this is nothing like normal.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#210
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Left what I would consider a big company for a < 10 person startup. I couldn't be happier. I honestly don't care that I had to take a paycut for it.

> I honestly don't care that I had to take a paycut for it. Good for you. Here in Eastern Europe, the difference between working for big tech versus working for a local small business appears to be a factor of 5 to 20. I'm not saying money is the most important, but gee an 80% to 95% paycut does seem like a lot...

That's an incredible paycut, I'm sorry. I definitely had to hunt, most small startups offered me about 60% of what I made. I finally found one which offered me 85% of what I made. While still significant for me, it wasn't a deal breaker.
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