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The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

ericlippert.com

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Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#441

Post by nmfisher »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #411
ska wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VR as a technology is cool and revolutionary That's a funny way of saying decades old at this point and still not ready for prime time.

Fun fact, the idea of cellphones was "decades old" [0] in 1990 and not ready for prime time (clunky, not particularly useful outside of niche cases). Less than two more decades later, the iPhone came out and the entire world changed around them. VR is clearly still missing its "iPhone moment", and Meta is spending like hell to be the one to find it. Full disclosure: I am (today) a VR nay-sayer, despite this comment.…

Gut feeling is that the cellphone was already far more mainstream in the year 2000 than VR is in 2022. I had one (Nokia 5110?) as a teenager (admittedly I was in the minority), but I remember they were extremely common amongst professionals. Perhaps the iPhone turned cellphones from "one per family" to "one per person" but VR is still nowhere close to the former.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#442

Post by musha68k »

jordwest wrote: post #186
dnissley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can somehow feel that he has been dying to say this for years, but couldn't while he was still working for Meta... It's a pretty common sentiment in my experience here, de rigueur even. Expressing it in the way he does here is definitely frowned upon though -- one of the most interesting cultural traits I've noticed that Meta has fostered is an awareness and avoidance of cynicism. When people comment internally…

I've experienced this in a similar workplace before and did lead me to spiral and exit, to me it was absolutely exhausting keeping such a ruse up. There was something about it that felt so inauthentic, a bit toxic positivity, a bit hide-the-pain-harold. It's like the workplace version of Instagram itself, where everybody shows their best side, is mildly ashamed of feeling anything but positive because of the collecti…

I also wouldn’t want to work with a person that is just negative all the time but fair critique and moral checks should be encouraged, especially when holding so much power.

However well paid at the outset, such “cults” more often than not are ultimately pernicious not only to their environment but their members as well.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#443

Post by w23j »

LouisSayers wrote: post #382
WorldMaker wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not always feel that way. At some point you may start to wonder what your legacy on this planet is. At the very least: if you've made a good use of your limited time (and the scarce resource that is your labor). (Hard mode: if you've left the planet better off than you found it?) The last few years have pushed a lot of people's "burn out" buttons and the self-reflection of "what have I accomplished with my ti…

Ultimately everything will be destroyed anyway... "legacy" is an egotistical concept, if you think you're building anything but sandcastles you're deluding yourself. Enjoy the process, admire your castle, but never forget the tide will have its day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#444

Post by vintermann »

dnissley wrote: post #140
rob74 wrote: post #91

> Speaking of cutting costs, the company is still pouring multiple billions of dollars into vaporware called “the metaverse”. News flash: no one wants to wear VR goggles to spend any time in a digital heaven where the role of God is played by Mark Zuckerberg and you can do anything you can imagine, including “work” and “shop”. You can somehow feel that he has been dying to say this for years, but couldn't while he wa…

> You can somehow feel that he has been dying to say this for years, but couldn't while he was still working for Meta... It's a pretty common sentiment in my experience here, de rigueur even. Expressing it in the way he does here is definitely frowned upon though -- one of the most interesting cultural traits I've noticed that Meta has fostered is an awareness and avoidance of cynicism. When people comment internally…

About cynicism vs. criticism, I'm reminded about something Scott Alexander recounted in his review of Red Plenty, an actual historical event:

(Kantorovich) invented the technique of linear programming, a method of solving optimization problems perfectly suited to allocating resources throughout an economy. He immediately realized its potential and wrote a nice letter to Stalin politely suggesting that his current method of doing economics was wrong and he could do better - this during a time when everyone else in Russia was desperately trying to avoid having Stalin notice them because he tended to kill anyone he noticed. Luckily the letter was intercepted by a kindly mid-level official, who kept it away from Stalin and warehoused Kantorovich in a university somewhere.

Cynicism can be warranted. Of course it's possible to be excessively cynical, but lack of cynicism can be downright deadly. Sometimes you are in situations where you can do little, and the best you can do is still pretty awful. And if you suppress the doubts that could make you cynical, more often than not someone else has to carry those doubts for you, to at least prevent the disasters that ARE preventable.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#445

Post by renewiltord »

ericlippert wrote: post #302
mikebenfield wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no data to back this up, but if I had to bet I’d guess that the large majority of Meta employees - along with shareholders - are also strongly opposed to the company’s new focus.

I do have data to back this up for employees. You'd win that bet. Shareholders, I have no data on that.

That would be normal, wouldn't it? It's the classic example in The Innovator's Dilemma. The incumbent has a lot of pressures trying to keep it doing what it was doing.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#446

Post by entropicgravity »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #410
langsoul-com wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shipped 10 million quest 2's. That ain't nobody.

People are interested in VR for gaming. Not for the metaverse. Zuck should be building a console or something, not wasting time on something no one wants.

He might try buying Amazon Alexa from Bezos, that sounds promising. At the very least it would be cheaper.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#448

Post by webmaven »

jcadam wrote: post #371
ericlippert wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point and don't mean to be argumentative, but a couple small corrections. First, the pivot to "meta" was just over a year ago, so it hasn't been quite years. Second, I haven't been shy about sharing my opinion internally, though I haven't been broadcasting it either. The first thing I said in our team group chat when we'd heard this announcement was (context, I am much older than most people on the team) "…

> "I'm old enough to have read Snow Crash the week it came out and IT WAS A DYSTOPIA, why are we building it?" But at least it was a dystopia where pizza delivery was an exciting business.

> But at least it was a dystopia where pizza delivery was an exciting business.

It wasn't an exciting business.

Pizza delivery was an exciting job (in all the worst ways a job can be exciting, or, TBH, just stressful), but the business part of it was quite boring. The corporate takeover denouement was perhaps the most boring scene in the book, and barely justified the "Chekhov's Guns" that were required to give a baddie a single "oh shit" moment with no payoff.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#449

Post by mcv »

andruby wrote: post #418
rightbyte wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh ... so in dystopian Snow Crash (I read up on it) there is a also dystopian virtual reality named Metaverse. Well, I wonder i Zuck knew about that. Interesting that the book essentially seems to render the "gig economy" as some dystopian element. Quite good prediction.

I can only recommend you to read the book. It's amazing. It is so relevant for today, you'd be forgiven for not knowing it was actually published in 1992. But really, it's probably the best book I've ever read.

If we're going to see someone driving around with a nuclear bomb in their sidecar, it's more likely to happen in Russia than in the US, though.

Re: The last three years of my work will be permanently abandoned

#450

Post by treeman79 »

fanick wrote: post #416
treeman79 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High cranial pressure (IIH) and lots of minor strokes. Apparently I’m genetically prone to clots. (Factor 5)

Damn, I think I might have similar issues. Also diagnosed with Leiden. Should I be worried?

So you have any symptoms of TIAs?

I had symptom of one every 6 months or so since high school. Got exposed to some chemicals and it went to a couple per week.

Blood thinners keep it under control.

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