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John Carmack Leaves Meta

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Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#811

Post by eschneider »

praptak wrote: post #676
drewg123 wrote: post #634

"I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage" One of the most important things an organization can have is a "no man". A project that I was involved in when I worked at Google was completed on time primarily because we had a very senior (DE level) engineer tangentially involved in the project. He was near the end of his career, and he just didn't give a f* about politics. He'd sit in design…

The part about not giving a fuck is crucial. You don't get rewarded for preventing bad things.

That's generally the case. It's soul-sucking to work when you can't prevent idiocy and at most places you're punished for pushing back hard, so the only response (other than, you know, burn-out) is to leave. When you see senior people you respect getting the hell out for no obvious reason, that's usually a sign that you should be polishing your resume. Bad times are coming.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#812

Post by NovaVeles »

comfypotato wrote: post #516
iforgotpassword wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah well, you're anonymous, so you might as well be someone with a huge ego who got their idea shut down by Carmack once and is still bitter about it. More often than not, when people think they "prove something wrong with data" it's more that they're "taking some data and interpret in a way that fits their standpoint". Carmack has proven enough times in the past that he's able to deliver, that he can push technolog…

At risk of upsetting this thread’s balance and reducing it to negativity: I prefer your parent comment’s interpretation of the Go. “Ahead of its time”? Technology is the last space where a newfangled product would lose momentum by being released to early. I’m open to being proved ignorant here. Can you think of some examples where tech was obviously ahead of its time and not accepted? Subscription music services like…

One step ahead is an innovation. Two steps ahead is a Martyr.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#813

Post by kelnos »

_a_a_a_ wrote: post #810
blueboo wrote: post #801

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be an exception that proves the rule. Killing a major initiative might’ve been a boon for sibling initiatives m — no wonder those leads applaud an underling who usefully twisted the knife. Politics — is Amazon known for it?…

Or it might not. Have you any reason to search for the negative in a prima facie positive?

My experience matches with the GP. In my ~20-year professional life, I can't recall even one instance when I'd read a promotion announcement and saw that one of the person's accomplishments was that they prevented something bad from happening. Sure, it's possible I'm forgetting, but such a thing seems odd enough to me that it feels like something I'd notice and remember. I expect most people will have a similar experience.

It's also possible that people are getting praise for these sorts of "negative accomplishments" in private, or on performance reviews. Which is better than nothing, but I think it's still valuable and healthy to remind people that part of the job isn't just building stuff, it's also making sure the right things get built. And public praise for killing bad things is a good way to do that.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#814

Post by NovaVeles »

nvarsj wrote: post #588
JohnBooty wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly no one really cares about VR that’s the problem. I feel like this is definitely the elephant in the room everybody is ignoring. Almost nobody gives a hoot about VR! I'm a software engineer with a lot of (surprise, surprise) nerdy/geeky/whatever friends and interest in VR is close to zero. A few friends vouched for various games like Half-Life:Alyx and Beat Saber, but nobody was claiming it was a life alterin…

I don't know about your friends, but playing Alyx opened my eyes to the level of immersion VR can achieve. It's a kind of gameplay that can't be repeated with 2d screens. I really do think it could be revolutionary, based on playing that game alone. If you can get ahold of a headset and a powerful gaming PC - I recommend giving it a try. The problems right now are very fundamental. The quest 2 out of the box is supre…

I am starting to think that Alyx is VR high tide point. It was either going to be the thing that makes folks and developers run to VR or just stand out there is a neat proof of concept that gets ignored. Alyx is now 2 years old, there hasnt been a rush towards the space yet...

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#815

Post by didibus »

brezelgoring wrote: post #689
shafinsiddique wrote: post #662

Can someone explain me the 5% GPU utilization issue

For the monster hardware it has, Oculus (at least in games) can only rival a PS2 in terms of polygon count. Pair that with the 5% GPU utilization metric and you get that this device can handle a whole lot more load and it's just being used inefficiently. I'd even use the word 'wrong', people within Meta made 'good enough' libraries and called it a day, and he's mad about that. This thing has billions of dollars poure…

I don't think that's what he meant.

It sounded more like he meant that he is seeing their organization be inefficient at working on the right things and making progress towards VR.

And as a person who cares deeply about efficiency of resources, that pains him to see so much human resources (in this case) being wasted when they could accomplish so much more so much quicker (in his opinion) with better focus and direction.

And he likened it to the same feeling he'd have if he saw a game making use of only 5% of the available GPU, which would be that feeling of all that wasted potential.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#816

Post by m3kw9 »

drewg123 wrote: post #634

"I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage" One of the most important things an organization can have is a "no man". A project that I was involved in when I worked at Google was completed on time primarily because we had a very senior (DE level) engineer tangentially involved in the project. He was near the end of his career, and he just didn't give a f* about politics. He'd sit in design…

Big orgs reward stupid BAs for coming up with “exciting looking stuff” and the most engineers gladly take it up their az and all would say yeah we can do this like it would make them look bad if they said otherwise. The ones that speak up would usually get grilled and questioned like their job was on the line.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#817

Post by joanfihu »

freddref wrote: post #568
Arjuna wrote: post #111

”It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I'm evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I…

I so wish I could "kill stupid things before they cause damage", "set direction" and have people follow, but it seems especially difficult for technical people. We spend all-day every-day talking to our subservient (a compiler) but a human is fuzzy and unreliable which is compounded by team size. Carmack can realize something in an instant but it is amazing how long it can take an entire team. One thing I've noticed…

That's so true.

Carmack is working on AI. He started Keen Technologies.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#818

Post by [deleted] »

krisoft wrote: post #768
Nimitz14 wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the source instead of adding an edit would make previous comments that were asking about the unclear part not make sense anymore. The 5% figure is kinda shocking, that’s why he put a number. And it’s I think why people appreciate him, because he gets specific instead if writing a vague statement like “pain of seeing an application waste resources”. I really don’t understand how it can be unclear that 5% is b…

> And it’s I think why people appreciate him, because he gets specific But he is not specific. As you write the specific problem he has is with the efficiency of the organisation. He is not quitting Meta because someone shipped a build with 5% GPU utilisation. The gpu utilisation thing is an example and the number is pulled out of thin air. And as an example it doesn't do a good job. It confuses people instead of ill…

[deleted]

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#819

Post by m3kw9 »

Could it be a communication or persuasion skill lacking? Usually very smart engs cannot convey their point to less Talented ppl that usually makes the decisions
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