John Carmack Leaves Meta • Hacker News Board

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#941

Post by ambrose2 » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 2:09 PM UTC

sundvor wrote: post #882

johnnyanmac wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carmack aside, I think the "never meet your heroes" thing is even simpler: no one's perfect. Your hero could have cured cancer but maybe they're a nervous wreck in public. Or aren't native to your area and may commuicate badly face to face for culture clashing reasons. Or maybe they are great in a small intimate team but completely fall apart in a large setting. Heck it could be as simple as finding out they are a he…

To me it would be the opposite; we all have our faults, so how do they manage the feats that they do? There's no point idolizing people for their accomplishments in the "they must be perfect" kind of way. Ie I look at John and see someone amazingly fit for their age (very close to mine - only a few years older, yet he appears younger); I'd like to learn more about his routines (running and judo?) to see how I might b…

I’m curious too, in the Lex Friedman podcast/interview, John described he oftens “runs on” a diet of pizza and Diet Coke.

https://lexfridman.com/john-carmack/

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#942

Post by davewritescode » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 2:19 PM UTC

lovecg wrote: post #320

methodical wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "If you solve a few more problems" The amount of work done by these 7 words is incredible. ChatGPT is far from changing a "lot" of industries. Still pathetic at programming (which isn't its purpose, but is AlphaCode's purpose; which also sucks), use of it for copy writing is nullified since it seems Google will crack down on AI generated copy writing. DALL-E is also a nice party trick but far from being particularl…

It boggles my mind that people are now dismissive towards technology that would have been literal science fiction _a year ago_ while at the same time being pessimistic about future progress.

I think you’re exaggerating quite a bit. Language models have been evolving for years.

The problem I have with GPT is that is wonderful at confidently writing things that are completely incorrect. It works wonderfully at generating fluff.

I’m not a pessimist I love this kind of thing. I just understand the delta between impressive demo and real useful product. It’s why self driving still isn’t pervasive in our lives after being right around the corner for the better part of a decade.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#943

Post by SideQuark » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 2:44 PM UTC

beowulfey wrote: post #915

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…

Carmack has been around a long time, and I’ve never heard a word about him that rings true to the PC. Anyone on here worked with him in the past?

Read the John Romero stuff. Even Carmack explains in the Lex Friedman interview how badly Carmack treated him. Carmack also presents enough in that interview to expect this take us quite likely correct.

All from Carmacks own mouth.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#944

Post by jshaqaw » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 3:23 PM UTC

TLDR: It’s everyone’s fault but mine

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#945

Post by necroforest » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

gompertz wrote: post #620

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…

Quoted post unavailable.

It blows my mind that someone thinks that counting "their/there" mixups constitutes an argument.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#946

Post by neilc » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 3:35 PM UTC

guerrilla wrote: post #542

kubb wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is all about that cult of personality, we want to believe in heroic programmers (or founders) who singlehandedly change the world with their geinus clarity. Paul Graham said this, John Carmack said that and we lap it all up. It's been this way since the ancient times, and the stories of Hercules and Theseus. We mythologize these personalities, and in our mind they become demigods. But there's a reason the folk wis…

> HN is all about that cult of personality, we want to believe in heroic programmers (or founders) who singlehandedly change the world with their geinus clarity. I'm not one to defend the culture here but this isn't fair. Everyone is like this and it has nothing to do with HN. They do it with politicians, rock stars, capitalists, etc. Just look at the cult of Elon Musk. And they do it because all of those people put…

I’m pretty sure that people like John Carmack, Donald Knuth, or Fabrice Bellard are not spending money on PR firms.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#947

Post by noisy_boy » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 3:45 PM UTC

surfsvammel wrote: post #519

modeless wrote: post #4

He just founded a new company called Keen Technologies to work on AGI. Not surprising that he wants to focus on that now. He's been part-time at Meta for years. I'm interested to find out what kind of business model he's planning for an AGI company. Edit: he posted his leaving message publicly here: https://www.facebook.com/100006735798590/posts/pfbid0iPixEvP... Additional public comments on Twitter here: https://twi…

Keen Technologies. That’s a great name.

I think it is based on id Software's Commander Keen[0] game.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#948

Post by baandang » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 3:46 PM UTC

tinco wrote: post #473

khazhoux wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is simply stunning that the seasoned direction and counsel that someone of John Carmack’s caliber is capable of delivering was not being followed. This doesn't actually surprise me in the least bit, and that's not a criticism of either FB/Meta or Carmack. It's simply that after a couple of decades in industry, I now see that effective organizational leaders are exceedingly rare, and I've seen now many super-expe…

Carmack is an absolute genius and it would be madness to disregard anything he's spent any significant amount of time thinking about. But let's be real, he isn't Tim Sweeny or Gabe Newell. As smart he is, I don't think he is even top 3 in the best business decision makers of his specific field of first person shooter game developers. His track record is that using his tremendous skill he caught one of the biggest wav…

I am pretty sure the big sticking point is Carmack thinks they should be doing the opposite of putting out $1500 headsets.

He was pretty much taking shots at people during his Meta Connect talk this year. There is nothing shocking about him leaving.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#949

Post by petee » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

throwaway_8989 wrote: post #452

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…

Throwaway because it could be easy to identify my position from my normal account name. Carmack is many thing, engineering genius above them. However, he would frequently wade into areas where he had no experience, demand others do what he said, ignore evidence he was wrong, bully people, and disparage entire teams who were doing good, and in some cases legally required, work. When data proved his idea was wrong, he…

Is VR really successful? Because it seems like its been floundering for years, and still hasn't learned to walk yet.

And your example in a way backs up what Carmack is saying -- nobody listened, and Oculus sucks, as you pointed out.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#950

Post by guerrilla » Sun, Dec 18, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

neilc wrote: post #946

guerrilla wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN is all about that cult of personality, we want to believe in heroic programmers (or founders) who singlehandedly change the world with their geinus clarity. I'm not one to defend the culture here but this isn't fair. Everyone is like this and it has nothing to do with HN. They do it with politicians, rock stars, capitalists, etc. Just look at the cult of Elon Musk. And they do it because all of those people put…

I’m pretty sure that people like John Carmack, Donald Knuth, or Fabrice Bellard are not spending money on PR firms.

I'm pretty sure you don't know what you're talking about. Carmack has been covered by multiple PR departments, sometimes simultaneously, throughout his career. Knuth literally has publishers doing that work and I don't know what you think the Nobel committee or ACM Turing Awards are for. That's their entire purpose, to promote these people for their accomplishments. It's not like they hide that. And what do you know, Bellard isn't even remotely as popular as those others. I wonder why.