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John Carmack Leaves Meta

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Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#991

Post by loco5niner »

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…

I definitely saw a lot of that in him when I read "Masters of Doom".

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#992

Post by dang »

nopenopenopeno wrote: post #875
throwaway_8989 wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It would be slightly easier to take you seriously if you could spell correctly.

You can't attack others like this here. Since you've been breaking the site guidelines repeatedly in other contexts as well, I've banned this account. Please don't create accounts to do this with.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#993

Post by codemac »

slim wrote: post #906
throwaway_8989 wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

By reading between the lines of your story and carmack's, my guess is carmack was against facebook user profiling in VR headsets, and you think the sales numbers are sufficient and prove him wrong. If that's the case I'm with Carmack both because "the ideological background" and because the sales argument does not hold : you don't know what the sales would have been (and will be in the future) if facebook did not str…

This.. this is not true at all.

The comments on his internal post elucidate where the conflict is, but it's a larger strategic choice about where Meta should be investing. It is more about his comments here: https://venturebeat.com/mobile/oculus-cto-carmack-downplays-...

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#994

Post by jjtheblunt »

boppo1 wrote: post #510
throwaway_8989 wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not sure I’d trust someone who mixes up ‘their’ and ‘there’ to interpret data proving or disproving some strategy. From the looks of the product, I’d say he was probably right on whatever that stuff was.

it could be auto(in)correct, perhaps via dictation.

i'm a language and grammar stickler and rewritten spellings in dictation and just plain autocorrect sometimes sneak by, particularly since iOS started correcting at a delay and several words back.

I once wished a girlfriend that her presentation would be "kick ass" but she got a text wishing it to be "lick ass". But it was obviously autocorrect being stubborn.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#995

Post by namuol »

namuol wrote: post #799
monero-xmr wrote: post #649

I’m a strong believer in dictatorship at companies. Every team has someone with ultimate decision making power, as does every project with a project leader, and above teams are leaders who have authority above them, and so on. Of course there are meetings and discussions but there is always someone with the authority to make a decision that everyone has to respect. Honestly it benefits everyone. ICs like that authori…

I’m blanking on the name of the essay, but there’s a compelling argument for the only viable alternative to a Benevolent Dictator being a very thoroughly and precisely defined shared terminology of the underlying product/software system. Basically you can achieve a shared vision only by relentlessly checking the assumptions of the group and codifying everything, or using a singular visionary as the stand-in for a coh…

Can’t edit my post, but the term I was trying to remember was “conceptual integrity”, coined by Fred Brooks in a The Mythical Man-Month.

Here’s a c2 wiki page on the subject: https://wiki.c2.com/?ConceptualIntegrity

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#996

Post by borroka »

percentcer wrote: post #746
beambot wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel sorry for those FAANG engineers... Imagine that you're paid 2-3x, the work is confined to 9-5, gourmet meals on the 2x days you're not wfh, generous vacation policy, world-class benefits, and ample time to pursue side hobbies or family. I know so many exceptional engineers that went this route... after they got over the perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and wild ambitions to just accept the status quo. Now,…

> the work is confined to 9-5 tell me you haven't worked in FAANG without telling me you haven't worked in FAANG

I used to work at a FAANG and worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no work weekends. Occasionally there was a longer work day, but also a shorter day. I think that was a fairly common day for many of my technical colleagues, whereas non-technical people tended to work longer.

Now I work for a legacy tech company and my workday is definitely shorter and less stressful, with European-style PTO, semi-interesting work and glacial speed of execution. My life has improved, visibly. I earn 75%-80% in CT of what a FAANG employee in an equivalent position would earn, career advancement is unlikely, but I find it exciting to have the means to live the life I want and pursue the interests I dream about at night, which are mostly non-work and non-tech related, without the time constraints and stress of a low-impact FAANG corporate position.

In the end, when I worked at a FAANG, I felt intensely the pressure of the job, the responsibilities -- mostly made-up -- and the ultimate insignificance of my work, not in the grand scheme of things, but in the context of the company. However, the money and the prospect of earning more were exciting.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#997

Post by wweburg »

dumbotron wrote: post #760

This isn't going to make me friends. John Carmack hasn't be relevant for years, and this doesn't move me one way or another. There was a time when game engines were simpler and the work of incredible engineers who could make something happen five years sooner, but we're past that, and I'm not sure Carmack is. > it is the more personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization number in production. I am offended by it. For…

Carmack has simply hit a ceiling that others won't let him pass. Carmack isn't in authority, and as such, he has to rely purely on influence. Hard to do when you are focused on technology, because technology and humans are quite different (yet also similar). He's making it clear that his political effectiveness is limited and he has no motivation to continue his fight. It happens. You only have so much energy to spend in any given time period, you have to spend it where it will do you and others the most good. Everyone eventually learns from these things. It takes time. And how each person defines success will be a bit different.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#998

Post by turtleyacht »

unwind wrote: post #980
joanfihu wrote: post #817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so true. Carmack is working on AI. He started Keen Technologies.

It's very confusing that a company by that name [1] seems to exist already, in an adjacent/near area ("Keen Technologies Pvt Ltd. is a comprehensive repository for online courses offering high quality state-of-the-art IT and Business related e-learning and training related courses."). Didn't he check first, or what? [1]: https://www.keentechnologies.com/

Commander Keen was one of id Software's first games.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#999

Post by knighthack »

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…

I'm gonna dismiss this whole story, since it's anonymous, while the person you're criticizing (Carmack) isn't.

First, we have no idea what "evidence" or "data" you allege that disproved Carmack, or how Carmack insisted on being right "from an ideological background" (whether that even happened at all).

Second, Carmack is one of the most data-driven and performance-oriented programmers you can find, and is quick to admit errors where he is wrong; to suggest that he is ideology-first (which, from his Twitter and public statements, has never been the case) over truth in tech matters - is bonkers-insane.

And it's such an easy thing to call out someone you dislike as "toxic", just because you disagree with them. Your statement also makes no sense: the phrase 'politely toxic' is an oxymoron - as when one 'politely disagrees', it suggests reasonable disagreement, not outright difficultness.

Further, "good, and in some cases legally required, work" can be work that have nothing to do with the end goals - it could even be baseline administrative work.

Re: John Carmack Leaves Meta

#1000

Post by knighthack »

moralestapia wrote: post #532
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…

>who got their idea shut down by Carmack once and is still bitter about it Nice fantasy you created there to support your argument. Have you heard of "don't shoot the messenger" ? I admire Carmack as much all other hackers around. I don't sympathize with many of Meta's practices. Still, it's entirely plausible that GP's experience holds truth. I've been around the equivalent of people like Carmack in academia and all…

The principple "Don't shoot the messenger" applies to real-life messengers.

It does not apply to anonymous 'messengers' on the Internet who spread stories that can't be verified, and who themselves are of unknown credibility/origins, and who could have undisclosed biases/prejudices against the person they are criticizing.

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