I though Google paid decent salaries, but it turns out even after 15 years there you’re still concerned about making ends meet it seems
So long, and thanks for all the bytes
41–50 of 160 posts
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#42The title is an allusion to "So long, and Thanks for All the Fish", a book by Douglas Adams. (For those HNers not steeped in the HHGTTG trilogy of six books)
Which is a reference to what the Dolphins say at the start of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as they leave the earth just before it is destroyed for a new intergalactic roadway.
Which made a lot of people sad, even the ones with digital watches...
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#43The idea that another multi-millionaire tech worker would think that leaving their job is something people would be interested in is… strange. He’s letting the world know that in the second worst tech downturn in history, he’s going to retire and pursue comedy writing. Feels more appropriate for a Facebook post to this friends rather than a medium post.
He posted it on Medium, not the front page of the New York Times.
People follow him on Medium, presumably because they want to follow his thoughts and are interested in what he has to say.
So for him to post to a platform of followers, explaining the most major life change of his life and announcing that he effectively won't be as involved in the Android community anymore all seems pretty reasonable.
If someone has a gun to your head forcing you to read it against your will than I suggest dialing 911. For the rest of us, there is nothing forcing us from reading it. So if its not of interest we just move on.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#44The title is an allusion to "So long, and Thanks for All the Fish", a book by Douglas Adams. (For those HNers not steeped in the HHGTTG trilogy of six books)
Which is a reference to what the Dolphins say at the start of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as they leave the earth just before it is destroyed for a new intergalactic roadway.
yeah, he swears he loves Google, Android and the rest - but he did put that title there didn't he? Come to think of it, that's one of the hallmarks of comedy - say one thing and subtly imply another ...
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#45Because of the downturn, I wonder how many people have given up on their careers at Tech? How many more will respond to the call of a different professional life that pays less, but that will be more fulfilling? Even as recent as yesterday I heard a past-colleague tell me "maybe Tech isn't for me, after all. I'll try my hand at this other thing."
Tangential to the article since that was a voluntary departure, but this is absolutely happening, yes. My partner decided to get "into tech" in ~2018. Her reason more or less amounted to looking at me and determining "it's a cushy job that pays very well." For a while, I tried pointing her to various sources to start learning a bit about software development and programming; there's no barrier to installing PyCharm C…
> Everyone hates him, but you have to begrudgingly admit that Elon successfully demonstrated you don't need massive dev teams to build and run software, even at Twitter's scale. (obviously it has other problems due to Elon's incompetence, but nothing more developers would solve.) Most companies could cut their dev team size by 50% and end up net-positive due to less overhead--the challenge is figuring out which 50% to cut.
What do you mean this revelation was recently demonstrated by Elon? The NATO Software Engineering Conference 1968 paper talks about the problems of having too many programmers of low skill. The 1969 paper talks about the same thing. Fred Brooks wrote the Mythical Man Month in 1975, covering this topic extensively. This has been talked about extensively for over half a century with regards to software, it wasn't just discovered by Elon in the last year.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would assume that he just earned so much money that he’s rich and can now do something else with his life without caring about money. Good for him.
"Rich" is a bit of a loaded term. But, yes, if someone has had a successful 35-40 year career in tech and has managed their finances reasonably, it's not unreasonable that they might decide to pack things in some years early--especially if they're not wild about working at a behemoth company that isn't as much fun as it used to be.
> But, yes, if someone has had a successful 35-40 year career in tech and has managed their finances reasonably, it's not unreasonable that they might decide to pack things in some years early
Early? If you've been in tech (or any job, really) for 35 to 40 years you're going to be in your 60s (or close) which is a normal time to retire.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#47I always wanted to program, to create great things, got really good at it, but most of the time I was overtaken by folks playing politics that only used tech as a stepping stone to something they always wanted to do but only tech gave them financial resources to do that.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#48I though Google paid decent salaries, but it turns out even after 15 years there you’re still concerned about making ends meet it seems
Salaries is one thing. Your lifestyle choices are another thing entirely.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#49I wish you and the rest of the android team hadn't forced me to give you so many of my bytes, but you're most welcome, good luck.
Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes
#50Nice! I’ve been rewinding myself. Not sure where I’ll go though but it’s fun. After 25 years I’m ready for it. Not going to write comedies but I’ll figure something out.