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So long, and thanks for all the bytes

chethaase.medium.com

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Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#61

Post by ghaff »

noncoml wrote: post #59
treprinum wrote: post #47

I 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.

I feel lucky and privileged to be in that position. I get to do what I love and get paid very generously. If it wasn’t for “those people” or for tech being so lucrative to attract them, I would probably still do the same but struggle to make ends meet. So I’m very grateful that tech is what it is today.

People are lucky when there's some intersection between what they like doing, what they're good at, and what pays reasonably well.

Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#63

Post by fauigerzigerk »

jeremyjh wrote: post #54
Mc91 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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% t…

Nothing you said contradicts GP, who didn't claim Elon discovered anything. Elon did recently demonstrate what has been known for a long time - but not widely believed.

>Elon did recently demonstrate what has been known for a long time

You mean because he fired a lot of people and the website is still up?

Revenue has been falling precipitously. I'm not sure anything has been demonstrated yet.

Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#64

Post by ghaff »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #46
away271828 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Retiring in late 50s vs. retiring at 65 (much less later) still qualifies as some years early I think. Obviously a step function difference from retiring/"retiring" in early 40s.

Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#65

Post by manmal »

chaboud wrote: post #60
raphlinus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I joined Android in April 2012. Looking back, at that time Android was incredibly lean for what it was accomplishing. The entire Frameworks team reported to one manager, and we would fit in a medium size conference room. That included all of UI toolkit and the bulk of the Java APIs an app would call into, including Binder. (Networking, phone, graphics, Bluetooth, etc were other teams, but we worked closely together.…

That must have been an amazing ride. Note: in my opinion, a small, lean, focused team is the right way to build an OS. I haven't seen the "throw an army at it" approach succeed for building the core of an OS or platform, as it becomes almost impossible to keep coherence in the system. And, yeah, that GMSCore joke is too real.

Indeed, it was interesting when VW announced they‘d hire 10k engineers to build an automotive OS. Of course it hasn’t worked out and they needed to restart the effort (with 5k devs it seems?).

Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#66

Post by breather »

noncoml wrote: post #58
breather wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech for tech's sake helps nobody. Politics is a fact of nearly every facet of life—you can accept this and play the game or accept that you're in the backseat. The worst people in the world already know this and run our industry. There's no reason we have to accept them.

> Tech for tech's sake helps nobody If it wasn’t for science, art and tech for their own sake we would still be on the trees gathering bananas

Art? Yes, of course! I have no clue what you're referring to with tech, though. Throughout history development of tech has almost always driven by seeking economic leverage. I'm sure there are exceptions but I can't think of any.

Not sure what you're referring to with science at all.

Re: So long, and thanks for all the bytes

#67

Post by manmal »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #63
jeremyjh wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing you said contradicts GP, who didn't claim Elon discovered anything. Elon did recently demonstrate what has been known for a long time - but not widely believed.

>Elon did recently demonstrate what has been known for a long time You mean because he fired a lot of people and the website is still up? Revenue has been falling precipitously. I'm not sure anything has been demonstrated yet.

Revenue hasn’t fallen because devs were fired, but because people responsible for selling ads were.
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