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Reflections on Palantir

nabeelqu.co

21–30 of 62 posts

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#23
post #19

what i get is Palantir is mostly the USA's home-grown answer to SAP with an aerospace/defense slant, and since a lot of aerospace is ITAR export controlled, they get cloistered in the robe of government secrecy. https://www.palantir.com/careers/ whole bunch of "strategists" and management types getting hired, and of course the usual truckloads of "backend" and "full-stack" engineers to make the wheels on the bus go r…

Palantir is the most distant point in the known tech universe from SAP.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#24

I got Severance vibes from this blog about Palantir. But it sounds like they are a consulting company and a sort of ConnectAll (for those who use Jira, Rhapsody, DOORS, etc).

You are describing GOFSI - Good Old Fashioned System Integration.

I promise you Palantir does not use UML or Rhapsody, and would not recognize DOORS if they slammed in its face.

GOFSI: "There are decades when nothing happens"

Palantir: "There are weeks when decades happen"

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#25
As a stylistic note, it’s funny that philosophy graduates often can’t help but mention that they are one at every opportunity they have, as if that carried a particular a certain intellectual prestige. They do that while perhaps missing the point: a critical mind does not need to announce its status and does not rely on declarations of prestige to be one.

It’s also funny how a marvelously rational philosophy graduate can then support the most banal moral positions. The life of the mind is quite something.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#26
post #19

what i get is Palantir is mostly the USA's home-grown answer to SAP with an aerospace/defense slant, and since a lot of aerospace is ITAR export controlled, they get cloistered in the robe of government secrecy. https://www.palantir.com/careers/ whole bunch of "strategists" and management types getting hired, and of course the usual truckloads of "backend" and "full-stack" engineers to make the wheels on the bus go r…

Palantir is the most distant point in the known tech universe from SAP.

Distant how exactly?

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#27

I got Severance vibes from this blog about Palantir. But it sounds like they are a consulting company and a sort of ConnectAll (for those who use Jira, Rhapsody, DOORS, etc).

You are describing GOFSI - Good Old Fashioned System Integration. I promise you Palantir does not use UML or Rhapsody, and would not recognize DOORS if they slammed in its face. GOFSI: "There are decades when nothing happens" Palantir: "There are weeks when decades happen"

Sorry I didn’t mean to imply that they use standard systems engineering practices or tools. I was equating their data integration efforts like that ConnectAll tool you can buy.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#28

It's interesting how Palantir kept ownership over FDE work. When I hire a consultant I own his work. He cannot bring it elsewhere to modify and generalize.

I've worked as an FDE in a company that followed a similar approach – any work we did for a customer was still our IP and licensed as part of the software package, so we could then generalise it through our product org

It's not quite like hiring a consultant anyway, for example I've used Foundry before and while custom development is a part of it, the platform has a ton of stuff built in (partly thanks to the culture of adding features to the mainline product from customer engagements) so everyone benefits from it

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#29
post #17

Maybe I feel this way because I am not a smart human, but why is being intelligent so important, at the cost of being kind, ethical etc? What is so special about Peter Theil’s philosophy if that man is part of the billionaire club who are using their money to make most people’s life miserable? And how can people who read philosophy in their evenings (mentioned in the article) justify the work they do during the day?…

The thrill of working with and being surrounded by brilliant people who are breaking new ground and building things that people really find useful is a hell of a drug.

It doesn’t require a megalomaniac at the helm. It just often happens that way.

Re: Reflections on Palantir

#30

As a stylistic note, it’s funny that philosophy graduates often can’t help but mention that they are one at every opportunity they have, as if that carried a particular a certain intellectual prestige. They do that while perhaps missing the point: a critical mind does not need to announce its status and does not rely on declarations of prestige to be one. It’s also funny how a marvelously rational philosophy graduate…

This applies to most graduates imo. and even more so phds. :)
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