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Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

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Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#21

Post by tlrobinson »

nostromo wrote: post #15

I've always admired Google for elevating the role of chef to such unprecedented heights. But it also makes me wonder what other roles in these big companies could be elevated. (Random example, perhaps the cleaning staff.) When I was at Amazon circa 1999 rumor had it that the van driver we saw once a day (he delivered intra-office mail -- is that still a thing?) had at minimum hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock…

Compare to good old Zynga: "One Journal source said that Zynga executives were especially concerned with not creating a "Google chef" scenario."

http://m.cnet.com/news/zynga-to-employees-give-back-our-stoc...

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#22

Post by cpncrunch »

67726e wrote: post #7

Perhaps I am just lacking some perspective here and someone could better inform me, and I don't mean to be "that guy" right now, but how does this really relate to the guideline of: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." I can understan…

I agree with you. While it's sad that this person has died, it doesn't really seem newsworthy.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#23

Post by CoachRufus87 »

67726e wrote: post #12
untog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked at both Facebook and Google, so aside from anything else I have to assume that a good number of HN readers have benefitted from his cooking. Are developers now the only employees worth celebrating at tech companies?

Maybe I'm just coming from a different perspective having only ever worked for a small company, but I don't exactly find a chef to be noteworthy, at least not in any technical sense. Let me put it another way, aside from the employees of Google or Facebook, what has this man done that would make him interesting to the rest of the people on this site? What did he do that makes him noteworthy? I'm sure he was a good ma…

Guess what: not everything on HN is meant for you. Just move along.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#24

Post by chronomex »

hkmurakami wrote: post #5
sdfjkl wrote: post #3

Mark's grinning face right above this announcement bothers me for some reason: http://cl.ly/image/2k0p2v2A1U3t

it might be a decent (though seldom used) feature for these communication mediums to have (FB, G+, etc) to be able to hotswap your icon for just one message when the message is grave. many gmail users now have icons (gee thanks, G+), and I can imagine that this awkwardness happens frequently in death notice emails sent to family and friends. Swapping it with even a generic frown face icon might do.

LiveJournal has that ... you can have several avatars and choose for every post and comment.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#25

Post by mindcrime »

67726e wrote: post #12
untog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked at both Facebook and Google, so aside from anything else I have to assume that a good number of HN readers have benefitted from his cooking. Are developers now the only employees worth celebrating at tech companies?

Maybe I'm just coming from a different perspective having only ever worked for a small company, but I don't exactly find a chef to be noteworthy, at least not in any technical sense. Let me put it another way, aside from the employees of Google or Facebook, what has this man done that would make him interesting to the rest of the people on this site? What did he do that makes him noteworthy? I'm sure he was a good ma…

Before this was "Hacker News" it was "Startup News". Due to historical / cultural reasons, a large base of the readership of HN are people from, or with connections to, Silicon Valley and the companies there. A lot of people on HN have probably been touched by Mr. Desimone in some way, and more than a few people here may have known him personally. IOW, he might not have been a "hacker" (or maybe he was, who knows?) but he's part of the "HN family" in a sense. That's why his passing gets a mention here, despite the fact that he may not have been notable to hackers in any other regard.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#26

Post by freehunter »

67726e wrote: post #12
untog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked at both Facebook and Google, so aside from anything else I have to assume that a good number of HN readers have benefitted from his cooking. Are developers now the only employees worth celebrating at tech companies?

Maybe I'm just coming from a different perspective having only ever worked for a small company, but I don't exactly find a chef to be noteworthy, at least not in any technical sense. Let me put it another way, aside from the employees of Google or Facebook, what has this man done that would make him interesting to the rest of the people on this site? What did he do that makes him noteworthy? I'm sure he was a good ma…

If my custodian passed away, I would be tremendously sad, although he never touched a computer in his life except to see pictures of his baby granddaughter. He is a wonderful person and a great friend to have around the office. Everyone loves him, and he is a much a member of the team as anyone else. We bounce ideas off him all the time, and although he sometimes has no idea what we're talking about he does his best to be an ear to whisper into. And in the the company I work for, I might be the only employee on HN.

Now multiply that by the thousands of employees from Facebook or Google who are here. Does this new affect them? Hell yes it does. You know what "doesn't matter to me"? The death of Douglas Engelbart. Sure he invented a lot of things that I use every day, but I never knew him and I never even paid him a thought until I heard he had died. But plenty of others had, and did, and mourned him. And I mourned alongside them, for we had collectively lost someone great that I never had the honor of knowing.

In short, try to be a decent human being and respect the mourning of others. This post is one our of thirty on the main page, and yet this is the one you choose to shit all over. Find something that interests you more.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#27

Post by [deleted] »

67726e wrote: post #7

Perhaps I am just lacking some perspective here and someone could better inform me, and I don't mean to be "that guy" right now, but how does this really relate to the guideline of: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." I can understan…

[deleted]

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#28

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

Andys wrote: post #13
sdfjkl wrote: post #3

Mark's grinning face right above this announcement bothers me for some reason: http://cl.ly/image/2k0p2v2A1U3t

Or how about the fact that thousands of people are "liking" the sad news.

Just an unfortunate effect of Facebook's terminology (compared to, say, a Google +1, or an upvote). The intent is to promote and share the message, regardless of how it actually makes you feel.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#29

Post by PommeDeTerre »

DrJokepu wrote: post #18
67726e wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm just coming from a different perspective having only ever worked for a small company, but I don't exactly find a chef to be noteworthy, at least not in any technical sense. Let me put it another way, aside from the employees of Google or Facebook, what has this man done that would make him interesting to the rest of the people on this site? What did he do that makes him noteworthy? I'm sure he was a good ma…

Please stop. What you're doing is not appropriate.

While his comments may come off as insensitive to some people, merely expressing an opinion, even one that may be unpopular or disagreed with, is not inappropriate in any way.

I encourage him to not stop expressing his true thoughts on this subject, as well as on any other subject that may come up. The uninhibited exchange of ideas is what makes for truly interesting and insightful discussion. Once political correctness or avoiding hurt feelings overtakes free expression, further discussion becomes pointless.

Re: Josef Desimone, Facebook's executive chef, has died

#30

Post by DrJokepu »

PommeDeTerre wrote: post #29
DrJokepu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please stop. What you're doing is not appropriate.

While his comments may come off as insensitive to some people, merely expressing an opinion, even one that may be unpopular or disagreed with, is not inappropriate in any way. I encourage him to not stop expressing his true thoughts on this subject, as well as on any other subject that may come up. The uninhibited exchange of ideas is what makes for truly interesting and insightful discussion. Once political correctn…

There is the right place and the right time for expressing dissenting opinion. An announcement about someone passing away is simply not it. I don't know how else I could explain this. This is just basic decency.
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