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Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

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Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#121

Post by goldenchrome »

throw_pm23 wrote: post #94
tomcam wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you took a job like that, were you really one of the best minds of your generation?

Anecdotally, of the five-ten people I knew throughout the years who ended up at Facebook, all had a very specific personality-trait. Those that I knew who went to Google/Amazon/etc. were more diverse personalities: ambitious, interested in hard problems, wanting a good life, etc. Those going to Facebook though, I'm not sure I can put it in a polite way. Let me just say, in different times and different places I could…

It sounds like you had an interesting observation but it’s not clear to me. Can you state it more plainly? What kind of organization?

I have also noticed FBers have a certain kind of personality. Vaguely utopian but removed from reality with a heavy emphasis on hedonism.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#122

Post by throw_pm23 »

twblalock wrote: post #113
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #59

Good. The best minds of a generation have wasted their talents figuring out how to best maximize media addiction and serve ads for Facebook and Google. Let’s hope a new generation engages in more socially productive endeavors.

Sad that when I open a thread the first comment I see is cheap cynicism that comes close to trolling, and the replies are even worse. Look at all the stuff this generation of workers have built in big tech — the amazing devices in all areas of the market, the progress in electric cars, the massive scale in compute infrastructure that enables most smaller companies to easily spin up entire regions rather than run thei…

Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#123

Post by __derek__ »

seattle_spring wrote: post #97

How does someone currently unemployed by choice with a good financial cushion take advantage of this if I don't have any startup ideas I'm deeply passionate about? I've kept an eye on the startup market and all I see are exceedingly boring ideas with mind numbing pitches around them. "Democratizing shipping!" "Disrupting the collaborative saas text editor market!" Edit: wow the ideas in OP are dumb as hell too.

Have you considered a startup studio? Assuming your handle indicates location, Pioneer Square Labs[1] and the Allen Institute[2] both have incubators to connect skilled people with promising ideas for startups.

[1]: https://www.psl.com/jobs/job?gh_jid=4418268002

[2]: https://jobs.ai2incubator.com/jobs

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#126

Post by geodel »

Salgat wrote: post #58
qqtt wrote: post #8

Good. Both Google and Amazon are barreling down the path of democratizing scale and infrastructure with their cloud offerings. It's never been easier to reach millions of users in a short amount of time with your product. These are the companies that will end up ultimately challenging them down the road for talent and potentially even hitting at their core business models of search and commerce (we've already seen hi…

I don't understand why Google and Amazon would invest all this money in these employees building up their tech and tribal knowledge just to lay them off. Do these companies not expect to grow in the future? Seems like just freezing hiring for a year or two would save you more money in the long run rather than having to rehire and rebuild all this expertise.

A lot of people even at Google just do run-of-the-mill stuff. Not everyone is making deep learning artificial big table or some such.

A rule of thumb is at any organization roughly square root of employees are critical. So at Google that number would be < 500 people. So even when I consider that layoffs are totally random (unlikely), there would be 40 or so people laid off which could be considered important loss. This is bad but not going to hamper Google significantly where they are going.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#127

Post by olivermarks »

goldenchrome wrote: post #121
throw_pm23 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, of the five-ten people I knew throughout the years who ended up at Facebook, all had a very specific personality-trait. Those that I knew who went to Google/Amazon/etc. were more diverse personalities: ambitious, interested in hard problems, wanting a good life, etc. Those going to Facebook though, I'm not sure I can put it in a polite way. Let me just say, in different times and different places I could…

It sounds like you had an interesting observation but it’s not clear to me. Can you state it more plainly? What kind of organization? I have also noticed FBers have a certain kind of personality. Vaguely utopian but removed from reality with a heavy emphasis on hedonism.

@goldenchrome - Facebook:

“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”.

Italian philosopher & Minister of Public Education under Mussolini Giovanni Gentile, who was arguably the architect of 1930's Italian fascism.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#130

Post by mortenjorck »

simonw wrote: post #3

I imagine severance packages are a big factor here. People laid off by Google might have a full six months or more of severance pay, plus health insurance through Cobra. That's a pretty fantastic opportunity to spend six months on a startup in relative economic safety!

As someone laid off from a company with no name recognition and two weeks of severance, I’m just hoping to find something before all the more impressive resumes come flooding back into the system.

Honestly, I have a few startup ideas I’d love to try, but this cycle has not put me in a place to try them.

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