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Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

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Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#131

Post by gnicholas »

adamlgerber wrote: post #118
gnicholas wrote: post #94

I find that my FB feed is roughly 50% ads. Sometimes there are two, or even three ads in a row. I barely use it anymore (and I've literally never clicked on an ad). I wonder why FB thinks people will use their product when it is half advertisements. People watch 21 mins of TV with 9 mins of commercials, and they would revolt if it were 15/15.

Its not that I don't believe your general point but I would be interested in evidence that you're getting more than 1 in a row. I am $50MM+/year spender on Meta ads and while I know that ad load is up I don't think its up that much where ads run alongside each other. If you can show me evidence of this I will make a big fucking deal of this to Meta.

Email is in profile; I'm happy to send you screenshots. I regularly get 2 ads back-to-back, and I recently got three in a row.

I typically bail when I see two in a row, in a vain attempt to send the message that multiple ads back-to-back is not cool.

edit: just logged in and of the first 20 timeline items, 9 were ads (including two cases of back-to-back ads). It's basically half of what I see.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#132

Post by paganel »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #40
hnfong wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this will be true in the years going forward, but AFAIK even in 2022 they were still considered top tier FAANG to work for among new grads, if only for the fact that compensation is generally somewhat higher than their peers.

New grads have lost their minds. It is really sad to see the state of affairs. When we were coming out we used to shun large companies. Now they are joining large companies. Sad!

The money is just too good to put aside. Plus, the cost of housing has gotten through the roof, so you'd have to be a real and committed idealist (or to have family money) in order to shun that type of compensation coming your way.

If it matters I'm in my early 40s and I have left money on the table in the past because of said idealism, but if I were to be a 20-something again and especially in today's market I'm not sure I would do the same thing.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#133

Post by bmitc »

twelve40 wrote: post #115
bmitc wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My more pessimistic take is that this style of business planning is actually planned , in that companies knew what they were doing was risky but knew they could just layoff people, as they have readily done. It is a plain as day showcase of companies treating employees as their greatest costs and liabilities rather than assets.

But in what demented mind do you temporarily hire tens of thousands of extremely expensive and highly skilled workers (to do what?) and then wipe out all those projects in a year? Even if you treat people as completely disposable garbage, it doesn't even make any sense in terms of projects, to urgently come up with projects for 10k+ people then urgently cancel them. Again, these are decades-old, established, money-ma…

I actually agree with your analysis, too. It must honestly be both a case of treating employees as liabilities and idiotic planning.

I have never understood layoffs, especially where the companies start re-hiring immediately after. I was at a startup that did insane hiring and then performed layoffs. They pitched it as employees not performing, but what had really happened is that the upper management overhired because of growth hype and then never correctly trained and onboarded employees. I didn't get laid off, but I literally got moved from one team to a new team only for the new team to be disbanded and merged back into my original team, all within like four months. Even with all that going on, I got switched between projects like every month. Like, how is your planning that bad that that happens?

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#134

Post by reidjs »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #112
bsaul wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i really feel like metaverse is only a dream to people with extreme social anxiety. Which may represent a large share of software developers, but only a minority of the general population.

I think it may be popular among kids too - look at Roblox, Fortnite etc. But for adults.. well after staring at a screen all day the last thing I want to do is stare at another screen, I'd rather lift weights or play guitar or whatever.

Why do you have to stare at a screen all day as an adult?

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#135

Post by DoctorDabadedoo »

yibg wrote: post #90
moomoo11 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and I'm a staff+ level engineer who has worked at darling unicorns and big media/tech and made a ton of money. I earned that equity payoff. Now I'm working on my own projects and paying for myself to live in SF, so you're free to have whatever opinion. I know what I'm saying, and out of a dozen plus managers I've worked with over just the last 6 years (re-orgs because they have way too much time on their hands)…

This whole thing comes across as "I'm smart and everyone else is stupid".

Navy seal copy pasta from SV.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#136

Post by gtirloni »

pavlov wrote: post #123
gtirloni wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see teenagers using Instagram much or at all where I live.

There’s something about social media that makes people confidently extrapolate their local observations to global scale. Meta’s apps have 3.7 billion active monthly users. That’s half the population of the world! It’s impossible to guess their behavioral trends based only on what you and I see around us. Even Facebook is growing despite nearly a decade of HN users declaring it’s only used by retirees and will soon di…

Not saying it's not growing or very big already. Just that the next wave of users don't seem to be coming from teenagers.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#138

Post by winrid »

ehnto wrote: post #80
brucethemoose2 wrote: post #11

I would not invest in Meta's metaverse future. It feels like Windows Mobile. Meta has the early start, money, captive audience and enthusiasm, but they don't have the hardware/software edge (that Apple coincidentally also has this time around) to really make the idea work. The headsets are not going to revolutionize much running Facebook games on budget Qualcomm SoCs, and Facebook cant buy an Unreal Engine or an M2 P…

They don't have the enthusiasm I don't think, and I believe that is where it falls flat. The technology is not currently something that everyone wants and definitely not something everyone needs. VR is not good at general computing yet, and the form factor and way you engage with it means people won't be using it in the same way they use TVs, game consoles or smart phones. Mass adoption takes apealing to the lowest c…

People just don't want to wear a headset. I mean, some do. It's neat. But hard to motivate your employees to build something great when you say it's "the way people will work in the future" when obviously nobody wants this except the bosses.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#139

Post by extr »

I was spared in the Nov 2022 layoff but decided to find another gig anyway and started elsewhere in January. The difference for my mental health has been night and day. Constant talk about "increased intensity" (what does that mean? I already thought I was working pretty hard), layoffs rumors with no official clarification, PSC stack ranking. No thanks, it just wasn't for me.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#140

Post by bombolo »

robryan wrote: post #125
gretch wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you watch kids interact with technology today, you’ll see that there’s already several thriving metaverses in the form of Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. These services no longer function as games in the traditional sense where there’s an objective you complete to win or lose. I mean yes there’s some of that in there still, but you’ll also see they mainly function as digital hangout places where avatars just goof…

Maybe if Facebook was building their own Roblox or similar people might get behind that. It seems to be all in on VR though.

The BBC was interviewing some Meta employee in India that was claiming VR is going to be absolutely necessary and Indian families should plan to buy VR sets because they will be needed for the education of their children.

It felt so detached, and the interviewer was very mellow, only saying that perhaps the cost is a problem, but the Meta guy insisted that it's needed so they have to find the money.

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