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Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

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Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#141

Post by jiggawatts »

ornornor wrote: post #137
danieldisu wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think that it is any different elsewhere?

I've worked elsewhere. Samsung is in the bottom tier for every dimension that matters to quality (of life and of products).

As a data point: Sony, Panasonic, LG, etc… all try to have calibrated TVs that match the director’s intent. As in, the colours and contrast are defined in the standards, and they strive to show them accurately. They do cheat a little bit and have a “demo” mode the cranks up the saturation and brightness in store to compensate for the overhead lighting.

Samsung takes that cheating to 11 and there is no way to turn it off. It’s not “store mode”. It’s permanently “enhanced” to the point of absurdity.

They just don’t care enough to have two modes.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#142

Post by taspeotis »

philjohn wrote: post #138
throwaway9870 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a Samsung Frame TV for my parents for a Christmas present. Dear lord what a mistake. So much software shit on that TV. After two hours of playing with it and Googling it, I still can't figure out how TO TURN IT OFF. WTF. Their customer support is worthless. I would really think twice before I bought another Samsung consumer product.

Hopefully you'll see this, my daughter has a frame TV. You need to keep your finger pressing the off button on the remote until the whole thing turns off.

You turn it off with the power button? Good lord, how arcane.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#143

Post by djmips »

xattt wrote: post #130
throwaway201025 wrote: post #129

As a Samsung employee, I've been continuously being disappointed by the company culture. Recently, the company introduced a new policy that prohibits phone usage while walking inside the company building, due to "safety concerns". Samsung employed ~20 safety guards to supervise and monitor phone usage throughout the campus and if you're caught by them, you will be warned. If you are caughted twice, your team lead wil…

> … submit a written apology. What the hell kind of mentality is this? I’ve been in a workplace that cracked down on phone use. Everyone was pissed. I considered carrying a small block of wood painted black in act of subversion.

I had to do worse than that when I worked for a Japanese company (with a Korean-Japanese president). I was forced by him to apologize to the entire assembled staff for a 'big mistake that I had made'. Except it wasn't really my mistake it was a foundry change which caused a timing change that affected the code in a vendor's startup for a chip we were using. I was so burned out from crunching on the project (14 hour days) to reverse engineer and fix it fast enough for the president to be happy...

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#144

Post by klibertp »

moistly wrote: post #125
edgyquant wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There hasn’t been 5000 years of any culture tbh

Australian aborigines have over 50000 years of culture behind them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australi...

Very off-topic, but it's one of the most shameful episodes in Western, British, and Australian history. Almost 200 years of racism, persecution, forced assimilation, kidnapping children and putting them into religious institutions, and a lot more - and it was only in 2008 that the Australian govt cared to apologize. Incredible cultures, incredible wealth of lifestyles, ideas, beliefs - almost destroyed in the name of "making [Aboriginal people] more civilized and industrious".

Yes, the glorious Western civilization did the same pretty much everywhere, but Australian Aboriginal people's culture is unique due to their very long period of isolation - it's a gem and wonder worth studying and learning from. Yet, the Western instinct was to trample on and destroy it, systematically, irreversibly, just for the sake of it. Reading the Wiki page you linked some time back literally left me in tears. How could we. I don't even.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#145

Post by sli »

ahahahahah wrote: post #117
throwaway9870 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a Samsung Frame TV for my parents for a Christmas present. Dear lord what a mistake. So much software shit on that TV. After two hours of playing with it and Googling it, I still can't figure out how TO TURN IT OFF. WTF. Their customer support is worthless. I would really think twice before I bought another Samsung consumer product.

Yeah, I'd recommend you stick to things with simple mechanical buttons or something. When you press the power button and it goes to art mode (effectively a screensaver) instead of turning off, most people's next step would be to try holding the power button. Barring that, the manual clearly describes these two different operations if the power button.

> most people's next step would be to try holding the power button

You would do well to work in tech support for a few months because this claim is absolutely a complete fantasy.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#146

Post by simonh »

pm90 wrote: post #80
pixelatedindex wrote: post #9

The work culture at Samsung being toxic is something I have some familiarity with, as I used to know some folks who were working there. It’s a very top down company and the lower tier folks aren’t necessarily encouraged to question things, but more of a “do as I say”. The legislation aspect is really concerning but not surprising as chaebols have an iron grip on the Korean economy. Tough times for Samsung, but in a l…

> It’s a very top down company and the lower tier folks aren’t necessarily encouraged to question things, but more of a “do as I say”. Asking as someone who has 0 experience with either, but this is how I’ve heard Apple works too? If so, why is Apple doing well while Samsung is not?

That’s not at all the impression I get from interviews and reports by former Apple employees (0)(1). They almost always have huge respect for the execs they worked for. Bear in mind all the Apple execs for engineering groups are themselves engineers. It’s a highly disciplined and focused organisation, but that’s not the same thing as top down and good engineering is highly prized.

Take Steve Jobs. He was infamous for his perfectionism. But on the other hand he trusted his team. When several of his execs insisted that they should build an App Store, which he initially opposed, he folded and let them do it. He once said there’s no point hiring A grade engineers and then telling them what to do and how to do it. I hire A grade engineers so they can tell me.

(0) https://donmelton.com/archives/ (1) https://youtu.be/N8Vz1BeymHE

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#147

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

grumpyprole wrote: post #123
pm90 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a very top down company and the lower tier folks aren’t necessarily encouraged to question things, but more of a “do as I say”. Asking as someone who has 0 experience with either, but this is how I’ve heard Apple works too? If so, why is Apple doing well while Samsung is not?

Apple has had significant hardware missteps too, such as the butterfly keyboard. Presumably some executive ordered "make it thinner" and did not accept any pushback!

That executive's name was Jonathan Ive, and he should have owned his mistake.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#148

Post by timthorn »

userbinator wrote: post #56
kurthr wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This (top level story) is a reflection of _SAMSUNG_ (particularly SEC-SLSI) culture. There are certainly elements of Korean culture, but it is for example VERY different from LG culture. I don't understand why there's a reason to jump to 5000 years of history for criticism of a part of a company that's having problems... apparently with truthful internal communication. I think most people would accept that Intel has/…

but that doesn't directly reflect on 5000 years of western culture. There hasn't even been 5000 years of western culture...

Stonehenge dates from 3000BC

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#150

Post by lizardactivist »

dylan522p wrote: post #49
lizardactivist wrote: post #27

Disasters in foundry, LSI, and DRAM? Is the writer sponsored by the U.S. chip manufacturing sector or other pro-American interests? What a weird hit-piece filled with assertions that could never be reliably backed up by other than Samsung themselves conducting a massive internal investigation.

If anything I am making the case that TSMC is reigning supreme but okay, believe your conspiracy

Yes they are, but it's not about TSMC's superior quality, but the unsubstantiated BS that Samsung's chip manufacturing is a disaster.

And if you think that the U.S. is not using every tool in the box to win markets, including bad-mouthing foreign competitors and lying to win customers over, then you're just lying to yourself. Have you been living offline for the last 20 years? The Internet is a battlefield and no-one plays more dirty than the U.S.

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