Live data from Hacker News

The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

ft.com

161–170 of 258 posts

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps because the company lost half a billion dollars last quarter So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings. They may need to shift at some point, but I think it's incorrect to act like 1-2 bad quarters means a company should completely shift their plan. If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary.

> If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary. These are not "top people", they are average people. This isn't Lake Wobegon, where all the kids are above average. > So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings. Only in Silicon Valley do people say "so what" to profits and quote revenue numbers. We're literally talking about high costs. Selling dimes for a nickel is s…

Not revenue. In 2021 COIN earned 3.62B profit on 7.84B revenue. People are acting like COIN is one of these companies that has never made money. Last year they had a $14.50 EPS.

2021 Fiscal Year https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/COIN/key-statistics?p=COIN

Of course past results are not indicative of the future, but in 2020 and 2021 COIN had positive earnings.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#162
post #68
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue they are raising is specifically that, $380k standardized salary band, what role is this? That number seems unsustainable.

Why? Because it’s higher than you’re used to seeing? You don’t even know what role that person was applying for. Is your position that 380k is just “too high”, period? That number (or higher) has been the norm at a huge swath of stable and profitable tech companies for a decade+. I am making an assumption that 380 is total comp and not base salary. I don’t believe that Coinbase is paying 380 base salary for any non-e…

Even if they were paying it as cash, it's likely $300K base + 25% bonus target = $375K.

That's not insane for a staff engineer. A little high, but not impossible at any big tech company.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has a phone screen at Coinbase and they just threw out 380k as the salary without me saying anything as far as expectations. This reminds me of the dot com bubble. In 2000 people who had no software background and were making 50k would get offers for 80k, just for showing up at an interview and saying they know Java or HTML

Huh, I guess this explains why so many otherwise-sceptical and intelligent engineers are so motivated to pretend 'web3' is a thing.

It also explains why people go into tech instead of becoming a teacher or nurse.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#164
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have called Tech bubbles since 2012, There have been at least 2-3 similar sell-offs over the last decade that simply lead to higher tech valuations within a year or two. Hence the term "correction" is used, this also helps assuage nervous retail investors that another '01 or '08 crash isn't around the corner. The difference between then and now is that interest rates are blasting through the roof along with in…

> The difference between then and now is that interest rates are blasting through the roof along with inflation. The effective federal interest rate is 0.33% today. It was 2.4% before COVID...

Look at the average mortgage rate...

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#165
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not incorrect, salary does not include equity. Total comp would be a combination of salary, equity, and bonuses. The OP refers to salary, not total comp. I'm using their information to reply in their thread. Happy to re-asses conversation at total comp (a different conversation) if they are referring to total comp instead of salary.

Coinbase isn't paying $380k base either..are you just quibbling over the meaning of salary?

I don't think it is quibbling. It is a really important distinction. Salary is (mostly) guaranteed. Equity isn't guaranteed at all.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#166

"Following a series of “super clarifying” meetings with shareholders, Uber’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi emailed(opens a new window) employees on Sunday night with an arresting message: “we need to show them the money”." So the stockholders finally got fed up with Uber's "lose money on every ride and make it up on volume" approach. No surprise. Uber's stock is at an all-time low since the public offering. This…

If they get the self driving cars working, they become a tech company.

Of course, then they won't be able to shift expenses to drivers.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#167
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely out of the ordinary- Levels.fyi lists a salary of $224,000 for a Staff level SWE at Google

levels.fyi shows $498,910 in total compensation for a staff level SWE at Google. Different companies compensate using a different blend of cash and equity. At a public company like Google, it's all liquid. Similarly, an E6 at Facebook gets $576,886. These are also roughly speaking first-year salaries. You can expect a refresh grant equal to 1/4 of a new-hire equity grant each year vesting over 4 years, plus a staff-l…

> After 3-4 years in a staff role you can easily be making $1-2M/yr.

Refreshes exist but this is a total lie. I'm staff at Google. Nobody at L6 is making $1M in annual compensation, even if they have their sign-on equity and three refreshes. Let alone $2M.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#168
post #166

"Following a series of “super clarifying” meetings with shareholders, Uber’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi emailed(opens a new window) employees on Sunday night with an arresting message: “we need to show them the money”." So the stockholders finally got fed up with Uber's "lose money on every ride and make it up on volume" approach. No surprise. Uber's stock is at an all-time low since the public offering. This…

If they get the self driving cars working, they become a tech company. Of course, then they won't be able to shift expenses to drivers.

If they get the self driving cars working, they become a tech company.

Uber sold off their self-driving operation years ago.[1] They still issue press releases once in a while, and do some stuff with self-driving startups, but it's not serious.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/cars/uber-sells-self-driving/...

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps because the company lost half a billion dollars last quarter So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings. They may need to shift at some point, but I think it's incorrect to act like 1-2 bad quarters means a company should completely shift their plan. If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary.

> If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary. These are not "top people", they are average people. This isn't Lake Wobegon, where all the kids are above average. > So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings. Only in Silicon Valley do people say "so what" to profits and quote revenue numbers. We're literally talking about high costs. Selling dimes for a nickel is s…

They actually made that in profits last year.

https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001679788/8e5e050...

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#170
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see how it's anything other than a logical consequence -- much less radical. I know from first-hand experience that if a team don't believe they have a particular person as their manager, that person is, in fact, not their manager. It's impossible for that person to be their manager. I also know from first-hand experience that once a group of people no longer believe themselves to be a soccer team, they sto…

This is essentially nonsensical though. You can internally reject social consensus or even objective measurement, but you cannot choose the frame in which you are evaluated by others. > I can't think of any social construct that does not require buy-in from the affected parties. "Prisoner", "slave", and "taxpayer" spring to mind (but I repeat myself). These are artifacts of social consensus, enforced by people with s…

I think I see where the misunderstanding comes from!

I did not mean to say that you, as an individual, can disappear the grocery store by ceasing to believe in it, any less than you can wish away a recession by choosing not to believe in it.

These social constructions (recession, manager, grocery store) are the product of the belief of a majority of the relevant people. One person believing this way or that way changes nothing. Only when most people stop believing do we see change.

Slavery is a great example of a type of social relationship that ends when people stop believing in it.

This goes for the recession just as well as the other examples I gave.

Post reply on HN