Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

andzwa.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 292 posts

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#171

Post by ClumsyPilot »

csomar wrote: post #163
komali2 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what labor did they contribute? Follow the chain and at most what they did was buy someone else's labor and attach it to the Google brand (through having more cash for hiring), there's other ways to do that though, like loans, or structuring as a co-op so all employees are simply the only shareholders.

There is a dangerous path in this rationalization that will lead you to Marxism. The theory is cute and some people in Europe thought it would work. It didn't and that's how we ended up with capitalism. Humans are capitalist traders by instinct. Marxism makes logical sense, however.

> Humans are capitalist traders by instinct.

Humans are Feudal creatures by instict - thats why feudalism lasted thousands of yeats.

Democracy and freedom are fragile and unnatural, they must be cherished.

> There is a dangerous path in this rationalization that will lead you to Marxism.

This is the brain disease of American politics, anyone pointing out injustice of any kind is accused of Marxism.

The only acceptable way for society to evolve is ever-increasing privilidges for the wealthy untill average man can never hope to afford real estate and can't afford a layer.

Then we will arrive at feudalism.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#172

Post by renewiltord »

mrelectric wrote: post #168
renewiltord wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in the Bay knows that Google is the retirement home. I knew people who worked there who left because no one on their team would write anything. Show up at 11, lunch at 1, leave at 4 after meetings. And you know that when people call it "best WLB" they're talking about something specific.

I heard the same about Ericsson in Europe. Any other known retirement places?

LinkedIn also has that reputation.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#173

Post by fnfjfk »

alasdair_ wrote: post #148
fnfjfk wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Levels are public at Google, unlike Meta, or Netflix that (formerly) did not have them at all.

> Levels are public at Google, unlike Meta, or Netflix that (formerly) did not have them at all. Well, yes, before they had levels, they did not have levels. I'm not sure this is much a a statement however - Meta has had levels for many, many years.

Meta does not have public levels. Everyone’s title is Software Engineer, from IC3 to IC10. Some senior ICs do have a view into levels, since they are involved in performance reviews.

At Google, you can see other people’s levels, and they have titles: “Senior”, “Staff”, and so on.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#174

Post by dajtxx »

kerblang wrote: post #20

You work for google because you make insane money and have cachet you can take anywhere and get hired instantly. Hell, you can pull in 10 million funding for your startup idea if you like. Or just retire, get a boat, go sailing. Of course all of this had to go bad. Come on now. Stop whining already. I work in the IT sewer fighting rats. I will always have work. I'm filthy and I smell bad, but I'm doing fine, and no,…

LOL, exactly.

I'm trying hard to feel sorry for SV FAANG workers getting laid off but I can't[1].

I'm also struggling to see how their self-esteem will take years to recover from this.

Those cosseted 'engineers' earn probably 2 to 4 times a year more than me, and get meals etc. Their severance package is probably my annual wage. Plenty of time to find another gig with their FAANG resumes that suits their expectations.

Perhaps if they spent a few years in the less rarified development jobs a lot of us deal with they might better understand their position in the world.

[1] No I'm not.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#175

Post by mc32 »

paxys wrote: post #167
mc32 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ask the people who were gentrified out of the mission when FAANGers decideed the Peninsula wasn't cool and would move into the Mission, if FAANGers are privileged or just a regular joes and janes, I'm pretty sure I can predict their answer.

Ask the rest of the planet and they'll call these mission hipsters equally privileged.

Relative to COL, it depends. I mean sure, If they moved to King City, maybe? But then why all the complaints about SF affordability if the answer is "move to a locale where your income allows you to afford rent without rent control" --if you can find a job"

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#176

Post by yehNaw »

tmathmeyer wrote: post #120
yehNaw wrote: post #24

My two cents; by picking a CEO who only knew Google, an environment full of self delusion that Google itself was responsible for Google’s success. A general social trend to value tech in our lives seems lost on the genius CEOs. They really seem to think billions care they specifically exist, when really if they did not someone else would have been CEO. Some other company that came before Google would be Google big if…

Sundar had some extensive history prior to google, including mckinsey

[dead]

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#177

Post by personjerry »

mr_00ff00 wrote: post #27
themitigating wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but Google has long been known as the FAANG to go to if you want to chill, coast, and ves" Is that a fact or just your perception?

Certainly is public opinion. I remember people trying to make the claim that Google paying smart people to not work was a good strategy because it prevented those workers from creating start-ups that would compete with Google. The Blind app is an interesting place.

> I remember people trying to make the claim that Google paying smart people to not work was a good strategy because it prevented those workers from creating start-ups that would compete with Google.

That's from Silicon Valley, the parody show

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#178

Post by WalterBright »

stuart78 wrote: post #126
WalterBright wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to split hares, but thank you for spelling "hairbrained" correctly.

Don’t you mean split hairs?

It depends on if you're threatening Bugs Bunny with a scimitar or not.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#179

Post by WalterBright »

vore wrote: post #108
WalterBright wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> larger shareholders who contribute nothing They contributed investment capital to the company.

Yeah, but this is literally a rich-get-richer kind of thing. Labor doesn't have that privilege.

> Labor doesn't have that privilege

robinhood.com says you're incorrect.

Re: The Google layoffs are about personal ambition and poor leadership

#180

Post by WalterBright »

komali2 wrote: post #100
WalterBright wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> larger shareholders who contribute nothing They contributed investment capital to the company.

But what labor did they contribute? Follow the chain and at most what they did was buy someone else's labor and attach it to the Google brand (through having more cash for hiring), there's other ways to do that though, like loans, or structuring as a co-op so all employees are simply the only shareholders.

> But what labor did they contribute?

I.e. you're positing the "Labor Theory of Value", which is the basis of Marxism.

The LToV errs in assigning zero value to risk-taking and the fact that some people are far more productive than others.

Post reply on HN