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Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

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Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#201

Post by taeric »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #189
brucethemoose2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PSVR and the Quest are kinda different markets.

How so? They really are not. The VR market is not really big enough to have devices specialized for one part of VR vs another. You put either of them on to play games. That’s it. Where’s the market differentiator? To a common person, they’re not going to see the differences that exist. They will say “oh Timmy wants to play VR” and get whatever option they can to allow Timmy to play VR. Both the Quest and PSVR2 are op…

Probably more accurate to say they are different demographics. Is laughably odd if you consider facebook to be social. Either bragging about doing things with others or to others. Current VR is very much not social. Largely single player games where you are literally disconnected from the people in the same room as you.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#202

Post by thethimble »

cableshaft wrote: post #195
2devnull wrote: post #124

Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. They stole the idea of Friendster/MySpace and used anticompetitive tactics to monopolize. Instagram is sort of cool, but that was just an acquisition. They are the first company that comes to mind when I hear Peter Thiel talk about stagnation. Not that the other fangs are impressive, but Facebook is by far the most underwhelming of the lot. All…

> Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. The React framework is a pretty good product that originated from them.

Sure but react isn’t a monetizable product.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#203

Post by __derek__ »

2devnull wrote: post #124

Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. They stole the idea of Friendster/MySpace and used anticompetitive tactics to monopolize. Instagram is sort of cool, but that was just an acquisition. They are the first company that comes to mind when I hear Peter Thiel talk about stagnation. Not that the other fangs are impressive, but Facebook is by far the most underwhelming of the lot. All…

> They are the first company that comes to mind when I hear Peter Thiel talk about stagnation.

Was the irony intentional, or just a happy accident?

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#204

Post by extr »

curioushacking wrote: post #194
extr wrote: post #139

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.

I was in the exact same situation. I loved my team at Meta and learned a ton, but after the increased intensity QA from Zuck I went through two rounds of re-structuring and was shuffled to new teams. I found that I didn't have the motivation to learn the specific implementation of the huge layers of abstraction the new team was creating. Couple this with a general questioning my life goals and if I want to spend more…

Yeah, I had similar experiences with multiple reorgs and shuffles. I was only there for a year and had 4 separate managers. After the newest one I said enough is enough, I was just tired of perpetually reevaluating priorities and roadmapping. Time to actually do some work. Glad you're happy in your new gig too, talking with others who have left it seems our story is not uncommon.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#205

Post by hd95489 »

zmmmmm wrote: post #104
ehnto wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think the tipping point is closer than you may realise. There has been material progress in form factors in the last year or so and we are not nearly done with the improvements that are on the radar. Once we hit a certain point with the form factor, quite a wide range of use cases will become a no-brainer (for example, sitting on the bus with it).

Either apples headset is the real deal or it will be another decade

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#206

Post by nativespecies »

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…

Meta's DAU for teens/young adults has been in decline for a decade. It's only going to get worse: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/new-report-highlights-...

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#207

Post by pydry »

zmmmmm wrote: post #104
ehnto wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think the tipping point is closer than you may realise. There has been material progress in form factors in the last year or so and we are not nearly done with the improvements that are on the radar. Once we hit a certain point with the form factor, quite a wide range of use cases will become a no-brainer (for example, sitting on the bus with it).

I have so much deja vu reading your comment that I'm starting to speculate what the meta equivalent of "glasshole" will be.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#208

Post by dizhn »

robertlagrant wrote: post #157
nivenkos wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for example, sitting on the bus with it You'd use an $800 device (with limited awareness of your surroundings) on the bus?

I would. Having an app on it that tells me when to get off the bus without having to check my phone 10 times would be worth it. Bonus points for the experience being transformed into a Hogwarts Bus journey.

That app would work fine on a 50 dollar phone too.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#209

Post by mv4 »

moomoo11 wrote: post #66
mrphoebs wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is certainly scope for a more intelligent and nuanced discussion to be had here than what reads like a junior engineer's half baked rant on the uselessness of engineering managers. Yes there are awful engineering managers just as there are great ones who are force multipliers for their teams. I've known great engineering managers who were great engineers who naturally became an interface for their teams and som…

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)…

It sounds like you tried briefly to be a manager (of 4) and did not succeed.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#210

Post by UncleMeat »

moomoo11 wrote: post #196
UncleMeat wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is... just management. You've got middle managers (directors) who link teams with leadership priorities. You've got line managers (tech leads) who are in charge of ensuring that work gets done.

never worked somewhere that directors are considered middle management. I’ve been at places where there was Associate Manager, Manager, Sr Manager, Group Manager, Director, Senior Director, VP, SVP. That is insane imo. Anyone below director is useless, and the director should just report to the VP or CTO. My point is that managers should be rare. And teams should be small. I’m not taking career or technical advice fr…

> That is insane imo. Anyone below director is useless, and the director should just report to the VP or CTO.

Cool. Advocating for fewer layers of managers is very different than what you proposed in your original post, which included the phrase "Get rid of eng managers."

> I’m not taking career or technical advice from an associate/manager because they’re usually the worst ICs and overall lowest performers in like 80% or more of the time. This is how they struggle to stay in the game. You have probably heard many people who are the best IC say they don’t want to manage.

But you will. They'll just be called a Tech Lead and they'll have manager responsibilities.

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