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

Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

eshumarneedi.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 246 posts

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#201

Post by xboxnolifes »

abroszka33 wrote: post #145
sneak wrote: post #132

Has Zuckerberg ever deliberately invented a successful product using skill and taste? His original moneymaker was sort of happenstance, a right-place-right-time quick hack that lucked out, got traction, and raised enough money to scale out, BIG, with essentially the same concept that he lucked upon. Instagram and WhatsApp, both absolutely successful beyond imagination, were acquisitions. Same goes for Oculus. Has Zuc…

No, but did any of the other big companies? Google literally found the transformer architecture but had no idea what to do with it.

Google.com, Chrome, and Gmail we all very tasteful products. Gmail won more on storage space, but each of the products were distinctly fairly clean design for their time.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#202

Post by kermatt »

fridder wrote: post #63
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #45

I wonder when (if ever) the companies realize that demoralizing your workforce (and destroying that sector of the job market) doesn't have only advantages. I know plenty of people that reacted with the desired fear, putting in long hours to avoid layoffs, willingness to accept lower pay because the job market sucks, etc. - but I think there are also plenty of the the mythical 10x engineers that just checked out, stop…

Exactly. With the broad layoffs some companies do, you learn the company doesn’t value you, so why should you value the company?

You should not.

Jobs are ephemeral, as companies consider employees to be replaceable / expendable cogs in the machine.

Keeping expectations equal makes sure all parties benefit. Companies base their decisions on revenue and cost, employees should as well.

Any past illusions that loyalty to a company has personal beneift are long since dispelled.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#203

Post by [deleted] »

mcculley wrote: post #137
jjulius wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think we have the answer to is Zuckerberg a "dimwitted or just evil". It's probably the former. Why is this an either/or? Those aren't mutually exclusive.

It does not have to be either one. Zuckerberg is simply not a great leader, apparently. This is not surprising. Few people can run big companies. There is a huge spectrum between "dimwitted" and "great CEO".

[deleted]

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#204

Post by wolfie69 »

sharts wrote: post #199
stephc_int13 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zuckerberg was barely adult when he started Facebook. And he probably bumped into a few older guys who thought they knew better than him, and history proved them wrong. He likely developed some irrational belief that clever and young beats anything else, and saw an echo of his own bravado in Alexandr Wang. Turns out his heuristics were not calibrated properly.

Ya but he’s not young anymore. By his own logic he should step down and let a Stanford dropout run things.

Lol. Good one!

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#205

Post by warumdarum »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #45

I wonder when (if ever) the companies realize that demoralizing your workforce (and destroying that sector of the job market) doesn't have only advantages. I know plenty of people that reacted with the desired fear, putting in long hours to avoid layoffs, willingness to accept lower pay because the job market sucks, etc. - but I think there are also plenty of the the mythical 10x engineers that just checked out, stop…

I m also betting there are a ton of fairchildren skunkworkers walking out with some better version of the secret sauce right now. I actually expect a cambrien explosion of good, lean software after the big 4 died in the shit shell made from aixcrement.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#206

Post by taffydavid »

Zuckerbergs ineffectiveness was evident long before the examples mentioned in this article.

He failed to counter the rise of Twitter, failed to combat misinformation during elections, directly contributing to the result of the brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#207

Post by hintymad »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #45

I wonder when (if ever) the companies realize that demoralizing your workforce (and destroying that sector of the job market) doesn't have only advantages. I know plenty of people that reacted with the desired fear, putting in long hours to avoid layoffs, willingness to accept lower pay because the job market sucks, etc. - but I think there are also plenty of the the mythical 10x engineers that just checked out, stop…

This seems a pretty distinct corporate culture in the US. The companies pamper you in the boom, but dump you in the bust. When times are good, they shower you with perks yet when times are slightly bad, they lay you off like a replaceable line item. This is quite different from Europe or Japan, for instance.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#208

Post by duxup »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #45

I wonder when (if ever) the companies realize that demoralizing your workforce (and destroying that sector of the job market) doesn't have only advantages. I know plenty of people that reacted with the desired fear, putting in long hours to avoid layoffs, willingness to accept lower pay because the job market sucks, etc. - but I think there are also plenty of the the mythical 10x engineers that just checked out, stop…

I don't disagree exactly but I think if you pay enough, it matters less. Meta, Amazon, those places can afford to churn through people.

Personally I work at a very small company, I make changes largely how and when I wish ... lots of freedom. In a couple minutes the fix is in production and we're all good to go. It's great.

But I don't think the folks attracted to those big companies with big pay are applying for tiny co for less money. Actually I know they're not because I'm not seeing them in interviews.

To some extent folks make themselves hired guys for top dollar and if that's the deal there ya go.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#209

Post by duxup »

hintymad wrote: post #207
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #45

I wonder when (if ever) the companies realize that demoralizing your workforce (and destroying that sector of the job market) doesn't have only advantages. I know plenty of people that reacted with the desired fear, putting in long hours to avoid layoffs, willingness to accept lower pay because the job market sucks, etc. - but I think there are also plenty of the the mythical 10x engineers that just checked out, stop…

This seems a pretty distinct corporate culture in the US. The companies pamper you in the boom, but dump you in the bust. When times are good, they shower you with perks yet when times are slightly bad, they lay you off like a replaceable line item. This is quite different from Europe or Japan, for instance.

Some high profile companies or even portions of those stink. The vast majority I've worked for in the US are NOTHING like that, but "company behaves, invests in employee growth, and treats employees nice" doesn't get picked up by the news / on social media.

In fact in the US worked for a company bought by a Japanese company and really nothing really changed and the Japanese and American company were quite similar.

Re: Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

#210

Post by EshuMarneedi »

laweijfmvo wrote: post #75
GodelNumbering wrote: post #46

Very shallow wrapper around the reuters piece ( https://www.reuters.com/business/zuckerberg-says-ai-agent-de... ), I dont think author adds any tangible value

in fact i’d say it’s a rather poor wrapper and sensationalizes far beyond what reuters actually reported. e.g. the unsupported claim that Zuckerberg somehow put Alex Wang “in charge of the entire company.”

I literally supported the claim by linking to this reporting, which effectively says the same thing.

(And yes, I did make an HN account for this.) https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-meta-destr...

Post reply on HN