We're hearing about troubles at Nest • Hacker News Board

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#211

Post by gherkin0 » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 3:36 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #173

gherkin0 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I really don't get value of the Nest either. I'd rather just program my schedule myself and have some certainty about it, rather than let some algorithm try to guess. The only smart thermostat feature that's at all tempting to me is the Ecobee's remote sensors (which the Nest doesn't have). I've lived in places where uneven heating is a legitimate problem.

Not everyone has a set schedule like that, though.

Yeah, but I assume it would be even worse at learning those. To handle non-set schedules it would really need to be more reactive, with more sensor data that I believe it actually has.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#212

Post by PhantomGremlin » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 3:50 AM UTC

asdfologist wrote: post #34

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Honest question: how did someone with such an abusive management style lead his company to success? I'd think that his employees would just leave and go work elsewhere.

how did someone with such an abusive management style lead his company to success?

Lawrence Joseph Ellison has a reputation like that, and his company seems to have done OK.

Many successful companies are founded/led by sociopaths.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#213

Post by kjs3 » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 3:59 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #172

nommm-nommm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I expected very little from Honeywell, who I regard as a quaint, old-skool company. Honeywell has been in business for 110 years. If you are in business that long you gotta be doing something right! I would assume.

How long has Comcast been around for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast#History

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#214

Post by driverdan » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 4:17 AM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #38

The problem with "smart" anything is that the more features you add the more places there is to break. The coffee maker in my office has a color touch screen. What advantage is a color touch screen over a "dumb" mechanical switch? None, but I am sure its more likely to break and much more expensive to fix/replace. Yes, the touch screen has one button - make coffee. Then it plays animations while your coffee is brewin…

They did a similar thing with our office elevators. They replaced the physical call buttons with a touchscreen. It doesn't do anything other than call the elevator.

It's far less usable because someone who's blind can't use it.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#215

Post by bby » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 4:21 AM UTC

gluecode wrote: post #143

I was a service provider during the initial days of launch and for two years afterwards. Loved the people. They were driven to ship good looking products. That was their downfall. At Nest they were (at least then) focused on how things looked. Nobody cared about how it worked, or how the product should be supported after shipping. Anyways, no regrets. I met some of the best engineers and designers at Nest in the init…

no ragrats

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#216

Post by eli » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 4:23 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #176

eli wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a workaround of IFTTT limits not Nest

But the use of IFTTT itself is a workaround of issues/limits with the Nest.

Not really a limit so much as a feature that you wish it had.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#217

Post by reality_czech » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 4:46 AM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Maybe you just needed to leave the Nest?

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#218

Post by kw71 » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 5:17 AM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #29

Eiriksmal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments are worrying, but match a disappointing number of other users. When I was ready to switch to a programmable thermostat to save money, I really, really wanted to like the Nest. It was cool, whizzbang, etc., etc. But then I started reading the 1-star reviews on Amazon, and the support forums. And it worried me. People came home to apartments that were 90* because their heaters were stuck on full blast dur…

I currently have non-Wi-Fi programmable thermostats. I have no experience with Nest directly, but from the description of how it determines when to turn the temp up or down I don't see how it would be that "smart" for me. I work from home, but my office is nowhere near the downstairs thermostat. So any motion detection it might do would assume that nobody is home, when I in fact am. On the other hand, my simple Honey…

Even the basic nonprogrammable Honeywell digital thermostat is smarter than most people realize. It is actually monitoring how well the system has been working and planning ahead so that it will not cycle too fast or switch over to the second fuel source unnecessarily. They have put a lot of thought into these.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#219

Post by pfarnsworth » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 5:17 AM UTC

I think the Nest is okay, overpriced but nice-to-look-at thermostat. It's easy to use and easy to set up, and I haven't had any problems yet. There are a few failures, namely lack of access to data, which forced me to download the data myself and store it, violating the 10-day rule but I don't care. I would love for them to actually try to catch me.

The bigger failure is the Dropcam. The acquisition has made the product much worse. The new Nest app is really slow and crashes all the time. Currently, one of my $200 cameras won't connect to the wifi, and I no idea why, but I'm so furious I don't care.

I hate to say this, but the entire acquisition was a complete failure.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#220

Post by a3n » Tue, Feb 16, 2016, 5:20 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #165

threeseed wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no other good options. You can complain but you will get forced out eventually for rocking the boat plus it may affect your reputation in the market place. You just need to do what everyone does. Grit your teeth, stay positive and plan your exit strategy to another company.

Any company that would look down on you negatively for speaking out about this treatment is one that deserves to miss out on talented engineers.

Indeed. It's a filter.

Somewhat related, I've been considering putting my birth year (IGY) at the top of my resume. I'd rather someone silently bitbucket my resume than show up for a useless interview.