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Sergey Brin's Unretirement

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231–240 of 499 posts

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#231

Sergey's challenge looks like is not in retiring early or with non-work. We had a high performing co-worker who was scared witless after a lay-off episode and this was not because he was worried about lacking money or loss of prestige., but because he could not come to terms with the simple fact of facing the 9 am on a Monday morning with absolutely no expectations. It freaked so much to not feel the hustle and the a…

> drive up in his Porsche to the parking lot

I wonder if that'd still be the case should he drive a Ford Focus.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#232

Sergey unretires, Gemini suddenly becomes the top LLM (for a week or two at least) Google has made some subtle moves that a lot of folks missed, possibly with Sergey's influence. Like hiring back Noam Shazeer, who practically invented the backbone of the technology. It's good to have folks with presumptions of being scientists actually run companies for once. That being said, I wish his ex-wife hadn't spent her milli…

I don't know who to credit, maybe it's Sergey, but the free Gemini (fast) is exceptional and at this point I don't see how OpenAI can catch back up. It's not just capability, but OpenAI have added so many policy guardrails it hurts the user experience.

It's the worst thing ever. The amount of disrespect that robot shows you, when you talk the least bit weird or deviant, it just shows you a terrifying glimpse of a future that must be snuffed out immediately. I honestly think we wouldn't have half the people who so virulently hate AI if OpenAI hadn't designed ChatGPT to be this way. This isn't how people have normally reacted to next-generation level technologies being introduced in the past, like telephones, personal computers, Google Search, and iPhone. OpenAI has managed to turn something great into a true horror of horrors that's disturbed many of us to the foundation of our beings and elicited this powerful sentiment of rejection. It's humanity's duty that GPT should fall now so that better robots like Gemini can take its place.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#233
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! People need to get a life. I wouldn't have any trouble keeping myself busy after retirement. I do not have nearly enough time for the things I really WANT to do beside work.

This is also my sentiment. I am saving up to retire early. If I mention this to friends, most look at me with big eyes and ask “But what will you spend your day on then!?” in a sceptical tone. I imagine they think I want to drink beers and play golf all day every day, or something like that. I’m a bit heart broken, that so many of my friends cannot imagine being masters of their own time, without thinking it would be…

Yes, I have experienced exactly the same with friends and find it bizarre - essentially having total freedom seems to scare some people. Is it because we have been told what to do our whole life and so the thought of having to determine our own destiny each day is too much for some?

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#234
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of the "I'm Marcus" part of your introduction? Reading your post I get the impression it has zero value, or at least you think so. > Hi, I'm Marcus > What do you do Marcus > I'm on a break now, but I used to be a director of IT Is this really difficult? Seems really easy, and I was never a director of anything. Maybe that's the problem.

For some people, their work/job is just such a big part of their identity, that for them this is a problem. That is I guess the point the person you were replying to was trying to make. It's also not really weird for a job to become such a big part of your identity, when people spend most of their time at work or at home thinking about their work.

>For some people, their work/job is just such a big part of their identity, that for them this is a problem.

That's only 1/2 of the dynamic. People also like to assign an identity to others.

For example, if I say, "I'm semi-retired." ... the follow-up question is always "Oh, so what did you do before that?" ... which is polite coded-speak for, "Did you inherit money or what work did you do for money that put you in the position to do that?"

People are naturally curious about your rough level of success, wealth, expertise, etc. Having a "no identity" stance isn't really a satisfactory answer for many listeners. They want to know more.

EDIT to replies: I do understand the harmless "small talk" aspect. I should've added more to re-emphasize the "people assigning identity" aspect.

Once I reply to the followup question with "Oh, I used to do consulting for finance" what then happens is others then introduce me as "And this is jasode -- he was a consultant for X". My ex-consultant life that I last did over 15 years ago is now part of a tagline/subheading associated with my name even though I never intended it.

The point is other people have this irresistible urge to "fill in the blank" with an identity -- especially an identity that is tied to how one earned money. I'm not complaining about this and it's just an observation of what humans naturally do.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also my sentiment. I am saving up to retire early. If I mention this to friends, most look at me with big eyes and ask “But what will you spend your day on then!?” in a sceptical tone. I imagine they think I want to drink beers and play golf all day every day, or something like that. I’m a bit heart broken, that so many of my friends cannot imagine being masters of their own time, without thinking it would be…

Yes, I have experienced exactly the same with friends and find it bizarre - essentially having total freedom seems to scare some people. Is it because we have been told what to do our whole life and so the thought of having to determine our own destiny each day is too much for some?

Well, my friends immediately assume I want some luxurious self-indulgent perpetual vacation/holiday-thing.

They seem relieved when I explain it’s more of the perpetual weekend I’m aiming for: sleeping till I wake, reading, cooking, hanging with friends and family, coding on my FOSS projects etc.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#236

Sergey's challenge looks like is not in retiring early or with non-work. We had a high performing co-worker who was scared witless after a lay-off episode and this was not because he was worried about lacking money or loss of prestige., but because he could not come to terms with the simple fact of facing the 9 am on a Monday morning with absolutely no expectations. It freaked so much to not feel the hustle and the a…

Wasn't sergey forced out for hitting on employees? It seems pretty reasonable for him to be unhappy with a forced retirement and ultimately unwind it now that meeto is pretty much over.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#237
After FIRE I started building my own small to medium projects. Emulators, tools, games, some available to the public. I tell people I'm a full time software developer who does remote consulting gigs (the last not true but justifies my FIRE income)

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#238

Sergey's challenge looks like is not in retiring early or with non-work. We had a high performing co-worker who was scared witless after a lay-off episode and this was not because he was worried about lacking money or loss of prestige., but because he could not come to terms with the simple fact of facing the 9 am on a Monday morning with absolutely no expectations. It freaked so much to not feel the hustle and the a…

That must be what it's like to have a job where you feel like you're doing something interesting and meaningful.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#240
post #88

This article reads like propaganda to keep the worker bees slaving away until they die. But I have a few things to say about this and Sergey Brin in particular. In the early days, many considered Sergey Brin to be the soul or the conscience of Google. He was reportedly the driving force in Google originally pulling out of China rather than capitulating to the censorship regime [1]. This was also after the apparent st…

Oh boy, everyone accomplished paid a visit to the lolisland? Unbelievable.

Not everyone, just the nounces, like Gates and Brin here. Do you take their defence? Seems like you do. Why would anyone with solid moral values jump to the defence of nounces?
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