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

Google lays off its Python team

social.coop

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 476 posts

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#291

Post by shufflerofrocks »

aerhardt wrote: post #274
twic wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure i'd cite Reddit as a positive example of such a thing.

I rarely get server errors on Reddit despite its massive scale… It’s the client which is a tire-fire. People blame React but that doesn’t have anything to do with it either. It’s just utter shit.

Exactly! The third-party apps used to load everything seamlessly.

Whatever it's coded in, the back-end of reddit is pretty robust and well-done (maybe excluding the video hosting part and whatever new laggy crap they put in)

It's the new front-end of reddit that's a huge dumpster-fire.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#292

Post by throwaway5959 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #265
throwaway5959 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were maintaining Python itself, likely very well (as one would expect) compensated. It’d be a waste to have these devs do product development.

All SWEs at the same level at Google are making the same compensation (with some exceptions for high-flying AI researchers). They Python SWEs certainly weren't making more than anyone else.

All SWEs at Google are well compensated. Not all of them would be a good fit for maintaining Python.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#293

Post by jubalfh »

smsm42 wrote: post #117

I love if though when people working for trillion dollar corporation getting high six figure salaries and probably more money in a year than average worker in most countries makes in a lifetime, casually dunk on "capitalism". Yeah, sure, in the USSR you'd do much better, dude. I mean, I know layoffs suck, but come on.

you do realise that ussr does not exist anymore (it's been replaced with a hyper-capitalist structure that mutated into a fascist dictatorship); and that the existence of people being highly paid does not disprove the fact tha the us-style capitalism is a terrible system for anyone but the highest echelons?

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#294

Post by jubalfh »

gnu8 wrote: post #82
tgma wrote: post #72

Meta is clearly driving most of CPython efficiencies. The projects listed are mostly stable so it's smart of Google to let the community drive it forward and they just use it ("we had managers that were extremely good about work life balance" and "marathon not sprint" should tell you all you need to know.) Python inside Google, for non-AI stuff at least, feels quite a bit different than with different defaults than t…

> ("we had managers that were extremely good about work life balance" and "marathon not sprint" should tell you all you need to know.) That's how all jobs should be though. The only time anyone should be sprinting is if the building is on fire. I guess Google is moving to a 9-9-6 schedule, and they want to do it in Munich where they can pay peanuts for it.

i think you might want to read up about labour protections in germany before opining this strongly.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#295

Post by wing-_-nuts »

emodendroket wrote: post #281
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really do wonder if our material standard of living really contributes to happiness though? I don't want more 'stuff' I want guaranteed access to healthcare. I want worker and consumer rights. I want a country that recognizes climate change is a real problem and is doing something about it. I want a more fair and representative government actually beholden to the will of the people. I don't need a McMansion, a luxu…

I'm not in a position to tell anyone what to value in life, but I don't personally feel that insecure about my access to healthcare or workplace conditions, and I also feel that a lot of Americans have an unrealistic idea of what life in other countries is like or how their political situation is. For instance, does Norway take climate change more seriously than the US? In some sense they may, but on the other hand t…

Norway is kinda caught between a fortunate rock and a hard place. Their gas reserves are absolutely crucial and strategic for security in Europe as a whole. You'll note the country itself went absolutely whole hog on electrifying transport and infrastructure (powered via hydro) so they could export their gas to the rest of europe. This really paid off when Russia cut off oil and natural gas as Europe would have been crippled otherwise.

I suppose healthcare is a major issue for me due to my disability. When I had to get insurance on the private market prior to the ACA I had to go in the high risk pool, which was stupidly expensive even as a SWE. I hear it's better now but every year some Republican gets the bright idea to try to repeal it. I fear with enough of a majority they will.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#296

Post by CydeWeys »

throwaway5959 wrote: post #292
CydeWeys wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All SWEs at the same level at Google are making the same compensation (with some exceptions for high-flying AI researchers). They Python SWEs certainly weren't making more than anyone else.

All SWEs at Google are well compensated. Not all of them would be a good fit for maintaining Python.

Then I don't understand the point you were making in your first post.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#297

Post by d-cc »

paganel wrote: post #185
kamaal wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python is mostly the Perl of the current day. And it attracts tons of beginners, that also means nearly equivalent amount of bad code(Just like in the Perl days). These days if you are doing serious work, you simply use Java. Especially if you want something running for years. Java is really the only option you have. A decade back I interviewed at a major telecommunications firm. Python was the new fashion then, they…

Using Python for a serious backend thing at a telecom firm is a big no-no, and I say that as a guy who has been paid to write Python code for almost 20 years now.

Python's absolutely fine to use for a "serious backend thing" at a telecom firm.

It's a language that attracts casuals, but that does not mean it's incapable of being used for serious software engineering. The only scenarios where I wouldn't use python for a "serious backend thing" are scenarios in which there are dramatic cost/performance/etc consequences resulting from the overhead of using python which would be substantially reduced if using $lowLevelLanguage. Even then, there's always the option of outsourcing specific units of functionality to say, c++, anywhere the performance difference actually matters.

I would say that for the vast majority of use cases, acceptable performance could be easily achieved by simply writing better python.

Writing this reply brought to mind some absolutely atrociously inefficient ORM code I encountered in a python codebase recently. If you don't have an understanding of how to utilize SQL efficiently, it doesn't matter what language you're using to construct the SQL queries, the software engineering equivalent of warcrimes is possible in any language.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#298

Post by joezydeco »

zem wrote: post #240
dartharva wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to weigh in about what you reckon happened? Surely the company didn't suddenly lose its need of the Python ecosystem?

i reckon we simply got offshored, since they're now building a whole new python team in munich, though i don't know whether for cost reasons or to expand the languages presence in the munich office or both.

Gateway to cheap developers in Eastern Europe, Poland, Ukraine, etc

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#299

Post by run414 »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #245
emodendroket wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work a white-collar job the US standard of living is substantially higher. If you're a laborer the opposite is true but you also probably have a harder time getting in to Europe in the first place.

I really do wonder if our material standard of living really contributes to happiness though? I don't want more 'stuff' I want guaranteed access to healthcare. I want worker and consumer rights. I want a country that recognizes climate change is a real problem and is doing something about it. I want a more fair and representative government actually beholden to the will of the people. I don't need a McMansion, a luxu…

Just curious, have you ever lived or spent a significant amount of time in Nordics (or anywhere in Europe)? Generally speaking, I find that people who haven't lived outside the their birth-country often romanticize life in other countries.

I immigrated from the US to another country a while back, and it's not unusual for me to meet newcomers with unrealistic expectations about life in their new home. Often, they go back to their birth-country after a few years, disappointed with the mundane reality of living in a foreign country.

I'm not trying to say that your wrong, necessarily. For some people, life can be better in other countries, but I caution against unrealistic expectations.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#300

Post by fr0nk0hshun »

Fatnino wrote: post #256
jkubicek wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t we just stick with FANG? Sure, the acronym doesn’t mean anything anymore, but at least everyone knows what it means.

The N stands for Microsoft

There’s no other option besides MANGA. Anything else is f-ing lame
Post reply on HN