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Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

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Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#361

Post by readonthegoapp »

dharmab wrote: post #319
wonder_er wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How to make money: Offer this as a service to a business. The service (which I'm charging for, but don't yet have customers) is: 1. Paint some scooter parking lines in a reasonable spot, and add a signage explaining why the org wants to incentivize scooter usage. 2. The scooter parking would make use of existing nooks and crannys in the parking lot, so it wouldn't take away existing car parking. 3. Work with the staf…

I bet Revzilla's magazine would love to write about this if its successful.

revzilla, like revzilla.com, the motorcycle store, or magazine, as you say?

saw a dude yest cruising around on some type of etrike - i liked it, and i think the main reason was because it didn't seem as ugly and wide and low-quality as a typical non-e-trike.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

prob one of these types, i would guess:

https://www.google.com/search?q=GRANDTAN+M-340+Etrike+2023&n...

i could see etrikes becoming a thing for older americans, and that matters because they have a ton of political power, relatively speaking.

i figure, all the hype around ebikes is great, but largely useless. all that really matters is infrastructure/policy -- i.e. bike tracks, bike sidewalks, cycletracks, protected bike lanes, whatever you want to call them.

i feel like the golf cart-oriented communities are a perfect example of re/designed infrastructure allowing people to get around by something other than cars. same might happen if a bunch of older, upper-income white people with tons of political power decide etriking might be something they might like to do occasionally. they wouldn't have to be older or white - it just so happens that's the demographic that is currently in charge and has been forever and prob will be for the foreseeable future, and so many of our policies are based on identity politics.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#362

Post by than3 »

bernawil wrote: post #331
than3 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its actually not that unexpected, a big contributor is inflation. If you've any experience with Argentina, or other hyper-inflationary events, there comes a point where your labor is more valuable to you than what others are willing to pay you for. When the store of value is degrading rapidly, and wages in general always lag, those with options will do something else. Most companies I know simply are unwilling to adj…

I'm from Argentina, even now with 100% inflation YoY I wouldn't call it "hyper-inflationary". We had hyper-inflation in 1989 and that was 79% monthly. People in general won't accept doing $1,000 in work and by the time they can spend it only having $700, or worse for example $1. nobody is quitting their jobs because the currency is losing value. You cash your salary and just buy stocks, bonds, crypto, foreign currenc…

We had close friends growing up who were originally from Argentina during that time period in the early 90s, they were clearly traumatized by it. They told stories of raising chickens for eggs, and goats for milk/cheese/food, and the father credited that as the only reason they made it. Their stories left a real impression on me growing up.

I ended up doing a lot of research during my college years. By definition hyper-inflationary is >50%/month, but it always lags and government isn't incentivized to keep it accurate.

Year over year stateside is relatively tame in comparison except its not going to taper off as long as they keep printing increasing amounts of money.

The Fed also broke banking when they departed from fractional banking in 2020 by setting the required deposits to 0% and went with capital requirements which use Basel III (counting capitalization on the stock market as backing deposits), which as we've seen with FRC, stock market exposure for banks in general is a bad idea.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#363

Post by DrOctagon »

wonder_er wrote: post #150

Laid-off tech worker here. (backend engineer, ruby/rails/javascript). 5 years of experience. I'm working on not ever going back into tech. I've changed careers a number of times in my 34 years of life, and am doing it again. I'm only a mediocre software developer, have always had strong people/business skills, informed by my pre-software experience of commercial construction, teaching/training at a climbing gym, cust…

We need a descriptor for the ideas people come home from Bali with :). I'm teasing, but in good spirit. All the best with your new path!!

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#364

Post by crazygringo »

feoren wrote: post #306
maximinus_thrax wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FAANG people thinking they're worth way more than they actually are. I find your tone concerning, considering there's something driving wages down (which if you're a wage worker should make you squirm regardless of how much you make). I feel some resentment against fellow workers (because it doesn't matter how much you make, if you MUST work to live, you're a worker), but it doesn't matter. Wages aren't tied to wor…

Honestly after living under the pervasive narrative that you're a failure of a software developer unless you work for either a FAANG or a unicorn SV startup, I'm not sad to see arrogant FAANG developers get cut down to size a little and learn they're not actually God's gifts to the discipline. For over a decade, it's been automatically assumed that everyone else was a failure who just "couldn't cut it" at a FAANG. >…

> I'm not sad to see arrogant FAANG developers get cut down to size a little and learn they're not actually God's gifts to the discipline.

Where do you come to the conclusion that FAANG developers are like this?

> For over a decade, it's been automatically assumed that everyone else was a failure who just "couldn't cut it" at a FAANG.

Assumed by who?

The amount of judgment coming from your comment is rather shocking. I'll just say that it definitely doesn't reflect the perspectives of tech workers I know.

I'm sorry that you seem to find yourself in a circle that you have come to those conclusions.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#365

Post by OJFord »

kubectl_h wrote: post #359
ericmcer wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A career change is really attractive but adjusting salary expectations is brutal. Skilled jobs I was interested in and assumed were making $30+ an hour I looked into and found they are closer to $18-20/hr. After tech gigs making 250k+ with equity it is a pretty brutal downgrade. My interest is in starting an all electric gardening company, electric tools have caught up to gas ones, they are almost silent and have 0 e…

Agreed, I'm probably past the point where I could make a jump into the career area I wish I had gone into with hindsight (forest ranger, fisheries & wildlife, land management for land trusts, etc), but if I was <= 35 I would consider it. However at the age of 41 I've crossed into the 250k+ total comp territory and it's hard to imagine taking that significant pay decrease and making a move where I'm at the bottom of t…

Maybe it depends how you view it (and your financial position, obviously high income doesn't necessarily mean any saved/significant assets) - one could think of it like early retirement, not a career change and pay cut, but something to occupy some time, do for interest/meet people/see things/be outdoors, etc.

(By the way, as an almost 30yo SE with a younger brother doing exactly what you describe... I'm not sure quite how to feel!)

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#366

Post by KyeRussell »

p0pcult wrote: post #207
bradlys wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You really don't need a Peloton bike and other conspicuous consumption signs. This kind of just general bashing on tech people is so conceited. You're acting like a $2,000 stationary bike is really worth fussing over when you're making $400-500k/yr. Very few people at these incomes in tech are living month to month. They're overall saving a fuckload even if they own a 911.

Go to the local gym and work on actual social networking. Peloton is just goofy.

It sounds like you’ve got so much of a chip on your shoulder that it’s resulted in you giving advice that’s objectively awful.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#367

Post by KyeRussell »

crazygringo wrote: post #364
feoren wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly after living under the pervasive narrative that you're a failure of a software developer unless you work for either a FAANG or a unicorn SV startup, I'm not sad to see arrogant FAANG developers get cut down to size a little and learn they're not actually God's gifts to the discipline. For over a decade, it's been automatically assumed that everyone else was a failure who just "couldn't cut it" at a FAANG. >…

> I'm not sad to see arrogant FAANG developers get cut down to size a little and learn they're not actually God's gifts to the discipline. Where do you come to the conclusion that FAANG developers are like this? > For over a decade, it's been automatically assumed that everyone else was a failure who just "couldn't cut it" at a FAANG. Assumed by who? The amount of judgment coming from your comment is rather shocking.…

Take a look around this website, for starters.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#368

Post by readonthegoapp »

wonder_er wrote: post #281
bradlys wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a popular place for remote people. The usual white digital nomad bro who goes there to sleep around. (Plenty of women doing this too btw) It's a nice spot but it's just for fucking around in your 20's. (Or 30's if you live an alternative lifestyle or are a terrible romantic partner)

'just' feels slightly de-dignifying, but overall this is not totally wrong. I'd say there's a lot more to do there than sleep around, but there seemed to be plenty of that. (I'm white-passing, have done the nomad thing in the past, didn't go to sleep around, don't consider myself to be a terrible romantic partner, but am recently divorced, so you shouldn't take only my word on that). I'm nearly autistic when it comes…

Indonesia? Smart land use?

Hmmmm, call me skeptical, but i'll check it out. From what I know off the top of my head, ton of people, bunch of islands -> requires concentrated land use like manhattan or hk or singapore or sf or choose your concentrated land mass -- not sure any would qualify as good or smart or sustainable or 'some of the best' land use, but will def check it out.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#369

Post by labcomputer »

Kranar wrote: post #326
darth_avocado wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that’s a lot of money. Did you have master’s/post doc degrees?

No way, since any such degree wouldn't cost any money, instead it would pay you. Spending 500k on a degree is absolutely insane and indicates that there's a lot more to the story than what's being told. The only exception I can think of is if this person attended a top 10 university, like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, in which case they likely have nothing to worry about.

That's true, but the opportunity cost of a PhD can easily reach 500k. The average PhD takes about 5 years, and is paid ~30k during that time. Most are talented enough to land a job a FAANG, so... do the math.

Re: Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?

#370

Post by mixmastamyk »

Eumenes wrote: post #124
taude wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeup. I had a similar comment above. I tried phone screening someone, and they had no working knowledge of the commercial apps that we integrate with, the databases we use, etc. And I can hire literally for half the price someone with working knowlege AND know they won't be resentful about the job....

Exactly. I'm also seeing this trend among new grads/early career SWEs. AWS, MongoDB, and all sorts of cloud first product companies have been plugging their software to the university system, and these kids come out of college w/o understanding of the computing layer below these products. Like they don't know what a server is, what a data center is, how storage works. Is that not being taught in CS programs?

> they don't know what a server is, what a data center is, how storage works. Is that not being taught in CS programs?

Not what CS is. (Although I did take a chip-level architecture and asm class, that's the closest it gets to hardware.) If you want a Network/Storage Engineer, hire one.

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