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Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

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Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people ready to be hired that aren't checked out

Sure. This is a great model to adopt if you believe corporations exist to destroy people. If a construction site was sending formerly qualified people away no longer able to work we would definitely investigate their practices. Tech deserves the same scrutiny.

> Sure. This is a great model to adopt if you believe corporations exist to destroy people.

corporations exist to make money, or maximize shareholder returns, depending on how you look at it. corporations don't exist to make people happy or solve the fundamental societal issues with capitalism. there's merit to discussing that as a separate topic, but in the context of "capitalism exists and you are operating a business within it", you want to fire low performers and replace them with high performers

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related: Meta to move content moderators to Texas as part of plan to end fact-checking program https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/07/texas-meta-content-m...

Is he going to start wearing cowboy hats and buying up land in Texas now ?

I mean, yea, probably.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#363
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people on the US were really liberal (in the original "capitalism of the free" sense), racism wouldn't even be an issue. People wouldn't care so much about race, and your genetics would be more as a "fun fact" rather than some central piece of your identity. Also, they wouldn't care about atheists so much. Liberals may not be atheists themselves but they would be very detached from religion and "who whorships who"…

> If people on the US were really liberal (in the original "capitalism of the free" sense), racism wouldn't even be an issue. These labels dont matter when your jobs are going away though.

But that's a consequence of the global market, not because of immigration. Your wage is competing with the rest of the world.

And if there's a country capable of the same productivity with cheaper salaries, then it's expected for the company to expand overseas.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#364
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah 5% is a very weird number. Why not just stop over hiring?

I'm confused. The article specifically states that Meta cut 25% of its workforce since 2022 (that's not counting the 5% that are being reported). What overhiring?

A lot of companies doubled in size due to the Covid surge, for questionable strategic reasons

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under performing relative to what? If they're doing their job in good faith and overall making money for the company, is it "underperforming" if they're less productive than 95% of their peers? This notion of underperformance leaves no room for adequate performance. I am sure there are some people getting laid off who genuinely don't do any work, though not 5% of the company - and certainly not the bottom 5% accordin…

Relative to your competition. Performance is only adequate if it’s at least as good as the engineers of the other players in your industry. Otherwise, you’re losing ground. As long as anyone in your market space is actively trying to manage their engineering talent (recruiting your top performers, releasing low performers, being more selective in hiring) so must you just to keep pace. An “adequate” engineer may make…

The sorts of decisions and results that make a company the size of Meta succeed or fail happen above the levels of the folks who will get cut. Most of the net value produced by individual engineers is determined by which projects they're on, rather than whether they're good at their job. A savy entrepreneur with a few engineers worth of openai credits can create more value in a week than a median FAANG middle management career maxxer with 10-100 engineers in their subtree of the org creates in a month.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#367
post #217

So in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the…

> Ranting about the lack of "masculine energy" at the company.

This one in particular feels very midlife crisis coded; weird insecure masculinity stuff. But, y'know, most men who have issues with that get by with an ill-advised car or something.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. This is a great model to adopt if you believe corporations exist to destroy people. If a construction site was sending formerly qualified people away no longer able to work we would definitely investigate their practices. Tech deserves the same scrutiny.

> Sure. This is a great model to adopt if you believe corporations exist to destroy people. corporations exist to make money, or maximize shareholder returns, depending on how you look at it. corporations don't exist to make people happy or solve the fundamental societal issues with capitalism. there's merit to discussing that as a separate topic, but in the context of "capitalism exists and you are operating a busin…

Gosh, Okay, we can only criticize corporations in the very limited avenues where we discuss specifically how they're meant to make money. Not in any of the other ways those goals lead to questionable decisions.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#370
post #217

So in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the…

> Ranting about the lack of "masculine energy" at the company. This one in particular feels very midlife crisis coded; weird insecure masculinity stuff. But, y'know, most men who have issues with that get by with an ill-advised car or something.

This behavior seems much in line with Musk.

The all in podcast has four high net worth people with a similar vibe.

Something disturbing is going on in the ranks of the "elite". I get these people are narcissistic, but the overt displays of contempt combined with authoritarian cowtowing is a bit frightening.

A trade war with China combined with other increasing consequences conflicts seems to be bringing the age of global free trade to an end, or at least a very different one.

The Ukrainian success with naval drones may mean the end of secure seas as well. Drones are cheap, anonymous, and effective.

That implies an disruption to the multinational corporate order, and an emphasis on domestic or near domestic production, and less of the government independence / arbitrage that the super rich have gotten used to.

But the ultras all seem to be going into these maniacal bond villain molds. Is Musk a symptom or a torchleader?

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