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Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

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Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#391

Post by bonestamp2 »

hintymad wrote: post #212

A theory is that VP+s love their teams to be in office. Their values are in talking to people all day long, and in-person meetings amplify the perceived values. Therefore, they do mandate returning-to-office policy. This also explains why companies argue how important in-person meetings are for productivity yet engineers are saying the opposite.

I think it's ego. If there's no one around to make them feel important when they enter a room, then it doesn't stroke their ego the way it used to when everyone was in the office.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#392

Post by noisy_boy »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #301

Some people are extremely sensitive to the issue of the remote work, like it is some kind of inalienable right, and any (perceived) threat to it makes them want to grab a pitchfork and proteat. I don't get it. Things are simple. The employer sets the terms, where you work and how the work is paid. The employee either accepts the terms or walks away. Sometimes the sides engage in negotiations, where the side with more…

Because actions have consequences and action at a scale sets norms. Considering he has the choice to walk away and is exercising it, it is sending the signal to the market that forcing people to return to office will have consequences. If he doesn't and everyone doesn't, it just kills the work-from-home momentum at large.

In fact I am grateful to him for doing so because I am not in a position to do so myself but would certainly like to reap the benefits of such actions.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#393

Post by design-material »

barry-cotter wrote: post #295
hiddencost wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll refrain from ruder responses and point to the weekend as a lovely innovation powered by unions. How did you get so intensely in thrall of the people holding your collar?

They have weekends in China and it’s not because of any labor movement. Working conditions and compensation increase because of supply and demand dynamics, which unions are a part of but not necessary for. For another example of countries that do not tolerate independent labor movements where economic growth led to better working conditions see Vietnam.

You realise it's commonplace *not* to have weekends in China, right?

On the basis of your logic that's a consequence of the lack of union and organised labour

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#394

Post by fineIllregister »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #385
kadoban wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The company may be happy to give you a 10% raise, but they’d rather lower JU’s salary by 10%, so they won’t budge on your demands for an increase, since it’d also apply to him. Then don't organize the union to work like that. A union is an agreement for the workers to pool their negotiating power, not an agreement for any particular pay structure.

> A union is an agreement for the workers to pool their negotiating power, not an agreement for any particular pay structure. Are you a member of any union? the #1 thing they do is secure a collective bargaining agreement which precisely spells out the pay structure for everyone covered.

You have options choose a pay structure as a union. There is not a single pay structure to which all unions must adhere.

The suggestion is that Joe and Sally must be paid the same even though Joe is "useless". That is not the case. When creating a union, you can choose a different pay structure. The Screen Actors Guild, for instance, has very wide variation in how much members are paid.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#395

Post by skeeter2020 »

JW_00000 wrote: post #154
Godel_unicode wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this question is there are people, like me, for whom the answer is "a lot". I have repeatedly gotten my employer to do things for me that they would not have done on their own. They need me more than I need them, and we both know it. This is also by the way the main dissenting opinion in the recent Amazon union vote. There were several people who were interviewed by the economist as voting no, who sa…

Open question (I'm not American, so I don't get the full context): would you lose that bargaining power if a union was created at your workplace?

Yes, you would be compelled to support union actions, such as job action in support of collective goals you don't agree with, and get to pay for the right to do so as well. You would not be allowed to negotiate individual concessions for work or skill beyond the norm. Everyone is even more focused on "fair outcomes" (read: the same) than in any non-union environment.

We're not interchangeable cogs in some manufacturing machine; we're extremely skilled experts in the biggest seller's market of our careers. Why anyone would want to unionize right now is beyond me.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#396

Post by __turbobrew__ »

WithinReason wrote: post #167
humanistbot wrote: post #47

Is there anything HNers feel more passionately about than remote work?

0. vi vs emacs 1. case sensitivity in Nim 2. 0 vs 1 based indexing

Anybody who advocates for 1 indexing is insane

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#397

Post by maleldil »

bricemo wrote: post #380
ripper1138 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s absolutely not a visionary.

I think inventing Generative Adversarial Networks, which enable everything from Alexa to GPT-3 to DALL-E to thousands of other models we use today, is pretty visionary to the field of ML. I’m sure you have some nitpick but I don’t think it matters

What do GANs have to do with GPT-3? Isn't GPT a Transformer-based autoregressive model?

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#398

Post by skeeter2020 »

kadoban wrote: post #202
csande17 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say, for sake of argument, that I'm the World's Greatest Widget Engineer. I'm worth more than the average employee at my company, so I can get stuff I want by negotiating individually with my employer. On the other hand, if a union imposes some broad agreement on the company under threat of strikes, I can't convince my company to break that agreement on my own because I'm not more valuable than the entire rest of the…

> A union's interests are probably not completely aligned with mine Sure, but the company's interests are almost completely opposed to yours in most ways. It's _possible_ for you to be worse off in a union, but rare.

> Sure, but the company's interests are almost completely opposed to yours in most ways

I'm sad that you think this, and would urge you to analyze your situation to see if it's really true. My one piece of advice is that companies seek to minimize cost centers, but invest in profit centers. Get out of the former and in to the latter.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#399

Post by LigmaYC »

machinekob wrote: post #16
skunkworker wrote: post #3

Quite a big loss for Apple. Ian was the primary author of the 2014 GAN paper. https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2661

Good researcher != good director/team leader.

But it sure helps. OP wasn't conflating the two.

Re: Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

#400

Post by csande17 »

noisy_boy wrote: post #387
csande17 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say, for sake of argument, that I'm the World's Greatest Widget Engineer. I'm worth more than the average employee at my company, so I can get stuff I want by negotiating individually with my employer. On the other hand, if a union imposes some broad agreement on the company under threat of strikes, I can't convince my company to break that agreement on my own because I'm not more valuable than the entire rest of the…

> Say, for sake of argument, that I'm the World's Greatest Widget Engineer. Say, I am not. > so I can get stuff I want by negotiating individually with my employer I cannot, see above. Does that mean I don't deserve to have the bargaining power for the best deal for myself? > A union's interests are probably not completely aligned with mine—they're focused on protecting the majority of employees, who are probably not…

> Does that mean I don't deserve to have the bargaining power for the best deal for myself?

No, I do not believe you are entitled to a wealth transfer from people who are better at your job than you are. (Or, to put it another way, you're certainly free to do a little collective bargaining if you'd like, but the World's Greatest Widget Engineer has no reason to join your union.)

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