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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?

#401

Post by UncleEntity »

robopsychology wrote: post #246
imwithstoopid wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the next wave of innovation will be things like battery tech, deep AI in other words, nothing a React dev is going to put together in their kitchen realistically, the unemployed will end up competing with the ten of thousands of new devs coming out of college and bootcamps...the guy who cleans our pool is learning python as part of his online coding degree (really)

It's great your pool guy is furthering his education and going into tech but there is a skill gap between experienced ex-FAANG and those jumping into software for the pay check. Bootcamp/College grads are not competing at the same level as those who have 5+ years of good experience and a passion for tech (as most of us have, being on HN on a Friday evening/workday).

And make long rants about how they only make $200k/year.

Poolboy will be happy to make anything significantly higher than what they make cleaning pools and won’t know about the good old days when you could call up the on staff chef and have food delivered to your cubicle. He’d be like “what’s a cubicle?”

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

#402

Post by wonder_er »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #392
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…

Why scooters? Why not also aim for electric bikes, for instance?

I've got a bunch of reasons. No single one is the end all 'super conclusive', but in aggregate it makes a good case for scooters.

Tldr the capacity, speed, range, and ease of adding gas (vs charging at a station) of a scooter is an order of magnitude better than an ebike.

Easier to park, too. You don't have to lock them up like you do a bike.

Have you ever ridden a scooter? It's much closer to a motorcycle than a bike.

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

#403

Post by Hermitian909 »

ducknalddon wrote: post #170
waselighis wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda agree with this sentiment, I've certainly known plenty of software engineers who weren't half what they were getting paid, mostly juniors but also a few seniors. But I've also known plenty of software engineers who were worth every cent. However, I'd argue the bigger problem is other engineers are underpaid, especially considering many types of engineering require a strong grasp of advanced mathematics and ph…

It's all just supply and demand, it has little to do with worth. Yet another reason not to link your self esteem to your job.

Two other factors worth thinking about:

1. How differentiated is engineer output in a measurable way?

2. How much profit is unlocked by the engineers work at market rates?

(2) tells you how much room there is for an engineer's share of the profits to grow. In traditional engineering fields there often isn't as much profit to share everything comes from margin off a physical product).

Physical constraints also mean that it's difficult to differentiate in traditional engineering. The problems my EE friends solve are harder mathematically but they're almost all using design patterns and even components created decades ago, it's unusual to have a chance to do work that's "different" in a way the market might care about.

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

#404

Post by than3 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #390
than3 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets do some basic math, and then afterwards I think it will be clear how it might be better to grow your own food. Also, not everyone makes that much, and you seem to think that's a lot but its really not, especially if inflation is eating away at your stores regularly (over a greater time period than a year). So, here comes the basic math available from looking up some publicly available figures. I only say this be…

That's not a very relevant response to a comment that began by saying > We are talking about people making above >150k/year

I included all the information needed to extend the basic calculation up to 170k, care to explain why you think that's somehow not relevant?

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

#405

Post by wonder_er »

UncleEntity wrote: post #397
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…

> Working on going independent here in Denver, acting as a 'broker' between businesses and their staff/customers to convert single-occupancy-vehicle-users to scooters… Denver gets really cold.

Quite! Adequate layering and safe judgement around inclement weather is a non-trivial part of being safe.

It's not just cold, but rain, snow, darkness, sandy roads after snow is plowed, even when warm, etc.

It's all part of exercising good judgement. Skills can be built incrementally.

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

#406

Post by inconceivable »

tayo42 wrote: post #398
inconceivable wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i got into an argument with a bigtech employee (outside of work, in a social setting) that senior engineers should spend 25% of their time mentoring junior hires. he literally could not understand that a small company can't afford to do this. not only that, he also could not understand that small companies doesn't even make junior hires. there's nobody to mentor! and i would guess this guy has like a top 1% iq, whate…

that makes no sense, big tech companies are expected to be training small company employees? who is supposed to hire juniors?

see, everyone? these people exist. i'm not making things up.

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

#407

Post by readonthegoapp »

wonder_er wrote: post #354
zhivota wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I've gotten very interested in land use recently and had not heard this about Indonesia. Are you talking specifically about Bali here? Because I've been to Jakarta and I can't say I endorse the land use there based on the few business trips I've taken. Where can I read more about what you're talking about?

Huzzah! Another aficionado of land use issues! Alain Bertaud wrote a book called "order without design". He's an urban economist, and... his book is all a city planner needs to do their job correctly. Towards the end of the book he talks about the indonesian Kampung, briefly touched upon in this interview here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-11/urban-pla... I had long wanted to visit this sort of pla…

i took a quick look at "Order Without Design" and am not digging what I've read so far.

to decide whether something might be worth a read, i usually try to get a quick feel for it from the title, subtitle, author, author's affiliations, the book's recommendations, etc.

in this case, it _seems_ like what I'm going to find as I cruise thru a couple articles and youtubes and possibly even the book itself as some point (tho, likely not), is just another bad justification for allowing markets (i.e. capital / investors / rich people / the right people) to shape cities -- or shape them more than they're typically allowed to.

The full book title is:

  Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities
https://www.amazon.com/Order-without-Design-Markets-Cities/d...

if a book about... well, anything... mentions markets, it's probably going to be pro-markets -- that is, 'poor people must obey the markets', not 'markets are created by humans to _serve_ humans'.

couple of the recommendations come from City Journal (hard core conservative city planning, or non-planning), and Richard Florida (hard core liberal/monied city planning).

but, will check it out some more -- maybe i'll be surprised.

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

#408

Post by pcthrowaway »

TheHappyOddish wrote: post #355
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? How? I think we need to redefine retirement as “financial independence and free to do what you want”. I could honestly fill several hundred years of retirement with things I want to do. The people who get bored really puzzle me.

I retired by starting businesses early (16, all failed) and learning the lessons early to run something more successful when the opportunity arose. Those who train for it seem to get the most luck. I thought the same as you and as an avid game, tech enthusiasts, electronics enthusiast, outdoorser reader and social person, I thought I'd be fine. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I find these things hold no intrensic mea…

Hey, I'd wager I'd love to be retired. If you want that true back-to-the-grind experience I'd be happy to hold on to that nest egg of yours until I get bored. You can have my job. Check back on me any time, I guarantee you I won't be bored of retirement.

That doesn't mean I won't be programming and doing work-y type things, but just doing the ones I want to do.

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

#409

Post by blackflame7000 »

dharmab wrote: post #393
lazyasciiart wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is moving towards a ban on gas blowers, I cannot wait.

A few places have done this and the best part is the lawn companies don't mind because the electric blowers are really good anyway

[dead]

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

#410

Post by nextaccountic »

jjav wrote: post #266
gumby wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only 56.7% of these people joined a tech company. There’s a very good chance that their new jobs are similar to their former jobs. Unfortunately, the term “tech” has become diluted to the point of worthlessness. Every company of any size needs programming, statistics, and such. Conversely many companies swept under the “tech” term don’t develop any technology at all. It’s so bad that actual technology development i…

> Unfortunately, the term “tech” has become diluted to the point of worthlessness. Indeed. Nearly every so-called "tech" company is not actually in the business of selling technology products, so they aren't really tech companies. Of course they create technology (sometimes very nice ones) internally in support of their actual business, but tech isn't the business the company board cares about. Netflix is a movie pro…

Google has Android (and produces Pixel phones), Chrome OS, it actually sells technology products
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