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

Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

blog.dropbox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 413 posts

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#401

Post by KronisLV »

glofish wrote: post #296
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snark aside, this is something that's always kind of baffled me. If I built a company and eventually found myself in extremely high value (ie, 9 figures), I'd be looking to retire ASAP. That would be it. I won capitalism. Time to spend the rest of my life on Maui sipping Mai-Tais on the beach. Why anybody would want to continue to work when they already have enough wealth to live an extremely lavish lifestyle without…

Re: extremely lavish Is probably extremely boring - I have never had more fun than when solving problems, life without working on something interesting sounds insufferable to me How long would I be able to sit on Maui sipping Mai-Tais? Getting massages, ... and more ... whatever I want, whenever I want it ... that is a curse actually. Surrounded by fake people everyone wanting a piece of the wealth trickle down to th…

> I have never had more fun than when solving problems, life without working on something interesting sounds insufferable to me.

I'm fairly sure that there are many people like this out there, but for others that just... isn't a problem?

Personally, I quit my last job because I felt like I need to learn some new technology, work on a few personal projects, write blog posts and so on. Since, I've done a little of the above (in addition to improving the security of my homelab and running my own CA), but also took a month off to just enjoy watching videos, reading articles, playing video games, as well as do physical labor around the farm.

And frankly, everything feels enjoyable so far - both intellectually stimulating tasks, physically intensive labor like cutting trees and chopping firewood, as well as passively consuming content, or even zoning out a bit occasionally and having a slow day. Though I can't comment on how long each of those would be satisfying for, that also depends on the person.

I can easily imagine someone enjoying a lavish and relaxed lifestyle and never getting tired of it, though.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#402

Post by Jolter »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #119
avnfish wrote: post #25

I recently migrated from Dropbox to Google One. I find Dropbox's personal pricing really baffling: you get 2 GB for free or have to move all the way up to 2 TB and pay £100 a year. 100GB for £16 via Google is a much more sensible offer.

My perception is Dropbox is trying to shed personal users to shift to enterprise accounts.

Yes. What are their nag screens about, if not to convince me as a free user to leave?

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#403

Post by reportgunner »

soared wrote: post #18

> In an ideal world, we’d simply shift people from one team to another. And we’ve done that wherever possible. However, our next stage of growth requires a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product development. We’ve been bringing in great talent in these areas over the last couple years and we'll need even more. Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatg…

What if they make an AI that hallucinates something that looks like your file so they don't have to fetch it for you?

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#404

Post by ihatepython »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #275
birdyrooster wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously it’s embarrassing how leadership in many companies has ZERO vision for AI right now. Too focused on buying houses, drinking wine and riding horses. I think these people need to retire already.

Snark aside, this is something that's always kind of baffled me. If I built a company and eventually found myself in extremely high value (ie, 9 figures), I'd be looking to retire ASAP. That would be it. I won capitalism. Time to spend the rest of my life on Maui sipping Mai-Tais on the beach. Why anybody would want to continue to work when they already have enough wealth to live an extremely lavish lifestyle without…

[flagged]

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#406

Post by rco8786 »

coldtea wrote: post #394
rco8786 wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand what you are saying. That companies shouldn't have product roadmaps? That product roadmaps are mutually exclusive to sustainable growth or healthy profit? That companies using new tech are only doing so to prop up stock prices? Something else?

What I'm saying is obvious: 1. that companies should have specific product areas and focus, and not pivot all over the place, as mere profit-seeking machines. 2. that companies embrace all kinds of BS trends, hyped technologies, and empty vacuum BS solutions looking for a problem (from NFT, web3, metaverse, blockchain) 3. that companies (as in this case) also embrace valid technologies (like LLMs) that have no real a…

1. Just a strange take. Companies can do whatever they want. If they fail, they will fail. Companies are mere profit seeking machines. Perhaps you are thinking of non-profit orgs?

2. So what? People embrace all kinds of trends. And companies are made of people. This is basically a tautology...it's only a trend of people are embracing it. Also zero of your examples are the topic here.

3. This goes back to my original post...we don't know how they plan to use LLMs. It might be useful, it might not be.

4. Just pure cynicism. Some of what you're saying happens at some companies. But not most.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#407

Post by coldtea »

rco8786 wrote: post #406
coldtea wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm saying is obvious: 1. that companies should have specific product areas and focus, and not pivot all over the place, as mere profit-seeking machines. 2. that companies embrace all kinds of BS trends, hyped technologies, and empty vacuum BS solutions looking for a problem (from NFT, web3, metaverse, blockchain) 3. that companies (as in this case) also embrace valid technologies (like LLMs) that have no real a…

1. Just a strange take. Companies can do whatever they want. If they fail, they will fail. Companies are mere profit seeking machines. Perhaps you are thinking of non-profit orgs? 2. So what? People embrace all kinds of trends. And companies are made of people. This is basically a tautology...it's only a trend of people are embracing it. Also zero of your examples are the topic here. 3. This goes back to my original…

>Just a strange take. Companies can do whatever they want.

Yes, and I'm saying they shouldn't.

>If they fail, they will fail. Companies are mere profit seeking machines. Perhaps you are thinking of non-profit orgs?

No, I'm thinking of the idea of the civic responsibility of companies, and of a market that serves society, not just maximizes profit. Perhaps the barbaric 2023 is not ready enough for it.

>So what? People embrace all kinds of trends. And companies are made of people.

Yes, including BS trends, detrimental to them, their families, or their communities. And, like companies, should embrace less BS trends and more good trends.

>This goes back to my original post...we don't know how they plan to use LLMs. It might be useful, it might not be.

We do know it has nothing to what people got into Dropbox for: simple file sync and offline copies.

>Just pure cynicism. Some of what you're saying happens at some companies. But not most.

Simple starry-eyed market fanboyism. See how two can play the ad hominem game?

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#408

Post by rco8786 »

coldtea wrote: post #407
rco8786 wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Just a strange take. Companies can do whatever they want. If they fail, they will fail. Companies are mere profit seeking machines. Perhaps you are thinking of non-profit orgs? 2. So what? People embrace all kinds of trends. And companies are made of people. This is basically a tautology...it's only a trend of people are embracing it. Also zero of your examples are the topic here. 3. This goes back to my original…

> Just a strange take. Companies can do whatever they want. Yes, and I'm saying they shouldn't. > If they fail, they will fail. Companies are mere profit seeking machines. Perhaps you are thinking of non-profit orgs? No, I'm thinking of the idea of the civic responsibility of companies, and of a market that serves society, not just maximizes profit. Perhaps the barbaric 2023 is not ready enough for it. > So what? Peo…

Saying your comment was cynical is not an ad-hominem. But regardless, it sounds like you've taken my comment and applied your desire for a complete alternative reality to it. Which, I guess.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#409

Post by kiratp »

hbn wrote: post #377
kiratp wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty simple. Selling storage is a crap margin business. The provider makes no money on selling you those lower tiers. They only make money when you upgrade and buy more storage than what you use. They don’t want to sell you a cheap commodity. They want to sell you convenience at higher margin.

> The provider makes no money on selling you those lower tiers. Is that true? I'd be shocked if it costs Google more than $2/month to have the average 100GB user's files sitting in storage. Maybe if I was constantly uploading and downloading, but most people push things up there and then they just sit.

Yup - its 100 GB * 3 (well * 2.5 to 2.7 with erasure coding) + networking, power etc. etc. etc. Data is constantly being churned around as machines are serviced/die, disks are scrubbed for bit flips etc. and its not like you can put it on a tape on a shelf - the user expects it to be instantly accessible.

Google Cloud Storage is $0.02/ GB + a myriad of other charges for listing, accessing, replication etc. All while storage remains one of the lower margin offerings for the hyperscale clouds - they keep it cheap to attract high margin compute.

Now add to that the cost of building and maintaining the myriad of apps, APIs, integrations etc. for a consumer facing storage service and $2/mo for 100GB would be very very slightly profitable at best.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#410

Post by xp84 »

spamizbad wrote: post #141
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

Having worked in this industry for two decades (and a Dropbox user since its public launch) the "product strategy" of most of these companies is close to just spitballing. If you want a recent example you can look at Facebook lighting almost $40 billion with their Metaverse product. To add to that, Product leadership at technology companies has evolved to be much less technical, so they aren't going to have any deep…

I’m genuinely surprised/impressed both Box and Dropbox still exist since they’re single-product-line pure plays, for enterprise only (no way do enough consumers pay for either to matter), and both are competing with what is either free or very cheap to bundle alternatives from MS and GOOG (and what company doesn’t have either 365 or G Suite already?? I know Dropbox tried to make its own office suite a few years back but I’ve never heard of anyone using it. So, it’s a testament to some amazing sales guys that they’re even alive.
Post reply on HN