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

macrumors.com

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

#451

Post by [deleted] »

01100011 wrote: post #371
ineedasername wrote: post #70

I'm trying to hire for a position right now and it has dragged on for months for two reasons: 1) WFH is now limited to 1 day per week, and a 3 month probationary period where new hires don't even get that. 2) Salary. It's still a job seeker's market and my workplace is not keeping pace. It's spec'ed for 3 years of experience but salary is about the median for a new graduate w/o professional experience. I'm happy to t…

This may change soon. Meta and Netflix reportedly have hiring freezes in place now. Other companies are cutting staff. The later half of 2022 may bring significant changes to the job market(along with many other things).

[deleted]

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

#452

Post by micro_cam »

maleldil wrote: post #372
micro_cam wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this is a problem with OKRs more then with remote work. It is too easy to game the OKR process by choosing easy but showy OKRs, doing the bare minimum and declaring victory. I've been remote for 10 years and before that worked on a bunch of distributed research teams and it is perfectly possible to have a highly functioning distributed/remote team that really takes ownership. I mean look at open source proj…

> It is too easy to game the OKR process by choosing easy but showy OKRs, doing the bare minimum and declaring victory. This isn't hard to fix; it only requires upper management to recognise the issue. If a goal is easy to reach, it's a bad goal.

That only kind of helps ... and can lead to micromanagement.

I've found a better approach is to focus on key metrics or KPIs and empower people to go after them without a heavy planing cycle. Like if your app is slow and buggy the OKR process tends to favor waterfally quarter long projects like "rewrite X in Y." A better approach is often to get good at monitoring and prioritize cycles spent on maintaining, optimizing, and refactoring existing stuff with a possible incremental rewrite.

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

#453

Post by urthor »

donthellbanme wrote: post #351
lizknope wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an office with a door and window for 12 years at 2 different companies. It was great. I left the door open 90% of the time but it was great to be able to close the door for privacy the other 10%. I changed to a much better job in 2019 regarding work and salary but everyone including the VP's are in cubicles. It is really annoying when everyone around you is on a different conference call and you have to block t…

I sometimes think that some Managers, and even primary founders, have such ungratifing gratifying social lives outside of work; They need the social bonding, and drama, that goes on in certain work settings Kinda like my last girlfriend. I honestly felt if she didn't have an office to go to, and couldn't boss around someone beneath her in the organization around, gossip, and socialize; she couldn't sleep well. Yea, i…

Competition for social status is the fuel that propels so many people's lives.

Acting rudely, just because you can, is something people struggle all their lives to achieve.

I just think Darwinian tribalism is the natural status quo of human beings.

Well thought out, altruistic, social structures, are almost the exception.

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

#454

Post by steve_adams_86 »

ensan wrote: post #211

Wow, reading a few pages of mostly spiteful & angry (at Mr. Goodfellow) replies on macrumors.com was really eye-opening. Ordinary people seem to have no idea at all how much in-demand someone at the level of Ian Goodfellow is.

Really. If someone like me who has a fraction of the ability and a much more common skill set is in high demand, I can’t imagine how easily he could find work. He’s going to find remote work no problem.

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

#455

Post by solenoidalslide »

rrggrr wrote: post #144

WFH is screwing young workers by eliminating the mentorship, learning by osmosis and relationship-building that has propelled many knowledge-based careers. If Goodfellow were truly a good fellow, he would recognize the higher purpose.

Allow me to introduce you to Digital Osmosis.

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

#456

Post by zo1 »

nomdenator wrote: post #359
zmmmmm wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is really hard to find a company that doesn't try to cram you into an open plan office with at least half a dozen people exactly I'd be fine to go into the office but don't be under the illusion I'm going to accept materially worse working conditions in order to do it. I guess it isn't the same for everyone, but my home office is a very high bar to beat and it makes a real difference to my productivity and menta…

I wonder what I'm missing in this concept. You would think that the people in charge would see that real estate is an unnecessary expense, where applicable. Also, I've been to a lot of meetings where we were told "there are other things people value in work besides money". Maybe being able to manage your own work environment and save gas and time fits in that slot. A content, well rested workforce would be better IMO…

Eng manager here. Honestly not everyone is sold on remote being better much less equivalent in productivity or output compared to being in an office. Remote also requires a lot of rethinking of team dynamics, work allocation and just plain old making sure stuff is done. Make no mistake, WFH may be arguably better and more pleasant from the employee perspective, but it makes projects more difficult for the rest of the company.

Yeah we're not all amazing managers that can make it work and sometimes we do need butts in seats. But also a lot of times, the ICs are slackers, loafing around, lying on tickets, getting bogged down and not speaking up, some need pair programming, some get lonely, some get emotional and miss their team, some have bad home lives and office setups.

But yeah sure, blaming it all on evil companies and their supposed sunk cost fallacy investments into real estate is the easy answer, so let's do that.

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

#457

Post by smartbit »

ineedasername wrote: post #257
hogrider wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you tell who you eventually hire it's a shitty salary because it sounds they would only take the job if they don't know what they're worth.

I'm very upfront when I schedule the interview, give them a range when we set the time and if they're still interested we proceed. It's education analytics, so there's a little bit of "doing it for the mission" that gets people who are willing to make a little less because the job really has a very direct impact on students' success and lives. My work reduces student debt and increases success rates and identifies th…

> The work environment is laid back, 40 hour weeks & rarely any expectation of going over that so there can be a very good work/life balance

There are quite some countries where Jo Average would see 40h working week as monsterous. Or were 40h workweek might even be outlawed.

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

#458

Post by dotopotoro »

paulcole wrote: post #55
humanistbot wrote: post #47

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

A couple contenders off the top of my head: 1. Defending pseudoscience (as long as it’s related to nutrition and exercise) 2. Disgust with “marketing people” and anyone with an MBA 3. Hating “woke” culture 4. Justifying piracy

Surprisingly, a lot of HN visitors come from Somali.

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

#459

Post by aidaman »

maleldil wrote: post #397
bricemo wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> i'm sure you have some nitpick

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

#460

Post by Sakos »

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…

I don't understand why your comment is written so argumentatively. The person talked about in the article didn't grab a pitchfork. He decided to walk away because he wasn't happy with the employer changing the terms from what he was happy with. That's completely within his right as an employee.

I have a number of colleagues who have resigned because they don't want to go back to the office. Nothing about any sort of inalienable right BS. They just prefer remote work now after doing it for 2 years and they're no longer content with having to work at the office anymore. And honestly, my company is losing out far more than they are with them leaving.

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