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

Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 553 posts

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#461

Post by ddddang »

bjackman wrote: post #291
mawadev wrote: post #71

I'm waking up personally to the unethical side of Software development as well. You can either do little and get paid pocket change or you can provide a ton of value for pocket change next to some promises lulling you in, where the value of your work exponentially increases, but you will see nothing of it and whatever you do: you are still a replaceable cell in excel to them and there will be ways where you get dragg…

As an engineer if you are gonna be a rank and file employee you need to do it for your own reasons. I think the main good reasons to do it are: 1. It's relatively chill and you value the stability. You deliver competence from 9-5 then go home to your family or some other thing that's more important to you than work. 2. You really enjoy the pure engineering side and find meaning in the technical artifact you're creati…

[dead]

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#462

Post by fsckboy »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #371
Thorrez wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a $2M 4-3 2279sqft very-nice-looking home in Santa Barbara: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5436-Agana-Dr-Santa-Barba...

offtopic, but I love comparing realtor glamour shots HDR'd out the wazoo with StreetView https://maps.app.goo.gl/2aEXsdH9hU3o4SZw5 (winter, March 2012)

that's not a glamour shot, that's just a sunny day. the dirty little secret of the southern california coast is it is cloudy more than half the time. west la, downright depressing. they call it "the marine layer", i call it cloudy as fuck.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#463

Post by ddddang »

pembrook wrote: post #190
mawadev wrote: post #71

I'm waking up personally to the unethical side of Software development as well. You can either do little and get paid pocket change or you can provide a ton of value for pocket change next to some promises lulling you in, where the value of your work exponentially increases, but you will see nothing of it and whatever you do: you are still a replaceable cell in excel to them and there will be ways where you get dragg…

Okay, but how much do you think you deserve as an employee who has invested none of your money in the company and decided to join on a 6-figure salary only after the company is already through YC, is funded by top investors and looks attractive? If you’re instantly replaceable by any dime-a-dozen engineer than can install packages on npm and use react components and add a thumbs up to slack messages…to not get accide…

[dead]

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#464

Post by quickthrowman »

daemonologist wrote: post #183
quickthrowman wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I retired at 40 I don’t think I’d want to remove more than 2% a year from the principal amount, which is.. $12,000-$16,000 a year. How is that possible? Even with a fully paid off house, you still have property taxes, utilities, maintenance. Even 4% a year which is recommended for a 30 year retirement, you’re only taking out $24,000-$36,000 a year.

3.5% historically holds up over longer retirements (I ran a rough model and got ~98% success for 50 years). $21k is quite lean - you'd have to pick and choose luxuries like a car, no roommates, travel, etc. - but for a single person in many parts of the country it's doable. The big gamble is that Medicaid might get cut further, which would definitely force you back to work.

Yes, it’s doable if you rent a $500/month apartment/bedroom in a rural area or split a shitty $1000/month apartment in a mid tier city and don’t have a car, never travel, and don’t use medical care. My employer paid health insurance premiums are ~$15,000/yr.

That sounds like my personal idea of Hell, I’d like to be able to get treatment if I got cancer instead of being given a prescription for painkillers and a look of sorrow from a doctor that can’t treat me.

FWIW, I currently live in a shitty $1000/month apartment in a mid-tier city, not casting any aspersions on the living situation. But, I’ve lived in this same city without a car and it’s miserable.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#465

Post by quickthrowman »

hervature wrote: post #177
quickthrowman wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I retired at 40 I don’t think I’d want to remove more than 2% a year from the principal amount, which is.. $12,000-$16,000 a year. How is that possible? Even with a fully paid off house, you still have property taxes, utilities, maintenance. Even 4% a year which is recommended for a 30 year retirement, you’re only taking out $24,000-$36,000 a year.

You are supposed to invest and keep the money working for you. Adjusted for inflation, S&P 500 returns 6.5% a year. That alone gets you above the poverty line. Recall, this is inflation adjusted so your $600,000 is growing with inflation and the poverty line income also grows over time. This does not account for any swings.

Keep in mind that almost all of the FIRE advice available online has been written in a bull stock market that is almost 2 decades long (COVID drawdown is a blip on the 2008-2025 chart).

Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Do you know anyone still running a risk parity 60% UPRO/40% TMF (3x long S&P 500, 3x long 20-year Treasury Bonds) portfolio? That portfolio composition had massive returns, until the Fed started hiking rates.

The annual implied volatility of SPX is around 15-20%, if you want to withdraw 6.5% a year at 40 and have to restart your career at 55, be my guest.

A 40% drawdown on 600k is -240k which puts you at 360k, 6.5% of which is $23,400. Starts getting pretty tight if you need to sell assets for cash which reduces your future returns.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#466

Post by pinewurst »

jahewson wrote: post #338
lotsofpulp wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3M is this 2,240 sq ft home on a 5k sq ft lot in San Mateo, and as far as house amenities/quality, this is pretty unimpressive. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/221-Woodbridge-Cir-San-Ma...

One block from the freeway, no less.

Convenient for the commute.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#467

Post by deanmoriarty »

catoc wrote: post #368

He elected to move on before his shares were vested. Many interesting, and probably true, replies about investors cheating out employees, but it seems very few people read the actual post.

Where can I real the actual post you are mentioning? The tweet only mentions "had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf", which seems to conflict with your "before his shares were vested" statement.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#468

Post by david38 »

chasebank wrote: post #281
kstrauser wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of house had you been dreaming of? I live in SF, and even here $3M goes an awfully freaking long way.

I'm in Santa Barbara, CA. Good friend of mine just bought a shithole 3-2 1300sqft for $2.2m. $3M doesn't go very far considering 30 years ago it was retirement status almost anywhere.

His stupid idea to buy in a place that has gotten more expensive than almost anywhere in the country.

I can cry that my dream flat in London is more expensive than I expected 30 years ago but that just shows how stupid I’ve been the last 30 years

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#469

Post by deanmoriarty »

quickthrowman wrote: post #465
hervature wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are supposed to invest and keep the money working for you. Adjusted for inflation, S&P 500 returns 6.5% a year. That alone gets you above the poverty line. Recall, this is inflation adjusted so your $600,000 is growing with inflation and the poverty line income also grows over time. This does not account for any swings.

Keep in mind that almost all of the FIRE advice available online has been written in a bull stock market that is almost 2 decades long (COVID drawdown is a blip on the 2008-2025 chart). Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Do you know anyone still running a risk parity 60% UPRO/40% TMF (3x long S&P 500, 3x long 20-year Treasury Bonds) portfolio? That portfolio composition had massive returns, until t…

> Keep in mind that almost all of the FIRE advice available online has been written in a secular bull market that is almost 2 decades long

Most of the reasonable FIRE advice (e.g. https://earlyretirementnow.com/ quality) suggests a ~3-3.5% withdrawal rate, which has been measured using historical data way before the current secular market.

Is your take that even such withdrawal rate wouldn't work anymore, moving forward?

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#470

Post by supportengineer »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #297
supportengineer wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the cheapest house in Atherton at this moment $4.888 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/86-Rittenhouse-Ave-Athert...

$3m is a pretty decent down payment for that.

My point was that you could grind for 20 years and get $1 million payout. Or even a multi million dollar payout. And your reward is that you have to keep on grinding for the rest of your life.
Post reply on HN