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

Sergey Brin's Unretirement

inc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 499 posts

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#481

Post by paganel »

whatever1 wrote: post #414
paganel wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone, just the nounces, like Gates and Brin here. Do you take their defence? Seems like you do. Why would anyone with solid moral values jump to the defence of nounces?

No it is a real question. You have access to EVERYTHING material & service related this world can offer. Why do you also need to torture children and completely ruin their lives?

It seems like you need to learn more about the human condition, and I’m saying this in a serios and constructive way.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#482

Post by mckn1ght »

oefrha wrote: post #317
stavros wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't like getting asked what I do for a living. I exchange labour for money somewhere out of necessity, what's at all interesting about that? What I do in my free time is who I am, and that's much more interesting to talk about, to me.

I don’t like getting asked what I do for hobbies. The real answer I want to give is “none of your business”, but I’m polite enough to never say that, so it gets awkward. Getting asked what I do for a living is totally fine. It’s on my website, the whole world can find out if they bother to search. I’ll save you a search. The point is people are different. Not everyone wants to share their private interests with you,…

Could we be thinking about different social situations? I’m not turning to people on the bus and asking what their hobbies are. And it’s not my first question of people visiting my office happy hour.

If you’re at my home for dinner, I hope anyone that still feels this way does answer “the details of my private life are none of your business” when I’m trying to get to know them as a friend, so I know never to waste another good meal on them.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#483

Post by WJW »

fragmede wrote: post #435
WJW wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this person was laid off. His help was (apparently) not appreciated, and he's not helping anyone by sitting alone in his car on the parking lot. Do you think it is healthy behavior to go to a parking lot at 0900 every day and do nothing because you mentally cannot face the idea of not going to an office?

> His help was (apparently) not appreciated That's just your take. We don't know where he sat in the team, so we can assume the idea that he wasn't appreciated by his teammates as incorrect. He didn't make the cut based on unknown metrics from upper management, but they have their own reasons for doing things. Getting in to the parking lot of the old office sounds way healthier than not making it out of bed at all.

What a weird dichotomy. It's not between "sitting in your old employers' parking lot" and "lying in bed all day", it's between "sitting in your old employers' parking lot" and "learning new skills", "finding a new job", "discovering new hobbies", "spending more time with your loved ones" or almost anything else.

Instead he chose to sit alone in a parking lot so he could feel "normal". Feeling compelled to do a specific action (excluding things like breathing) just to feel normal has a name, and that name is "addiction". It is not usually considered a good thing.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#484

Post by lucianbr »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #475
lucianbr wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of the "I'm Marcus" part of your introduction? Reading your post I get the impression it has zero value, or at least you think so. > Hi, I'm Marcus > What do you do Marcus > I'm on a break now, but I used to be a director of IT Is this really difficult? Seems really easy, and I was never a director of anything. Maybe that's the problem.

Well, the "I'm Marcus" part is saying "I would like you to call me Marcus" I guess. You're right, it is easy to say. But there's an identity and professional pride and all sorts of stuff wrapped up in the job title that isn't so easy to let go of. It also leads on to questions like "and what are you doing now?" which get to "I'm lazing around doing nothing because my mental health took a hammering while I was IT Dire…

Sounds really sad. I am not a director of anything, I probably make almost nothing compared to you, and yet I know who I am outside of my job. I have friends who value who I am, regardless of my job or even between jobs. I would not trade places with you for all the money in the world. I would not have any use for all that money then.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#485

Post by ericmay »

massysett wrote: post #477
ericmay wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely the built environment. Your Costco example is a clear example. you drive to Costco, you walk in, grab generic packaged goods without needing to really talk to anyone, and then go to the checkout and use the automated kiosk to make your purchase. There's no reason to have a human interaction, so why would you bother getting to know the cashier? You're never going to build a relationship with the cashie…

I made the choice at Costco to not build a relationship with anyone. There's a guy standing at the entrance checking memberships. I've seen him for years. I don't know him. I don't use the automated kiosk if I have several items. I see some of the cashiers for years. I'm cordial but I don't chat them up. One woman who has been there for years chats with me a bit; I'm cordial but don't reciprocate a ton. There's a cor…

I think this is fundamentally incorrect, and the way we live today and the problems we experience bear this out. It's not about individual choices you make to engage with a cashier at Costco, it's about the opportunities to engage and where they occur. You're still talking about a forced connection you have to decide to make at the checkout line, and ignoring that you never see that person again in a different context, like in your own neighborhood or at your local restaurant.

Socialization isn't a choice one makes, it's supposed to be organic. The fact that you have to choose and make decisions around interacting with other people proves my point.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#486

Post by mpweiher »

taneq wrote: post #479
mpweiher wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right up until the point that the person with the legal power yanks the rug from under you.

That’s when you find out if the soft power you’ve accrued is sufficient.

Nope. That's when you find out that hard power beats soft power when the two come into conflict.

Doesn't mean soft power isn't important, because most of the time there isn't such a hard conflict. Well, hopefully.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#487

Post by CatMustard »

Schiendelman wrote: post #359
CatMustard wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind me asking what age you were when you retired? I'm 28 and five years into my boring corpo career and need something to lust after lol

If you want something to lust after, I recommend you find a project you care about getting involved in right now, literally today. The things that make us happy are doing something we care about every day, not seeking long-term goals.

Oh I have a lot of projects in my spare time already that I get fulfilment from. Just the 9-5 that doesn't do it for me. My original comment was a bit tongue in cheek though, I don't hate my job. It pays the bills and then some, and doesn't ask too much of me.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#488

Post by CatMustard »

coldpie wrote: post #400
CatMustard wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind me asking what age you were when you retired? I'm 28 and five years into my boring corpo career and need something to lust after lol

Nothing will make a boring corpo job not-boring, but one thing that can help mix it up is to change which boring corpo job you're doing once or twice a decade. Five years is a decent stint at one job. Worth taking a look around and seeing if an opportunity catches your eye.

Beat you to it, my friend. My next job starts next week!

Good advice though, it really felt like a good point in my career to move on somewhere new.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#489

Post by pardon_me »

WJW wrote: post #483
fragmede wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His help was (apparently) not appreciated That's just your take. We don't know where he sat in the team, so we can assume the idea that he wasn't appreciated by his teammates as incorrect. He didn't make the cut based on unknown metrics from upper management, but they have their own reasons for doing things. Getting in to the parking lot of the old office sounds way healthier than not making it out of bed at all.

What a weird dichotomy. It's not between "sitting in your old employers' parking lot" and "lying in bed all day", it's between "sitting in your old employers' parking lot" and "learning new skills", "finding a new job", "discovering new hobbies", "spending more time with your loved ones" or almost anything else. Instead he chose to sit alone in a parking lot so he could feel "normal". Feeling compelled to do a specif…

He didn't just drive there and sit in the car for a week or so either, which could be a shock reaction or wanting to keep the routine going whilst looking for the next thing to do... He was doing this for 6-8 months. It reveals a lot about a "rational" crowd.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#490

Post by pardon_me »

jart wrote: post #232
m348e912 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know who to credit, maybe it's Sergey, but the free Gemini (fast) is exceptional and at this point I don't see how OpenAI can catch back up. It's not just capability, but OpenAI have added so many policy guardrails it hurts the user experience.

It's the worst thing ever. The amount of disrespect that robot shows you, when you talk the least bit weird or deviant, it just shows you a terrifying glimpse of a future that must be snuffed out immediately. I honestly think we wouldn't have half the people who so virulently hate AI if OpenAI hadn't designed ChatGPT to be this way. This isn't how people have normally reacted to next-generation level technologies bei…

It's called OPEN AI and started as a charity for humanitarian reasons. How could it possibly be bad?!
Post reply on HN