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Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

bbc.com

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Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#621

Post by Noumenon72 »

jessetemp wrote: post #479
micromacrofoot wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or you know, naming your company PALANTIR

I had no idea it was a lord of the rings reference. Here’s an apt quote from wikipedia: “The [palantir] stones were an unreliable guide to action, since what was not shown could be more important than what was selectively presented.”

Just for the overly suspicious among us, I looked up the edit that introduced that quote[1] and it doesn't appear to have been added as a dig against the company.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palant%C3%ADr&dif...

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#622

Post by siren2026 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #566
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from housing the costs aren’t that much more. You pay the same to travel. You pay the same to buy stuff online. Food is maybe slightly more but it’s not that significant. Once you get past being able to afford housing it’s insanely lucrative. It’s harder for entry level people of course.

Groceries cost anywhere between 25% and 100% more depending on the item (200% more if you shop at Safeway). Gas costs ~50% more. Electric is 200% more unless you live in Santa Clara, in which case it's roughly normal. Water costs more. All forms of labor cost more (handyman, mechanic, etc). Fast food costs more, normal restaurants cost more. And that's all before you consider CA sales tax. But yeah flights are the sa…

>> Groceries cost anywhere between 25% and 100% more depending on the item (200% more if you shop at Safeway). Gas costs ~50% more. Electric is 200% more unless you live in Santa Clara, in which case it's roughly normal. Water costs more.

This thread is about someone working at Meta or similar FAANG. At those levels you make around 500k$/year as an engineer (a lot of times more).

What you are highlighting above is at maximum a difference of ~1000$/month of increase... 12k$/year. That is almost insignificant.

And you forgot to mention that those companies will bump your salary by 10-20% if you move to the Bay Area. Which covers more than the difference.

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#623

Post by [deleted] »

jessetemp wrote: post #440
staplung wrote: post #412

Reminds me of one of the more brilliant passages in Snow Crash , describing work in "Fed Land"... ''' Y.T's mom pulls up the new memo, checks the time, and starts reading it. The estimated reading time is 15.62 minutes. Later, when Marietta does her end-of-day statistical roundup, sitting in her private office at 9:00 P.M., she will see the name of each employee and next to it, the amount of time spent reading this m…

Makes me wonder what it’s like to identify with the villains in media. Zuck looking at the metaverse and thinking hey that’s a good idea! Or Thanos wasn’t so bad. Those rebel scum had it coming. Homelander is the good guy!

[deleted]

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#624

Post by wayeq »

siren2026 wrote: post #400
jjulius wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of people in these comments who would be happy to be "paid well" to contribute to what's inarguably a huge net negative worldwide is exactly how the company got to this point. It's astonishing how many people value a ton of money over doing something good. Everyone who talks about setting values aside for cash is the problem. Gross.

One of my good friend "Metamate" argument is that "if he doesn't do it, another engineer will do it. Might as well take the money". But at least they all seem to acknowledge it is a terrible company and they know they are working on something terrible (which is beyond me why you would accept to do that).

> "if he doesn't do it, another engineer will do it. Might as well take the money".

You should introduce your friend to Kant. He’s taken a situational excuse and turned it into a general principle: ‘If someone else would do it anyway, it’s okay for me to do it.’

It's kinda like.. Kant's whole 'thing'.

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#625

Post by nullsex »

ribosometronome wrote: post #481
jessetemp wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me wonder what it’s like to identify with the villains in media. Zuck looking at the metaverse and thinking hey that’s a good idea! Or Thanos wasn’t so bad. Those rebel scum had it coming. Homelander is the good guy!

>identify with the villains in media. Zuck looking at the metaverse and thinking hey that’s a good idea! Are there many stories where the bad guys create the metaverse? AFAIK, Stephenson coined the term in Snow Crash and there it was built by the main character and his buds. The Matrix, I suppose? Though I think Zuck's (immediate) vision and who he identifies as is way more Hiro Protagonist or James Halliday.

Zuck was gushing about Ready Player One. It's as if the villain was written for him.

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#626

Post by m463 »

everdrive wrote: post #17

I don't work for Meta, but how many more years do I need to work in tech? I'm in my 40s and my kids are young. I've already set up 529s for them, and am paying for some expensive home upgrades. Maybe when that is finished and I've built up a buffer I can switch industries for the last 5-10 years of my working life. Curious if anyone here has any similar plans.

Maybe you can stay in tech, but help undoing all the nonsense that's been done.

Make a dumbphone (that is actually smart and works for you). An open-source television. local AI models. A browser that doesn't spy on you.

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#627

Post by [deleted] »

yodsanklai wrote: post #93
LucidLynx wrote: post #22

I have a serious question to anyone working at Meta and reading this: HOW can you still work at this company!? Why don't you quit this very toxic company, and start working at another place or even on your own? I genuinely don't understand... Let just Meta die!

There are tons of good reasons to work for Meta. You can work on interesting projects, build your resume and network, work on interesting engineering problems, learn from other people, and of course, they pay very well. People do need to support their family, secure their retirement and so on... Is it perfect? certainly not. Is the company toxic? where do you draw the line? how much are you willing to compromise give…

[deleted]

Re: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

#630

Post by cwillu »

jordanb wrote: post #595
stuxnet79 wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have to agree with you on this. Neal Stephenson is not a writer's writer by any means. But even by his standards I found the prose in Snowcrash to be plodding and amateur. I still love the book for its campy nature and for all the amazing ideas it birthed but it would have definitely benefited from a round of aggressive editing. Also the ending quite frankly was horrible, but I hear this is a general issue with Steph…

Stevenson's endings are "pregnant endings" as in the Aeneid: https://old.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/196r7mn/i_just_f... It's not a bad way to end a book in principle. I can't actually recall how snowcrash ends, I think I was losing interest by the end.

Swordfight (which is very stephenson to have in the ending) and nuclear-powered robot dogs showing extreme loyalty to the person who saved one of them from overheating.
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