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My Experience at Apple

ex-apple-engineer.medium.com

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Re: My Experience at Apple

#651

Post by sebmellen »

cbozeman wrote: post #634
mark-r wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exact diet doesn't matter, what mattered is that he believed changing his diet would cure his cancer. In the end of course it didn't.

The exact diet matters a metric shitton, because Jobs' hubris cost him his life, if instead he had realized he did not, in fact, know everything, he might still be alive. Pancreatic cancer eats sugar for-fucking-breakfast. [1] He was eating nothing but fruit, and even though fructose release is regulated in its binding with fiber, its still sugar. If Jobs had eaten nothing but bacon, steak, and eggs, we might still h…

In fact, ketogenic diets have been shown to slow tumor growth in a number of cancers. See https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/the-keto-diet-and-canc....

Re: My Experience at Apple

#653

Post by skellington »

_-___________-_ wrote: post #585
lubesGordi wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the first thing that really shocked me at my first job (startup in SF back over a decade ago). The attitude that what we're doing really matters, and if something was found broken on the weekend we'd get a call and have to come into the office. Fucking absurd hubris all throughout SV.

Why are you doing it at all if it doesn't matter?

Very little of what most people do "matters" from a certain point of view. But everyone has to eat and there are plenty of products that make money that might not "matter" but offer jobs. We can't all work for Tesla or SpaceX.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#654

Post by Apocryphon »

Diesel555 wrote: post #619

"Unfortunately, Apple became the place that I lost feeling of physical and psychological safety and the terror that it inflicted on me has impacted me on such a core level that the painful memories and flashbacks have replaced my dreams and they will hunt me until I am alive." I really don't understand this. I'm not saying this from a perspective that they are wrong, but that I honestly don't get it, please help me u…

The article talked about being psychologically and emotionally abused in a hostile work environment. The author talked about being insulted in a completely unprofessional way. Just because the trauma is much less than that of a war stricken country does not mean it's any less painful. Not to mention, the threat of poverty, or at least the disruption of one's life, is present in a hostile work environment, especially to someone on a work visa. What does ambition have to do with anything?

Re: My Experience at Apple

#657

Post by trixie_ »

anonymousiam wrote: post #460
saagarjha wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can be hard to do, especially at a place like Apple where you’ll often just get a basic idea of what you’ll be working on. And how are you supposed to judge your coworkers by the hour or so you spent with them in an interview?

For a PhD level position, she should have had a good idea of what she would be working on. The fact that her manager skipped her on-boarding meeting should have been a BIG red flag right at the beginning. I cannot imagine a corporate culture where that would be acceptable or even permitted.

None of that is a big deal or red flag. At a large intense company things come up, meetings get missed. New people will float around for awhile until there’s time to fit them in. It’s very much sink or swim and a test of how adaptable/self sufficient you are. People at those kinds of companies don’t have time for hand holding - it’s just how it is. If you can get hired by Apple there of plenty of less intense companies you’ll be able to work for.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#659

Post by ta1339 »

kmonsen wrote: post #576
ta1339 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never read anything even half as terrible as this story on Yes At Google. I'm not saying shitty things don't happen, but I'd like to believe that such shittiness would not fly at the G.

I had friends experience what I think was way worse at Google. Don't really feel comfortable sharing, but lets say it more or less always involved power games and/or sexual harassment. Worst one was probably a combination. Google was/is great, but sadly not for everyone. I mean Andy Rubin and Amit Singhal worked at Google when they did their career ending stuff.

And their careers ended (albeit with insane golden parachutes). In this story everyone gets away with it.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#660

Post by virgilp »

neycoda wrote: post #570
abraxas wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is due to the exponential payoff in a success scenario. Especially in high tech where certain initiatives can have a “winner take all” effect. I find it completely unsurprising that internally the tech giants function like a cluster of startups competing against each other. Capitalism is based on the idea of transplanting the survival of the fittest paradigm into the economy and that’s exactly how I’d ex…

Internal competition on the same project shows a lack of confidence from management... it literally shows they don't know what to do, and are just throwing spaghetti at the wall, or aren't confident in their skills to get something deployed with what they choose. It's not solid leadership, it's dissonant. It also sets people against each other, creates better-than-you mental heirarchies between equal workers where no…

Software projects often operate in high-uncertainty scenarios. Best approach may often only be "obvious" in hindsight. It's not irrational to do it in parallel/ in several teams - in fact, I'm surprised it's not happening more often.
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