I found the second part of Seven Eves to be a surreal experience. I think I might have stopped reading Stephenson after that.
Howso?
(Not parent)
The second half differs dramatically in tone. If you were really into the specific feeling of the first half, it is very jarring.
I found the whole thing very interesting and enjoyable, but I can imagine being excited for more content similar to the first half and being disappointed by the drastic shift in scale/tone/focus/etc.
I think the keyword is “can”. It is allowed, contrary to eg the EU, where this is not allowed.
> It is allowed, contrary to eg the EU, where this is not allowed. Its allows in most of the EU apart from germany where there are strict limits. however you can still record what your users are doing for purposes of detecting fraud. This is where it differs from the USA, where they can do anything because they have no data protection laws.
It's always been hard to know the extent of how draconian tracking actually is (IT pros tend to not talk about it much). In the US, there's the expectation that when you use an employer-provided device that any and all activity on it can be fully monitored/recorded and used against the employee for any reason. In practice, however, few people worry about reasonable amounts web-surfing, being on hacker-news or doing l…
I've always, throughout a 25+ year career, kept personal business on personal devices and work business on work devices, and never cross the streams. Oddly, this is really controversial on HN, though! I've gotten so many weirdly angry responses when suggesting people try it, like it's a huge inconvenience to just bring a personal phone to work in order to do your banking and fuck around posting on HN. It's so much ea…
Above all else, don’t work on personal projects on work machines. Even in California, with decent worker protections, that’s enough to potentially give your company ownership of your personal projects (because you developed them using your employer’s resources). Especially if you think there’s a nonzero chance your job would find your personal work useful or financially worthwhile, keep that stuff off your work laptop.
If you can meet their goals, that just means there is more they can squeeze out of you. The incentive structure for our corporations means there is literally never enough and they will always demand more.
I've heard stories of current day federal employee performance reviews where, unofficially, no manager is permitted to give out a perfect 5 out of 5.
I've seen that same policy in regular corporations. Giving any member of a team 5/5 meant a personal phone call with HR and your skip level to justify it, while the message was sent unofficially beforehand that having that meeting would be bad for a manager's career.
Stephenson's writing is great if you like lengthy asides that add to the world and to your understanding of the characters, but add nothing to the plot. If you want to read six pages of detailed musings on how the character learned ballroom dance and their design for a special milk-dispensing spoon for eating cereal without it getting soggy, establishing the character is the kind of person who designs spoons in their…
I agree except for REAMDE that was very fast paced and barely explained
REAMDE's description of MMO economics is farcically bad. It undermines the whole book.
I think the keyword is “can”. It is allowed, contrary to eg the EU, where this is not allowed.
> It is allowed, contrary to eg the EU, where this is not allowed. Its allows in most of the EU apart from germany where there are strict limits. however you can still record what your users are doing for purposes of detecting fraud. This is where it differs from the USA, where they can do anything because they have no data protection laws.
Please read the current legislation for Germany. Allowing you private use of company internet access classifies your employer as a telecom provider which then require additional safeguards etc. No employer wants this which is why personal internet use is generally not allowed and misuse is grounds for termination without notice. So is the use of private equipment. Restriced monitoring is allowed, very detailled or systematic monitoring is not.
None of that is specific to this industry. It’s far worse in others. Grass always looks greener elsewhere
From what I've observed, the big problem with working in tech is that you have all of the responsibility but none of the authority or autonomy. By comparison, in most service sector jobs you have no authority or autonomy but also little responsibility. In other engineering disciplines you have a lot of responsibility but also much more authority and autonomy.
In my experience, unless you are working with items which can kill people (medical, military) there is no responsibility. Developers can deploy any broken build with little consequences.
So… how is this company retaining senior employees? I mean, between this and all their other recent nonsense, you’d think those who could would just… leave.
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.
Leaving tech altogether and working for dystopian companies like Meta are just two choices in a broad band of possibilities. You could also go work for yourself.
What if you were a brilliant young engineer and you wanted to work for a growing company that is being run by sophisticated business leaders who are financially successful enough, and who respect and value their employees so highly that they can afford not to do any of this degrading employee tracking at all?
>If meta is paying you high-end why would you give it up for something that pays you less? Sure, because I don't value high-end living. A modest living is enough to keep me happy. If I can provide a happy, comfortable life for my family, we're good. It would irk me deeply to set aside my values for the sake of a boatload of cash that I don't actually need.
Everyone says this, and then rushes out to buy the new iPhone, subscribe to Netflix and post about it to X or Facebook. Everyone is addicted to unnecessary luxury. If I suggested that you take a principled stance, your lifestyle would be offended.
A normal non-FAANG tech salary will support such sybaritic luxury as busying a phone and using Netflix.