Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#831

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #817

10xDev wrote: post #800

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not saying this is the reason at all, but personally speaking sell me something that is not a subscription based service. I will make a handful of exceptions but not more. All these companies relying on Nitro, Prime, Premium, Plus as if anyone wants to add yet another subscription to their bill. Meanwhile companies like Apple and Nvidia are releasing new high-end products that I can buy and not think about.

Apple sells six or seven different subscription services including tv, music, photo storage, and fitness. They obviously don't think that selling subscriptions is a bad idea.

[deleted]

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#832

Post by morkalork » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #808

__loam wrote: post #780

This is a company that makes about 18 billion dollars in profit per quarter.

They probably didn't get to the point of making $18B a quarter by keeping on a bunch of organizational dead weight.

It's a failure of creativity and leadership if they can't think of something productive to do with their world class talent and infrastructure.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#833

Post by whyenot » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

Kon5ole wrote: post #804

Google makes me kind of sad. They used to be so cool, pushing technology forward, making it accessible to the masses, doing things that seemed almost impossible and making it mainstream. Ads were the money stream but they did it tastefully. Now the main page is all ads, dark patterns are everywhere in everything Google does. They've basically become one of the ethically worst technology companies around. Is it inevit…

Patagonia is an example of a company that is trying to be "decent" even after its founder is no longer involved. So far, it seems to be working.

In tech, I am not aware of any good examples. I feel like Apple is one of the less bad compared to others. They are at least making efforts to be good about privacy, even if their motivation may be less than pure.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#834

Post by forward1 » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

kentm wrote: post #826

Kon5ole wrote: post #804

Google makes me kind of sad. They used to be so cool, pushing technology forward, making it accessible to the masses, doing things that seemed almost impossible and making it mainstream. Ads were the money stream but they did it tastefully. Now the main page is all ads, dark patterns are everywhere in everything Google does. They've basically become one of the ethically worst technology companies around. Is it inevit…

I'm beginning to believe that it's just impossible to do advertising ethically. The hypothesis is that an advertising firm that attempts to do so will perform worse than ones doing unethical things, and eventually lose customers.

All business is inherently unethical and relies on hiding and externalizing costs of production unto the environment, a vulnerable population, or other forms of legal/tax trickery.

Advertising is no more evil than the for-profit healthcare system in the US, or the food industry, or really any other industry, when you really stop to consider it.

People who think they are operating or working for an "ethical" business are simply unaware or willfully ignorant of its costs. Typically it is the latter, or as Upton Sinclair beautifully put it — "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#835

Post by rogerthis » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

Tangent to this: do you remember the rumor a long time ago about GCP having a deadline to become "something" (I don't remember if 'relevant' or 'profitable' or else). Have it got to that "something"?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#836

Post by onion2k » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #808

__loam wrote: post #780

This is a company that makes about 18 billion dollars in profit per quarter.

They probably didn't get to the point of making $18B a quarter by keeping on a bunch of organizational dead weight.

Regardless of anything else a layoff at Google is an admission that the leadership team have nothing for those people to do that's worth keeping them around for. They're 'dead weight' because Google's ideas, ambitions, and taste for audacious ground-breaking projects have died as well. We should all be a little sad about that.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#837

Post by guyzero » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

Solvency wrote: post #768

Between Discord, Twitch, Amazon+Prime, and Google... what's the layoff pattern here? Are we talking about social community teams? Streaming/networking engineers? Or is there no connective thread between these four companies? Are there other corporate layoffs that round out this intrigue?

The layoff pattern is rising interest rates.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#838

Post by xpe » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

pompino wrote: post #662

xpe wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unions make sense if the employers have the ability to exploit the workers. This is an overly narrow definition, so I label it is largely incorrect. Think of it this way: society involves dynamically-shifting power balances. To the extent the goals of a society include: (a) standardizing certain rights and norms (b) providing checks and balances so the powerful have less temptation and ability to exploit the less W…

> But the solution is not to argue that the notion of a union is useless. The intellectually honest solution is to seek achievable solution in the mess that is the real world. You can say that about any topic, but what specifically are you proposing? Or do you just want to talk about stuff?

I refer you to what I already wrote:

> We don't want to rely on only one mechanism to achieve (a) and (b). Sure, we want healthy markets and skilled workers. We also want workers who have enough flexibility to change industries and to move geographically. But we also want effective regulation. And we ALSO want organizations that can directly advocate on behalf of workers.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#839

Post by forward1 » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #823

forward1 wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intrigue? The economy is teetering on recession. These companies understand macro trends better than anyone, and can plainly see what is coming. Now the play is to protect the war chests they have amassed to weather the storm.

If the companies understood macro trends they would not have hired just to fire everyone later when their growth plans didn't correspond to reality.

Turns out macro trends change based on circumstances outside the control of any one company.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#840

Post by chrisweekly » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

Kon5ole wrote: post #804

Google makes me kind of sad. They used to be so cool, pushing technology forward, making it accessible to the masses, doing things that seemed almost impossible and making it mainstream. Ads were the money stream but they did it tastefully. Now the main page is all ads, dark patterns are everywhere in everything Google does. They've basically become one of the ethically worst technology companies around. Is it inevit…

A "B-Corp" designation provides precisely this kind of framework for execs to have formal obligations beyond profit-seeking.