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

Googler... ex-Googler

nerdy.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

861–870 of 1001 posts

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#861

Post by int_19h »

pton_xd wrote: post #811
JKCalhoun wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And while I was still employed as a seasoned developer (before recently retiring) I felt it was my role to pass along some of my cynicism to the new hires and younger devs. Some of them seemed a little surprised to see me call bullshit in a group meeting. (Good luck to you boys and girls.)

Meanwhile, they all roll their eyes at the "jaded greybeard" advice. I know, because many years ago I was doing the eye rolling. I guess some lessons really can only be learned through experience.

The important part is that when they see the first thing you warned them about, they remember about all the other things you have also mentioned.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#862

Post by int_19h »

lazide wrote: post #70
SR2Z wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is unfair. It just tends to benefit people employed today

The only fair system is a random lottery - which is also the most terrifying for everyone.

Then again, if we did have a random lottery that required all employees (up to and including the CEO) to participate, then perhaps we'd see fewer layoffs...

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#863

Post by int_19h »

snsjsjsjdj wrote: post #532
slivym wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not a charity. What do you want them to do? Hire $100Bn worth of engineers until their net income is 0? The possibly difficult truth at Google is that there's probably <1% of the company that is really essential to their monopolistic search business. The rest are either working on other projects which might be strategically interesting but not essential, or are working on the core product but not in a way tha…

> Is it wrong for the management to say "We need to be efficiently investing shareholder capital" or for the market to be looking at Google and saying "We want your money spinning monopoly business please, not your eccentric other bets thanks". On some level yes. With the massive disparity in who owns the markets, your argument is basically “Is google doing a good job of making the rich richer?”. Hiring H1Bs and offs…

Now take it one step further. Google and other large megacorps are merely the inevitable outcome of capitalism running to its logical conclusion. So the real argumenmt is, “Is capitalism doing a good job of making the rich richer?”, and the obvious question for the rest of us then is, why keep an economic system like that around?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#864

Post by int_19h »

roman_soldier wrote: post #734
2-3-7-43-1807 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the post oozes narcissism. and he even seems to think he contributed to the health of the internet by working at chrome.

Yes I thought that when reading it, if so he may have been a difficult character to work with and that's one of reasons the crosshairs stopped at him.

Don't underestimate the efficiency of intra-corporate propaganda directed at its own employees. There's a reason why they maintain those huge HR departments.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#865

Post by signatoremo »

int_19h wrote: post #848
astrange wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like 80%. Americans are simply richer than Europeans.

80% of Americans are definitely not on what I'd consider a "good healthcare plan".

What is considered a "good healthcare plan"? Can you compare American insurance plans with Europe's ones?

92% of American had health insurance in 2023. Some people may have more than one insurance plans, thus the total number below is greater than 100%.

Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most common, covering 53.7 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (18.9 percent), Medicare (18.9 percent), direct-purchase coverage (10.2 percent), TRICARE (2.6 percent), and VA and CHAMPVA coverage (1.0 percent).

https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/p60-28...

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#866

Post by scarface_74 »

int_19h wrote: post #849
scarface_74 wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are resources. The one Big Tech company I have worked for has 1.556 million employees. What else was I besides a “resource”?

It's not a binary between "we are family" and "we are resources", it's a spectrum. In your case, yes, you were absolutely a resource. This is exactly why companies of that size simply shouldn't exist - because they cannot not treat their employees as resources, with all the inhumanity this implies.

Yes because a small company could deliver a national same day shipping infrastructure and worldwide network of cloud servers including its own undersead cables.

And again, work is a transaction. I’m perfectly fine with being treated as a resource when I was getting a quarter million a year and working remotely…

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#867

Post by ivraatiems »

BurningFrog wrote: post #112
ivraatiems wrote: post #9

The reality of one's lack of value to one's own employer is often baffling. It makes you wonder how anyone manages to stay employed at all, since apparently everyone is replicable and unimportant. I have been through layoffs where other people on my team, doing the same job I did approximately as well, got laid off. No explanation given for why them and not me. And it could happen to me at any time. It doesn't matter…

You spend half your waking hours at work. Having a shitty attitude for that much of your life is no way to live.

Working hard for a place that will not reward me is no way to live.

And with less dedication, I can spend far less than half my time there ;)

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#868

Post by justin66 »

underdeserver wrote: post #138
AndyKelley wrote: post #131

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yes, you were. Next time, please choose a company that contributes to society rather than shoving ads in everyone's faces.

Google contributes to society. Search helps people find information. YouTube is quite possibly the most prolific source of learning ever created. Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan. There's a lot of bad, but no contribution to society? That's a bit much. Disclaimer: Ex-googler (left 2 years ago).

> YouTube is quite possibly the most prolific source of learning ever created.

That's bizarre.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#869

Post by [deleted] »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #126

Yep, it sucks. Speaking from experience - I was laid off a few years ago. I was sad my time ended, but my path forward was to leave SF with money and time to visit countries I'd always wanted to see. It's a trend away from the post-WW2 "promise of lifetime employment". Over the decades, companies have crept toward "human autoscaling" so slow no one noticed. You're far from alone - every other company is doing it. Go…

[deleted]

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#870

Post by BurningFrog »

saghm wrote: post #115
BurningFrog wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You spend half your waking hours at work. Having a shitty attitude for that much of your life is no way to live.

On the contrary, being stuck in a situation where your livelihood can disappear at a moment's notice due to factors beyond your control is no way to live, but it's also not really something most people will ever be able to avoid. I don't at all buy into the idea that somehow pretending the situation isn't shitty is somehow more virtuous or fulfilling; what you call a "shitty attitude" sounds more like "being realisti…

I've spent several decades writing software. Got laid off 1-2 times per decade.

I still tried doing a good job every day, and feel very good about that.

To me, being realistic about the risk of losing my job at any time means having enough money that I can be unemployed for 6-12 months.

The major way good programmers get jobs is by being recommended by people they've worked with at previous companies. That doesn't happen if you deliberately do as little good work as you can get away with.

My "shitty attitude" comment is maybe more a personal philosophy that something universal. But I do not want to spend each work day being bitter and resentful. You may intend to punish your shitty employer, but I think you're mostly poisoning your own mind.

Post reply on HN