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Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#861

Post by [deleted] »

rune-dev wrote: post #213
cultofmetatron wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you get bullied in American public schools for being a "nerd" and liking science and math, your country doesn't exactly produce a lot of state-of-the-art STEM professionals. Its worse than that. when I lived in america, I found that being a software engineer was a dealbreaker when it came to dating most women. Imagine my surprise going to other countries and finding that my chosen profession made me high value…

As an American this does not match my experience at all. What profession were those women looking for?

[deleted]

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#862

Post by syspec »

taswellian wrote: post #488
kjsingh wrote: post #414

If you have to post this, you are the reason for fear factor: Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm – where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan.

What do you mean? Who is "we" and "our"?

I think its what was sent out

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#863

Post by hvb2 »

reaperducer wrote: post #800
api wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he might be the greatest person at failing up who has ever lived. It has to be some kind of savant-like skill. After this he’ll probably become the literal king of the world.

I think he might be the greatest person at failing up who has ever lived. Went bankrupt six times and is still hailed by his followers as an economic genius. Few people can pull that off.

Married 4 times, still seen as a saint

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#864

Post by apical_dendrite »

WalterBright wrote: post #730
Shocka1 wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, this is one of the better takes in this thread. I'm a big fan of Hazlitt's book Economics in One Lesson, which gives a very condensed version of some economic ideas - one of them being automation, with really good examples in the past of labor saving machines like the printing press being created. When I first read it a decade ago I didn't think my profession might be like the printing press, but it's definitely…

The printing press also led to books changing from being something only rich people had to everyone having books. This also enabled the industrial revolution, as books made literacy worth having, newspapers, and became a great storehouse of knowledge. I.e. it created far, far more jobs than it destroyed.

One wonders if a German in 1600 would have cursed the invention of the printing press. The printing press accelerated the reformation, which led to over a century of bloody religious wars. Something like a third of the German population died as a result. From the perspective of 2025, the printing press was undoubtedly positive for humanity. But millions of people suffered.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#865

Post by jacquesm »

Shocka1 wrote: post #566
socalgal2 wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super sympathetic that losing your job sucks. I lost mine once. At the same time, what's the alternative? Progress happens. We no longer have liveries for holding horses nor horse shoe makers (not at the level we used to). We no longer have telephone operators. Making up jobs to keep people employed isn't a viable solution to me. Supporting them in some way (re-training, UBI, service work, ...) seems like the onl…

IMO, this is one of the better takes in this thread. I'm a big fan of Hazlitt's book Economics in One Lesson, which gives a very condensed version of some economic ideas - one of them being automation, with really good examples in the past of labor saving machines like the printing press being created. When I first read it a decade ago I didn't think my profession might be like the printing press, but it's definitely…

Your plan, whatever it is is still predicated on the world as it is today being more or less as it is today. The problem with anything truly disruptive is that it may very well cause your plan to become infeasible for a variety of reasons. For your sake I hope that you were aware of that little detail and made your plan bullet proof or flexible enough that that is not going to cause you any headaches.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#866

Post by irishcoffee »

lovich wrote: post #543
irishcoffee wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales tax is actually paid by the vendor, they just pass the cost along. The landlord pays the property tax, they just pass the cost along. It is absolutely impossible for an undocumented alien to meaningfully contribute towards their tax burden in any meaningful way.

Oh, in that case no w-2 employee pays income taxes, their employer does. I guess we’re all just mooches on society and only the company owners do anything.

Ah, you arrived at the point. Undocumented people don't pay taxes in a W2.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#867

Post by dasil003 »

hattmall wrote: post #832
booleandilemma wrote: post #784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I've worked at companies where management is exactly like this. Literally just status updates and asking when things are going to be finished. I have no respect for middle managers whatsoever. These people are a parasite on the industry.

Ok, Ok, I get the disdain for middle management. It's basically exactly like you described, but middle management didn't come about for no reason. There really is a value and the idea of automating it away with AI is extremely dubious. One could even argue that middle management is THE most critical role in corporations over a certain size. In that it is the glue that allows them to get to that size. But it's also wh…

Middle management is a tremendous market for lemons. It's difficult to do well, and each layer requires a very different skillset. One of the side effects of the hypergrowth era of big tech between 2008-2023 is that a lot of managers were needed to support the amount of hiring, and they weren't very well trained, and often they could claim success for a rising tide almost by default as long as they didn't do anything too blatantly stupid.

The Peter Principle is of course well-known, but one of the insidious things is that once you have enough incompetent management and they are entrenched for a while, they will teach all the wrong lessons to an entire generation of new hires coming in. Due to the incentives and optics of large orgs, managers tend to spin everything in a positive light publicly, and the real unfiltered discussions of failure happen in tighter circles. At some point a lot of "successful" folks can have job hopped their way through a bunch of brand name companies just cargo culting on what they've seen done before with no real understanding of how their work actually impacts the company's bottom line.

This is one of the reasons I'm incredibly thankful to have spent most of my early career in small companies and startups where the big picture was so much easier to see.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#869

Post by dntrkv »

hattmall wrote: post #832
booleandilemma wrote: post #784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I've worked at companies where management is exactly like this. Literally just status updates and asking when things are going to be finished. I have no respect for middle managers whatsoever. These people are a parasite on the industry.

Ok, Ok, I get the disdain for middle management. It's basically exactly like you described, but middle management didn't come about for no reason. There really is a value and the idea of automating it away with AI is extremely dubious. One could even argue that middle management is THE most critical role in corporations over a certain size. In that it is the glue that allows them to get to that size. But it's also wh…

This is most definitely an overgeneralization, but in my experience, engineers that constantly talk shit about management are either shitty engineers themselves or they're incredibly difficult to work with and blame everyone else for their shortcomings.

Middle management is playing a completely different game. I don't envy them one bit.

Sure, there are toxic cultures created by bad management, but that can be said about any leadership role. There is a reason for the hierarchy, if you think you have a better approach to structuring a company, have at it.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#870

Post by auggierose »

reaperducer wrote: post #800
api wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he might be the greatest person at failing up who has ever lived. It has to be some kind of savant-like skill. After this he’ll probably become the literal king of the world.

I think he might be the greatest person at failing up who has ever lived. Went bankrupt six times and is still hailed by his followers as an economic genius. Few people can pull that off.

I think what is hard to understand for people is how you can go bankrupt six times and still have loads of assets and money. How does that work?
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