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Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

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Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#91

Post by dkersten »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #3
Pfhreak wrote: post #2

One of the things I really liked about working for AWS was the accessibility of the S-team. Even as a fairly junior engineer I was in meetings where you could get their opinions, see where they were going, and understand their goals. AWS has a lot of things I don't love (not least of all, their policy towards developing games in your spare time), but they had a ton of rigor around setting goals while still giving dev…

> Well, I'm not sure I'd come back, actually I’m at Amazon right now (Ads) and honestly this makes me really sad. It feels like I’m not allowed to be proud of where I work.

I don’t understand why anybody, anywhere, would be proud of where they work. Being proud of your work (what you do/accomplish or the products you put out) sure, but why would I ever be proud of working for any particular company (certainly a for profit. Using amazon as an example, you can be proud of the work you do but why would you be proud that you’re helping make bezos richer?)

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#92

Post by dkersten »

okr wrote: post #66
jdck1326 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not a recipe for happiness And certainly not a recipe for morality

Why morally? If you go for the money and you do not steal it, you certainly bring value into the world, that people are willing to pay for. Do not see what is morally wrong about it.

> you certainly bring value into the world

Just because someone is willing to pay for it, doesn’t mean it’s good for society or the world.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#93

Post by dkersten »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #46
heymijo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my goal is to make ~$250k a year as fast as possible. To do so at my current company would take at least 3 years and 2 promotions Hi, I don't want to dunk on you, but I would truly encourage you to gain some perspective on just how myopic a view this is. (I couldn't reply to your comment below where you said this)

I don't think it's myopic if everyone I follow on twitter and see on instagram is getting Hawaiian offsites and European work trips at Google and Hudson River Trading while I can't even go to Seattle for our internal ML conference because it got filled up too quickly for the last 3 years or whatever. I enjoy what I work on..I just wish I was treated more like all of my friends and former coworkers.

Spend less time trying to mimic fake-perfect lives on social media. It’s not healthy. Instead, find out what’s important to your happiness and work on that. Money should be a means to that end, not the end in itself.

Hell, you don’t even need to be rich to go to nice places. My uncle is a great example of someone who optimises for happiness: he earns very little but does a job he loves, he brutally cuts out expenses from his life for things he doesn’t care about and loves quite cheap, but instead he spends the money he does have to go on an island holiday once a year and to visit his family (especially his grandchildren) multiple times a year. It’s all about perspective on what’s important to you. Money shouldn’t be it outside of enabling you. (Obviously you need enough to pay your bills, take care of your health etc)

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#94

Post by f_cft »

dkersten wrote: post #92
okr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why morally? If you go for the money and you do not steal it, you certainly bring value into the world, that people are willing to pay for. Do not see what is morally wrong about it.

> you certainly bring value into the world Just because someone is willing to pay for it, doesn’t mean it’s good for society or the world.

hak snap rami

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#95

Post by poutrathor »

OGWhales wrote: post #51
Pfhreak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an explicit company policy about game development that is separate from their open source policy. It, among other things, prevents you from working on a game project with anyone else.

Why games though? I don’t see any obvious reasons why they would care.

I see some. Top of my head :

Games development are limitless in scope and technical complexity and very passion driven. So, a developer could spend countless hours each night improving his game.

Next day, all the team has is a tired developer, drinking coffee and unable to code straight or analyse issues without missing subtleties.

Opening a wordpress for your mom and her gardening hobby is a significantly less time consuming task.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#96

Post by dyadic »

dkersten wrote: post #91
lowiqengineer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, I'm not sure I'd come back, actually I’m at Amazon right now (Ads) and honestly this makes me really sad. It feels like I’m not allowed to be proud of where I work.

I don’t understand why anybody, anywhere, would be proud of where they work. Being proud of your work (what you do/accomplish or the products you put out) sure, but why would I ever be proud of working for any particular company (certainly a for profit. Using amazon as an example, you can be proud of the work you do but why would you be proud that you’re helping make bezos richer?)

You find one that aligns with your own personal goals and ethics. I found one, and working with other people there feels like a multiplier on the change I want to see in the world.

Generally they'll be quite small and niche but they do exist.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#97

Post by cjrp »

poutrathor wrote: post #95
OGWhales wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why games though? I don’t see any obvious reasons why they would care.

I see some. Top of my head : Games development are limitless in scope and technical complexity and very passion driven. So, a developer could spend countless hours each night improving his game. Next day, all the team has is a tired developer, drinking coffee and unable to code straight or analyse issues without missing subtleties. Opening a wordpress for your mom and her gardening hobby is a significantly less time…

If they're trying to avoid people coming to work tired, presumably they also have a no-children policy for their staff?

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#98

Post by dkersten »

f_cft wrote: post #94
dkersten wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you certainly bring value into the world Just because someone is willing to pay for it, doesn’t mean it’s good for society or the world.

hak snap rami

What?

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#99

Post by paganel »

Yeah, real diversity when it comes to Amazon's C-suites, no black person in sight and the only 3 women in that S-team are in charge of HR, fashion and advertising. Granted, that's a step up from having to take notes in a room full of men, but still, I would have expected something better.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#100

Post by dextralt »

paganel wrote: post #99

Yeah, real diversity when it comes to Amazon's C-suites, no black person in sight and the only 3 women in that S-team are in charge of HR, fashion and advertising. Granted, that's a step up from having to take notes in a room full of men, but still, I would have expected something better.

Are you:

- suggesting that Amazon is passing over better qualified minorities in favor of less qualified white men?

- bemoaning that Amazon is passing over less qualified minorities in favor of better qualified white men?

I mean, I already know the answer, as does everyone else who is paying any attention to the shift in the narrative, but I just want you to remind everyone else that meritocracy is fascism and people should be judged - accepted into universities, hired, and promoted, not by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin.

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