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It really was good journalism, by all acceptable definitions of that term. Just because a number of engineers report never being treated that way, that doesn't

It really was good journalism, by all acceptable definitions of that term. Just because a number of engineers report never being treated that way, that doesn't negate the hundreds of data points that the Times used in the piece, which were all approved by Amazon ahead of time.

umanwizard 11y ago
I've heard the Times interviewed hundreds of people. NOT that the hundreds of people all said the same thing. Unless you have some confirmation of that, I suspect the quotes in the article are the result of cherry-picking.
- aioprisan 11y ago
  That's not how newspaper editing works. No one is going to prove to you the editor's logic that went into selecting those interviews and that they are indeed representative (how could you ever fully quantify that?), but to suggest otherwise means that you're doubting every article ever published by any newspaper.
  - umanwizard 11y ago
    Well, most press about things I have direct experience with is either outright wrong or extremely misleading, so how can I trust the press on things I don't have direct experience with? I'm not sure doubting every article ever published by any newspaper is such a bad idea. I'll take my own experience working at Amazon for 2 years and knowing dozens of hundreds of Amazon employees over blind faith in the Times's editors.
    - aioprisan 11y ago
      I think one of the big lessons of this experience is that there isn't such a thing as a unified Amazon culture and experience, since there are so many and numerous experiences to the contrary. You can look at the hundreds of negative reviews posted on this site and anonymous gists published to see that this really is across groups and not present in a mere dozen of cherry-picked articles by the Times. My own interviewing experiences have been fairly negative as well and the burnout and long working hours stories that I've seen published by other software engineers are in line with my friends' experiences working for AWS. Your mileage obviously varies.

umanwizard 11y ago

I've heard the Times interviewed hundreds of people. NOT that the hundreds of people all said the same thing. Unless you have some confirmation of that, I suspect the quotes in the article are the result of cherry-picking.

aioprisan 11y ago
That's not how newspaper editing works. No one is going to prove to you the editor's logic that went into selecting those interviews and that they are indeed representative (how could you ever fully quantify that?), but to suggest otherwise means that you're doubting every article ever published by any newspaper.
- umanwizard 11y ago
  Well, most press about things I have direct experience with is either outright wrong or extremely misleading, so how can I trust the press on things I don't have direct experience with? I'm not sure doubting every article ever published by any newspaper is such a bad idea. I'll take my own experience working at Amazon for 2 years and knowing dozens of hundreds of Amazon employees over blind faith in the Times's editors.
  - aioprisan 11y ago
    I think one of the big lessons of this experience is that there isn't such a thing as a unified Amazon culture and experience, since there are so many and numerous experiences to the contrary. You can look at the hundreds of negative reviews posted on this site and anonymous gists published to see that this really is across groups and not present in a mere dozen of cherry-picked articles by the Times. My own interviewing experiences have been fairly negative as well and the burnout and long working hours stories that I've seen published by other software engineers are in line with my friends' experiences working for AWS. Your mileage obviously varies.