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Change-from-within is a lovely fairy tale. There are maybe a few dozen engineers with enough outsized talent to get away with challenging the status quo. Anyon

by shove 8y ago

Change-from-within is a lovely fairy tale. There are maybe a few dozen engineers with enough outsized talent to get away with challenging the status quo. Anyone else will be fired and replaced by a ready and willing throng of recent grads eager to put a dent in their student loans.

crunchlibrarian 8y ago
There a few big time security engineers/privacy advocate types who fought tooth and nail to change these organizations from within. They no longer work there. Sheryl Sandberg however, does. Guess who won?
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  I think that’s an important narrative. Thanks for contributing it. It’s worth noting though that those people probably would never have been hired if Sandberg didn’t turn Facebook into the financial giant it is today. So, I’d put this story in the “I created you, and I can destroy you” category. Sandberg is higher on the cash food chain than any engineer.
vehementi 8y ago
I feel like you're just cynically making this up. Are you talking from experience here? Most big tech companies have massive amounts of open head count -- you should probably sell them the location of all of these eager recent grads that they can hire who are just as competent as whoever you imagine they'd be replacing. These companies will want to hire them all, this morning, without firing anyone. You could be rich!
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Your logic doesn’t follow. GP didn’t say these grads were sitting around waiting to get hired. They just said those are the people who will do your job after you’re fired for not being a team player/trying to upset the status quo. The recent grads will be hired either way. The point is they vastly outnumber the people who will even make a legitimate attempt to change a corporate culture. It’s replacemwnt as in, when you get out of the ocean, you will be “replaced” by salt water.
buboard 8y ago
More likely they 'll be made to fight distracting "fights" following random reddit-organized "protests", while leaving their moneymakers intact.

by shove 8y ago

crunchlibrarian 8y ago

There a few big time security engineers/privacy advocate types who fought tooth and nail to change these organizations from within. They no longer work there. Sheryl Sandberg however, does. Guess who won?

erikpukinskis 8y ago
I think that’s an important narrative. Thanks for contributing it. It’s worth noting though that those people probably would never have been hired if Sandberg didn’t turn Facebook into the financial giant it is today. So, I’d put this story in the “I created you, and I can destroy you” category. Sandberg is higher on the cash food chain than any engineer.

vehementi 8y ago

I feel like you're just cynically making this up. Are you talking from experience here? Most big tech companies have massive amounts of open head count -- you should probably sell them the location of all of these eager recent grads that they can hire who are just as competent as whoever you imagine they'd be replacing. These companies will want to hire them all, this morning, without firing anyone. You could be rich!

erikpukinskis 8y ago
Your logic doesn’t follow. GP didn’t say these grads were sitting around waiting to get hired. They just said those are the people who will do your job after you’re fired for not being a team player/trying to upset the status quo. The recent grads will be hired either way. The point is they vastly outnumber the people who will even make a legitimate attempt to change a corporate culture. It’s replacemwnt as in, when you get out of the ocean, you will be “replaced” by salt water.

buboard 8y ago

More likely they 'll be made to fight distracting "fights" following random reddit-organized "protests", while leaving their moneymakers intact.