7 ms·

I believe Jim Keller is currently at Intel, maybe they'll have some surprises soon.

oAlbe 6y ago
I've always been puzzled by this whole Jim Keller situation. Is one man literally the only reason we have technological advancements in microprocessors?
- MengerSponge 6y ago
  Five tops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi
- blihp 6y ago
  Obviously not the only reason, but he appears to be a helpful ingredient in the mix with good things tending to happen with him around. No idea how much of it is due to his technical vs. management skill, but there definitely seems to be some there there.
  - patrec 6y ago
    In that light AMD losing him to Intel via Tesla sounds like a potential few billion dollar blunder. I wonder how difficult/expensive it would have been to prevent that.
    - jessermeyer 6y ago
      Jim has a long history of jumping between companies.
      - patrec 6y ago
        All the more reason to try hard to avoid him ending up at your main competitor if you finally start getting a leg up.
        adventured 6y ago
        You probably can't. He appears to like jumping into challenges such as those that AMD was facing and Intel is facing now. The jumping would seem to imply he's doing it to pursue an interesting challenge as the primary. Some personalities need that (others are obviously repelled by that risk & challenge). Lots of big corporations can afford to pay very large sums to retain him, if that were his primary consideration.
        hanniabu 6y ago
        Ask HN: I'm somebody with this type of personality that likes challenges and to bounce around, but I'm not as talented and experiences as someone like Jim. What are some suggestions on how I can satisfy this while also avoiding the trap of not being somewhere long enough to gain a higher level of experience? It seems that my habits have sabotaged me and my peers have excelled in their companies to much higher positions and compensation.
        jessermeyer 6y ago
        Jim has extremely strong foundations in his field of study, and is work is an outpouring from this. He bounces between companies, but not from the basic problem of CPU arch and management, allowing each problem to further deepen his roots.
        adventured 6y ago
        That really depends on the specific nature of your bounce around trait, what you need to fulfill that part of your personality. Only you can properly answer that of course. However, a few speculative ideas: - Consulting can be interesting to feed that. You can expose yourself to a wider variety of projects and you can eventually have a lot of say in what work you choose to take on. You will also have the opportunity to limit the duration of projects you take on to an extent, so you won't be stuck on any given thing for longer than you can tolerate. Difficult to get started, to gain momentum. - A first line suggestion from HN would typically be side projects. This can help restrain your desire to bounce around, dulling that like a pain killer. You do what you want on your own time, and change it up anytime you see fit, while staying at a job and trying to progress up the ranks. I don't know what your skillset is of course (eg programmer), it's somehwat dependent on that as to whether side projects is an interesting angle. - If you think you're not experienced enough, focus on trying to leap yourself forward on something you are good at, to open up more opportunities to jump. Push one of your skills well above the market average. If you have some strong center pivot skill, you can bounce more often. You don't have to be Jim Keller to do this, people that are in the top 1/3 in tech at something often bounce around because they can, it's not unusual. As the other person commented, Jim has a core strength and it's why he can jump around. The bottom 1/3 is in a beggar position, they are always in a position of having to take what they can get by necessity (which rarely changes, unless their skill level changes or the labor market is extremely tight); so you have to focus on pushing a skill as high as you can, and you don't need to reach elite levels as an outcome. - Much like physical exercise (high intensity training), there are paths to gain intense experience in shorter amounts of time with a high payoff in the experience you acquire. These opportunities are rare, although that doesn't mean they don't exist. The work is usually very difficult, the hours are more likely to be long. There is always that trade-off in there. To get what you want in the bounce around aspect, you might have to dial up the intensity for a time until you get the experience you need (after which you can dial it back).
    - p1necone 6y ago
      Probably a good thing for the market at large though. If the current x86 duopoly ever turned into a monopoly with Intel or AMD it would not be good for consumers.
  - ylk1 6y ago
    He was an actual Microarchitect in his early career. This guy clearly has good knowledge on every aspect of microprocessor design: transistor, interconnect, process complexity, core layout & utilization, ease of design, circuit complexity, time to market, micro architectural behaviors, ISA & software patterns. From what I've seen he is really good at setting targets for the teams, especially given that he has been at multiple companies, he clearly knows what is good and what is lacking. Setting aggressive targets and motivating the team towards them. Something the previous management failed at.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  Wherever he is the wind blows. That's all we can say.
- freepor 6y ago
  He is roughly equivalent to Lebron James in basketball. The team that he is on "mysteriously" seems to win, and win big, while he's there.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
syshum 6y ago
Intel's problems are not soley tech related, though their missteps here have not helped the situation Intel does not know how to compete from a marketing, sales, and business standpoint, for a few decades they only really competed with their own product line, now that they have actual competition in the market they are unable to react to it properly even if they had the tech stack to do so

I've always been puzzled by this whole Jim Keller situation. Is one man literally the only reason we have technological advancements in microprocessors?

MengerSponge 6y ago
Five tops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi
blihp 6y ago
Obviously not the only reason, but he appears to be a helpful ingredient in the mix with good things tending to happen with him around. No idea how much of it is due to his technical vs. management skill, but there definitely seems to be some there there.
- patrec 6y ago
  In that light AMD losing him to Intel via Tesla sounds like a potential few billion dollar blunder. I wonder how difficult/expensive it would have been to prevent that.
  - jessermeyer 6y ago
    Jim has a long history of jumping between companies.
    - patrec 6y ago
      All the more reason to try hard to avoid him ending up at your main competitor if you finally start getting a leg up.
      - adventured 6y ago
        You probably can't. He appears to like jumping into challenges such as those that AMD was facing and Intel is facing now. The jumping would seem to imply he's doing it to pursue an interesting challenge as the primary. Some personalities need that (others are obviously repelled by that risk & challenge). Lots of big corporations can afford to pay very large sums to retain him, if that were his primary consideration.
        hanniabu 6y ago
        Ask HN: I'm somebody with this type of personality that likes challenges and to bounce around, but I'm not as talented and experiences as someone like Jim. What are some suggestions on how I can satisfy this while also avoiding the trap of not being somewhere long enough to gain a higher level of experience? It seems that my habits have sabotaged me and my peers have excelled in their companies to much higher positions and compensation.
        jessermeyer 6y ago
        Jim has extremely strong foundations in his field of study, and is work is an outpouring from this. He bounces between companies, but not from the basic problem of CPU arch and management, allowing each problem to further deepen his roots.
        adventured 6y ago
        That really depends on the specific nature of your bounce around trait, what you need to fulfill that part of your personality. Only you can properly answer that of course. However, a few speculative ideas: - Consulting can be interesting to feed that. You can expose yourself to a wider variety of projects and you can eventually have a lot of say in what work you choose to take on. You will also have the opportunity to limit the duration of projects you take on to an extent, so you won't be stuck on any given thing for longer than you can tolerate. Difficult to get started, to gain momentum. - A first line suggestion from HN would typically be side projects. This can help restrain your desire to bounce around, dulling that like a pain killer. You do what you want on your own time, and change it up anytime you see fit, while staying at a job and trying to progress up the ranks. I don't know what your skillset is of course (eg programmer), it's somehwat dependent on that as to whether side projects is an interesting angle. - If you think you're not experienced enough, focus on trying to leap yourself forward on something you are good at, to open up more opportunities to jump. Push one of your skills well above the market average. If you have some strong center pivot skill, you can bounce more often. You don't have to be Jim Keller to do this, people that are in the top 1/3 in tech at something often bounce around because they can, it's not unusual. As the other person commented, Jim has a core strength and it's why he can jump around. The bottom 1/3 is in a beggar position, they are always in a position of having to take what they can get by necessity (which rarely changes, unless their skill level changes or the labor market is extremely tight); so you have to focus on pushing a skill as high as you can, and you don't need to reach elite levels as an outcome. - Much like physical exercise (high intensity training), there are paths to gain intense experience in shorter amounts of time with a high payoff in the experience you acquire. These opportunities are rare, although that doesn't mean they don't exist. The work is usually very difficult, the hours are more likely to be long. There is always that trade-off in there. To get what you want in the bounce around aspect, you might have to dial up the intensity for a time until you get the experience you need (after which you can dial it back).
  - p1necone 6y ago
    Probably a good thing for the market at large though. If the current x86 duopoly ever turned into a monopoly with Intel or AMD it would not be good for consumers.
- ylk1 6y ago
  He was an actual Microarchitect in his early career. This guy clearly has good knowledge on every aspect of microprocessor design: transistor, interconnect, process complexity, core layout & utilization, ease of design, circuit complexity, time to market, micro architectural behaviors, ISA & software patterns. From what I've seen he is really good at setting targets for the teams, especially given that he has been at multiple companies, he clearly knows what is good and what is lacking. Setting aggressive targets and motivating the team towards them. Something the previous management failed at.
agumonkey 6y ago
Wherever he is the wind blows. That's all we can say.
freepor 6y ago
He is roughly equivalent to Lebron James in basketball. The team that he is on "mysteriously" seems to win, and win big, while he's there.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

syshum 6y ago

Intel's problems are not soley tech related, though their missteps here have not helped the situation Intel does not know how to compete from a marketing, sales, and business standpoint, for a few decades they only really competed with their own product line, now that they have actual competition in the market they are unable to react to it properly even if they had the tech stack to do so