3 ms·

I just want to say that I can't believe some of the smartest people in the world are willing to put up with all of this off-putting corporate bullshit. No disre

I just want to say that I can't believe some of the smartest people in the world are willing to put up with all of this off-putting corporate bullshit. No disrespect.

effingwewt 5y ago
I'd argue they are far from some of the smartest people in the world. Smart? Sure, some (many?) but I've known quite a few idiots in software. But I'd hardly compare the regular software engineer at a FAANG to some of the geniuses in the world. But they put up with it because it's a career and not a job. Many of them couldn't handle a minimum wage or working class job. No breaks, short lunches, no wriggle room for life, permanent fast-tracks to firing.
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  I dunno, I would say on my whole in my 10 years at Google I really did meet some of the most talented (in terms of raw knowledge or focus or some other skill) people ever in my career. But they were mostly being paid handsomely to apply those amazing skills to really humdrum tasks -- but painting them up to be really profound -- and that's the saddest thing.
dougmwne 5y ago
I would say that a high affinity for playing the games invented by others for the rewards invented by others is orthogonal to raw intelligence. In fact, smart people usually have a lifetime of being rewarded for exercising their intelligence on command. Where are they supposed to learn a healthy disrespect for authority when they have always been the darlings of authority?
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  And now you know why Google, etc. have a strong bias for hiring out of academia and out of the higher levels of education. (Not just because the founders never worked industry, just academia, when they started Google, but I digress...). The interview process is highly highly biased towards recent grads (algorithm/data-structure courses) and the kind of people who do super well in university show-and-tell.

I just want to say that I can't believe some of the smartest people in the world are willing to put up with all of this off-putting corporate bullshit. No disrespect.

effingwewt 5y ago

I'd argue they are far from some of the smartest people in the world. Smart? Sure, some (many?) but I've known quite a few idiots in software. But I'd hardly compare the regular software engineer at a FAANG to some of the geniuses in the world. But they put up with it because it's a career and not a job. Many of them couldn't handle a minimum wage or working class job. No breaks, short lunches, no wriggle room for life, permanent fast-tracks to firing.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago
I dunno, I would say on my whole in my 10 years at Google I really did meet some of the most talented (in terms of raw knowledge or focus or some other skill) people ever in my career. But they were mostly being paid handsomely to apply those amazing skills to really humdrum tasks -- but painting them up to be really profound -- and that's the saddest thing.

dougmwne 5y ago

I would say that a high affinity for playing the games invented by others for the rewards invented by others is orthogonal to raw intelligence. In fact, smart people usually have a lifetime of being rewarded for exercising their intelligence on command. Where are they supposed to learn a healthy disrespect for authority when they have always been the darlings of authority?

cmrdporcupine 5y ago
And now you know why Google, etc. have a strong bias for hiring out of academia and out of the higher levels of education. (Not just because the founders never worked industry, just academia, when they started Google, but I digress...). The interview process is highly highly biased towards recent grads (algorithm/data-structure courses) and the kind of people who do super well in university show-and-tell.