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Sorry for all the people who’ve lost their jobs, but I’m excited to see the awesome world-changing stuff they’ll make now that they’re not spending their time b
by ericd 4y ago
Sorry for all the people who’ve lost their jobs, but I’m excited to see the awesome world-changing stuff they’ll make now that they’re not spending their time building FB/Instagram.
- madengr 4y ago
- optymizer 4y agoThe one thing I want is the ability to work on my own startup in my spare time, without fearing legal repercussions. It wouldn't require me to risk my house on an idea.
- randomsearch 4y agoDo you think that great, world-changing, folks go to Facebook to sit on a big salary? if they were going to do something awesome they probably wouldn't have been working there. now, if google lay off a lot of people... that would be different
- swalsh 4y agoGetting laid off during a tech crash often leads to smart people deciding to finally follow the dreams they couldn't justify during the tech bull market. There's probably no shortage of people working at Facebook who have dreams of quitting to build some idea they have. But quitting a job paying 350k or whatever is just not in the cards.
- seydor 4y agofacebook making a lot of money doesnt imply that they are making something great > if they were going to do something awesome they probably wouldn't have been working there. For the past 10+ years, in this forum, the advice is to stop trying to build something, go work at Faang
- voisin 4y ago> For the past 10+ years, in this forum, the advice is to stop trying to build something, go work at Faang I think the advice given, when requested, has much more nuance that takes into account the context provided in the request. Do you honestly think HN is just a bunch of FAANG fanboys?
- seydor 4y ago> Do you honestly think HN is just a bunch of FAANG fanboys? Based on what is being upvoted, and what is not being downvoted, yes
- kilovoltaire 4y agoGoogle and Facebook are both advertising companies, doesn't seem that different to me.
- ausudhz 4y ago"world changing"
- randomsearch 4y agoTo call Google an “advertising company” is disingenuous and I suspect you know that. Whilst Facebook has been obsessed with chasing eyeballs and advertising, Google has built Google maps, Gmail, Android, Translate, all kinds of search, GCP, the leading web browser, Chromebooks, self driving cars, the most advanced quantum computer, world leading AI research and a ton more. There’s no comparison to Facebook.
- achenet 4y agotheir money comes from ads. Of all the things you mentioned - Maps I'm pretty sure is a loss leader or used for data for ads Gmail as well Android is platform to hit you with ads Chrome/Chromeboooks also GCP is actually a viable business, albeit in a very competitive market self driving cars, research, quantum computers, none of those make money. There is a perfect comparison to Facebook, and for that matter, MTV and the New York Times. They all make money by selling ads.
- andsoitis 4y ago> To call Google an “advertising company” is disingenuous It probably depends on one’s perspective. Their Q3’22 financials show that $54b of their $69b revenue for the quarter is advertising income. It is also listed first in their financials. https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2022Q3_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf?cache=4156e7f https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2022Q3_alphabet_earnings...
- micromacrofoot 4y ago> Do you think that great, world-changing, folks go to Facebook to sit on a big salary? Yes, have you seen the salaries recently? an E6 can make nearly half a million a year in total compensation.
- whymauri 4y agoAlso, I can think of many people who would be building amazing things outside FAANG but choose to go to FAANG to pay off college debts or to build wealth i.e. they come from poverty. Let's not even get into biases in how capital is distributed. Like, there's a hierarchy of basic needs for a person and their family before they can turn down life changing compensation to 'build something cool!'.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoI spent the first 10 years of my career paying off student debt. The last 5 have been catching up on the retirement savings I missed out on over the first 10 years. As long as I don't have a major medical event maybe I can turn down a job and "build something cool" when I'm 50.
- erikpukinskis 4y agoFWIW I’m currently working on a startup side project with someone at Meta. I don’t know that we’re going to “change the world” but I think we’re both awesome and I can see us building something awesome. We both have jobs because we need to pay our bills.
- randomsearch 4y agoI think there are better places to work that allow you (or cofounder) to pay your bills - even if your bills have to shrink a bit to fit. Best of luck with the side project, hope it entices you/your cofounder to leave Facebook.
- stewx 4y agoWhat is Google doing to change the world right now?
- randomsearch 4y agoOne example: advancing quantum computing.
- throwaw20221107 4y agoAnother example: AI research
- snapcaster 4y agoI don't work at either, but aren't they both advertising companies with roughly same kinds of people working at them? Why do you think it would be different?
- monktastic1 4y agoYou may be thinking of the Google from 10+ years ago. I left all the way back in 2016 and the Alphabet transition had already turned it soulless. I've heard it certainly hasn't gotten better since.
- myle 4y agoWhere can you go that is better?
- twelve40 4y agoI think that many great, world-changing, folks have a non-linear life path and may end up doing all kinds of things including working for evil corporations for money, or bussing tables at Denny's before they get to the actual great, world-changing stuff.
- adamsb6 4y agoIf you want to work on interesting massive-scale infra problems there are few better places than Meta.
- thrown_22 4y agoFrom what I hear on the grapevine the people getting laid off today are the people who would have gone on wall street 20 years ago. >now, if google lay off a lot of people... that would be different The culture in google isn't any better. Smart people who want to do things haven't gone there since 2012.
- kadomony 4y agoI mean, the "world-changing" stuff they're investing in is what directly led to this layoff. The metaverse was the most heavily impacted by these layoffs.
- amusedcyclist 4y agoThere were some contradictory signals about this in the article. In one bit Mark says they are continuing to focus on the metaverse but he also says some people at Reality labs will be affected. But it sounds like the apps teams are going to be affected too
- ct0 4y agoMeta didnt just lay off metaverse related employees according to my source.
- nottorp 4y agoWhat's that metaverse? Never been able to figure it out.
- system2 4y agoJust a name change for FB's parent company. Also zucc wanted to excite people with VR stuff but it is not even close to 5 years ago Recroom experience yet.
- hashtag-til 4y ago
- DarkGroku 4y agoFB still making 4Billion in profit, all the comments here dont seem to talk about that Twitter wasnt profitable, FB is and laid off 4x the amount of employees, Zuck just saw Musk do it and thought itd be a perfect time while the attention is on Musk and Twitter, that letter Zuck wrote is sick and sounds like its written by a sad emotionless robot he brags about how profitable Meta is in that letter its pathetic, reminds me of the 70s and Reagan and neoliberalism making changes to laws to allow capital flight from New York to the south and firing all the well paid factory workers in the Bronx 10,000 families now without a breadwinner over night Zuck blew through billions on his VR research that no ones buying and just saw the perfect opening to sharpen his technocrat knives and surgically remove 11,000 employees even though they all contributed to making Meta be 4B in profit and it was Zuck who blew billions he needs his stock to bounce back so he can continue buying the rest of Hawaii
- colinmhayes 4y agoI mean meta is a business, not a charity. They’re not going to employee people who aren’t furthering the mission.