7 ms·

Good. The best minds of a generation have wasted their talents figuring out how to best maximize media addiction and serve ads for Facebook and Google. Let’s ho

Good. The best minds of a generation have wasted their talents figuring out how to best maximize media addiction and serve ads for Facebook and Google. Let’s hope a new generation engages in more socially productive endeavors.

Der_Einzige 4y ago
Being good at leetcode is not equivalent to being one of "the best minds". Comments like this are why the general public feels like SWEs are stuck up elitist know-it-alls
- algem 4y ago
  I somehow envision working at some of the top tech companies in the world requires more than just being good at coding exercises. And more than just software engineers were let go at these companies…
- A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
  I find this line of thinking interesting, but the sentiment in my social circles is not against SWEs at all. Is there a campaign going to make software engineers the facto scape goat of the current downturn ( and ads, and layoffs and ai taking everyone's job )? If so, it may be worthwhile to nip it in the bud.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
swyx 4y ago
those endeavors: - Maida AI, which automates health care administration tasks like patient intake and note-taking - a platform that aggregates home furnishing listings from different stores into one place - a software design and development studio
- joaogui1 4y ago
  What's the name of the 3rd one?
tomcam 4y ago
If you took a job like that, were you really one of the best minds of your generation?
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  It goes both ways. If you win the lottery starting a company at the right time, are you really the best mind of the generation or just lucky?
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Somebody in a garage today is working on a business that will be worth billions within 5 years, and we'll all kick ourselves with "why didn't we think of that!"
    - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
      Right, but for everyone of those people, there are 1,000 other people just as smart also working on good ideas that are going nowhere fast. I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing or neither. But I think the "why didn't I think of that guy" is mostly luck. Lots of people are smart and work hard and don't really get anywhere.
      - skeeter2020 4y ago
        Smart and Work Hard are only two of the 5+ components needed for success, of which Luck, Opportunity and Timing also belong. I'm sure there's more.
        onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
        What is timing beside luck?
  - jimbokun 4y ago
    The founders had a good bit of luck, but then hired a lot of super smart people fresh out of college.
snickerbockers 4y ago
> The best minds of a generation that's debatable.
- throw_pm23 4y ago
  I think GP was paraphrasing a catchy line from a poem. Were Kerouac, Ginsberg, etc. really the best minds of their generation?
  - snickerbockers 4y ago
    IDK but i'm assuming they didn't work at facebook?
  - orangesite 4y ago
    Yup, they were up there if you let go - even for a moment - that STEM is the be-all and end-all. Please feel free to disagree.
twblalock 4y ago
Sad that when I open a thread the first comment I see is cheap cynicism that comes close to trolling, and the replies are even worse. Look at all the stuff this generation of workers have built in big tech — the amazing devices in all areas of the market, the progress in electric cars, the massive scale in compute infrastructure that enables most smaller companies to easily spin up entire regions rather than run their own hardware… We now carry devices in our pockets that put more information at our fingertips than entire civilizations could access throughout all of human history. Mobile payments have enabled entrepreneurial capitalism in impoverished parts of the world. Anywhere we are, we can get a map of our location and directions to anywhere we want to go. The scale and technology that makes remote work even possible for much of the population didn’t even exist a decade ago. Some pieces existed but they never would have scaled the way we needed them to. If you didn’t lose your job during the pandemic, you ought to be grateful to the major cloud providers for the fact that your video conferencing software was able to function while you and almost everyone else were piling onto it. You should also be grateful there were multiple delivery companies able to bring you groceries and restaurant food when you weren’t allowed to leave the house. I know restaurants are grateful for the delivery services — so many more would have gone out of business if in-person transactions were the only way to sell their product! Anyone who owned a total market index fund in the past decade has benefitted massively from the success of big tech, including most pension funds, university endowments, and many individuals. The creation of wealth has been enormous in scale and enormously socially beneficial. The big tech companies have delivered results to our economy like the space program did — most of the technology that smaller companies and startups depend on was developed by big tech and either turned into a line of business open to others (like AWS) or was open sourced (like Kubernetes, most of the major app frameworks, multiple programming languages, distributed consensus, distributed tracing, modern CI/CD…) The industry as a whole would be a lot worse off if that hadn’t happened. So what if some of it was used to sell ads?
- throw_pm23 4y ago
  Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.
hellisothers 4y ago
Let’s hope that they’re paid more than sub-market rates and 0.05% equity.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  They can start their own startups if they don't like the terms.
skeeter2020 4y ago
Yes, they should be starting their own companies that do the same things, but for [blank]
shostack 4y ago
HN: "finally all these brilliant minds can contribute something real to society now that they are free!" <new start-ups are all focused on AI art and LLMs that put hundreds of thousands if not millions out of jobs> HN: "wait, not like that!"

Der_Einzige 4y ago

Being good at leetcode is not equivalent to being one of "the best minds". Comments like this are why the general public feels like SWEs are stuck up elitist know-it-alls

algem 4y ago
I somehow envision working at some of the top tech companies in the world requires more than just being good at coding exercises. And more than just software engineers were let go at these companies…
A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
I find this line of thinking interesting, but the sentiment in my social circles is not against SWEs at all. Is there a campaign going to make software engineers the facto scape goat of the current downturn ( and ads, and layoffs and ai taking everyone's job )? If so, it may be worthwhile to nip it in the bud.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

swyx 4y ago

those endeavors: - Maida AI, which automates health care administration tasks like patient intake and note-taking - a platform that aggregates home furnishing listings from different stores into one place - a software design and development studio

joaogui1 4y ago
What's the name of the 3rd one?

tomcam 4y ago

If you took a job like that, were you really one of the best minds of your generation?

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
It goes both ways. If you win the lottery starting a company at the right time, are you really the best mind of the generation or just lucky?
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Somebody in a garage today is working on a business that will be worth billions within 5 years, and we'll all kick ourselves with "why didn't we think of that!"
  - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
    Right, but for everyone of those people, there are 1,000 other people just as smart also working on good ideas that are going nowhere fast. I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing or neither. But I think the "why didn't I think of that guy" is mostly luck. Lots of people are smart and work hard and don't really get anywhere.
    - skeeter2020 4y ago
      Smart and Work Hard are only two of the 5+ components needed for success, of which Luck, Opportunity and Timing also belong. I'm sure there's more.
      - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
        What is timing beside luck?
- jimbokun 4y ago
  The founders had a good bit of luck, but then hired a lot of super smart people fresh out of college.

snickerbockers 4y ago

> The best minds of a generation that's debatable.

throw_pm23 4y ago
I think GP was paraphrasing a catchy line from a poem. Were Kerouac, Ginsberg, etc. really the best minds of their generation?
- snickerbockers 4y ago
  IDK but i'm assuming they didn't work at facebook?
- orangesite 4y ago
  Yup, they were up there if you let go - even for a moment - that STEM is the be-all and end-all. Please feel free to disagree.

twblalock 4y ago

Sad that when I open a thread the first comment I see is cheap cynicism that comes close to trolling, and the replies are even worse. Look at all the stuff this generation of workers have built in big tech — the amazing devices in all areas of the market, the progress in electric cars, the massive scale in compute infrastructure that enables most smaller companies to easily spin up entire regions rather than run their own hardware… We now carry devices in our pockets that put more information at our fingertips than entire civilizations could access throughout all of human history. Mobile payments have enabled entrepreneurial capitalism in impoverished parts of the world. Anywhere we are, we can get a map of our location and directions to anywhere we want to go. The scale and technology that makes remote work even possible for much of the population didn’t even exist a decade ago. Some pieces existed but they never would have scaled the way we needed them to. If you didn’t lose your job during the pandemic, you ought to be grateful to the major cloud providers for the fact that your video conferencing software was able to function while you and almost everyone else were piling onto it. You should also be grateful there were multiple delivery companies able to bring you groceries and restaurant food when you weren’t allowed to leave the house. I know restaurants are grateful for the delivery services — so many more would have gone out of business if in-person transactions were the only way to sell their product! Anyone who owned a total market index fund in the past decade has benefitted massively from the success of big tech, including most pension funds, university endowments, and many individuals. The creation of wealth has been enormous in scale and enormously socially beneficial. The big tech companies have delivered results to our economy like the space program did — most of the technology that smaller companies and startups depend on was developed by big tech and either turned into a line of business open to others (like AWS) or was open sourced (like Kubernetes, most of the major app frameworks, multiple programming languages, distributed consensus, distributed tracing, modern CI/CD…) The industry as a whole would be a lot worse off if that hadn’t happened. So what if some of it was used to sell ads?

throw_pm23 4y ago
Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.

hellisothers 4y ago

Let’s hope that they’re paid more than sub-market rates and 0.05% equity.

WalterBright 4y ago
They can start their own startups if they don't like the terms.

skeeter2020 4y ago

Yes, they should be starting their own companies that do the same things, but for [blank]

shostack 4y ago

HN: "finally all these brilliant minds can contribute something real to society now that they are free!" <new start-ups are all focused on AI art and LLMs that put hundreds of thousands if not millions out of jobs> HN: "wait, not like that!"