6 ms·

It's always so funny seeing these kinds of comments from throwaway accounts

by lukebitts 3y ago

eterm 3y ago
Not so funny: someone wrote a tool which attributes throwaways with alarming accuracy.
- swores 3y ago
  I found the tool submission you're talking about, I remember putting my username into it when it was first shown and it did produce a list of accounts with % probabilities (in my case all unrelated to me), but when I tried doing it again now it says "This user does not have any public activity in the previous three years." for "swores" (and I've multiple comments just this week). Luckily for the throwaway person above, it says the same for them. But does still show results for some, maybe only big accounts now? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568709 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568709 edit: ahh, I think it just took a one-time snapshot of the three years leading up to its 2021 creation, as my old username that I changed to swores does show up. So it's an interesting proof of concept that someone could do similar analysis, but not an ongoing tool. So it won't be telling us which CTO to avoid :P
  - eterm 3y ago
    That's not the tool I remember, the tool I remember was similar but it correctly found all my alts, whereas that one does not. Edit: I think it was this one that has been shut down: https://stylometry.net/ https://stylometry.net/
    - swores 3y ago
      Ah, I wonder if any other people have made similar for private use...
thr_ddv 3y ago
Because I'd sink the company I'm golden hand cuffed to if I said what I think about the engineers I have to manage. But I do think I'll be bringing in SAP timesheets to share my pain with everyone: > We need to keep track of the time your spending on your opex KIPs. We can't pay your expected bonus if you don't.
- majormajor 3y ago
  So as cto did you just totally screw up at hiring, or were you brought in later but somehow don't have authority or ability to fix anything?? IME when I've seen a "1/10th engineer" it's almost always been a total management failure.
  - thr_ddv 3y ago
    The budget I have for hiring is tiny and no one on the board believes 10x engineers exist. The choise is between not shipping anything at all or having to deal with said talentless hacks who happen to know more than me about tool X but otherwise slow development to a crawl. Turns out reading HN comments is not a good way to run a company. Who would have thought?
    - muh_gradle 3y ago
      > Turns out reading HN comments is not a good way to run a company. Who would have thought? Literally everyone thought this, and probably even the talentless hacks that you hired. Strange that you had to create a throwaway account to figure this one out.
    - majormajor 3y ago
      I mean I also sure hope nobody is reading your comments to learn about running a company! They'd learn about "not answering the question," though, I guess. Remind me, whose job is it to convince other execs and the board of the most appropriate talent strategy? Maybe lesson 1 here is "if you're running a company and don't trust your CTO, look for a new one"?
metalforever 3y ago
The comment mirrors my experience in the industry over a long period.
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
They're not wrong, though.

It's always so funny seeing these kinds of comments from throwaway accounts

eterm 3y ago

Not so funny: someone wrote a tool which attributes throwaways with alarming accuracy.

swores 3y ago
I found the tool submission you're talking about, I remember putting my username into it when it was first shown and it did produce a list of accounts with % probabilities (in my case all unrelated to me), but when I tried doing it again now it says "This user does not have any public activity in the previous three years." for "swores" (and I've multiple comments just this week). Luckily for the throwaway person above, it says the same for them. But does still show results for some, maybe only big accounts now? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568709 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568709 edit: ahh, I think it just took a one-time snapshot of the three years leading up to its 2021 creation, as my old username that I changed to swores does show up. So it's an interesting proof of concept that someone could do similar analysis, but not an ongoing tool. So it won't be telling us which CTO to avoid :P
- eterm 3y ago
  That's not the tool I remember, the tool I remember was similar but it correctly found all my alts, whereas that one does not. Edit: I think it was this one that has been shut down: https://stylometry.net/ https://stylometry.net/
  - swores 3y ago
    Ah, I wonder if any other people have made similar for private use...

thr_ddv 3y ago

Because I'd sink the company I'm golden hand cuffed to if I said what I think about the engineers I have to manage. But I do think I'll be bringing in SAP timesheets to share my pain with everyone: > We need to keep track of the time your spending on your opex KIPs. We can't pay your expected bonus if you don't.

majormajor 3y ago
So as cto did you just totally screw up at hiring, or were you brought in later but somehow don't have authority or ability to fix anything?? IME when I've seen a "1/10th engineer" it's almost always been a total management failure.
- thr_ddv 3y ago
  The budget I have for hiring is tiny and no one on the board believes 10x engineers exist. The choise is between not shipping anything at all or having to deal with said talentless hacks who happen to know more than me about tool X but otherwise slow development to a crawl. Turns out reading HN comments is not a good way to run a company. Who would have thought?
  - muh_gradle 3y ago
    > Turns out reading HN comments is not a good way to run a company. Who would have thought? Literally everyone thought this, and probably even the talentless hacks that you hired. Strange that you had to create a throwaway account to figure this one out.
  - majormajor 3y ago
    I mean I also sure hope nobody is reading your comments to learn about running a company! They'd learn about "not answering the question," though, I guess. Remind me, whose job is it to convince other execs and the board of the most appropriate talent strategy? Maybe lesson 1 here is "if you're running a company and don't trust your CTO, look for a new one"?

metalforever 3y ago

The comment mirrors my experience in the industry over a long period.

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago

They're not wrong, though.