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Isn’t this the whole point of working; particularly at a FAANG? > It’s a shallow post-mortem I respectfully disagree. It’s an 8 minute read. Sure, it’s mostly

by redrix 2y ago

Isn’t this the whole point of working; particularly at a FAANG? > It’s a shallow post-mortem I respectfully disagree. It’s an 8 minute read. Sure, it’s mostly in dot-point form, but personally I’d rather that than some massive 80,000 word blog post that I’m going to drop 1/8 of the way through. Since when does a personal blog post need to be a well constructed and lengthy document?

stonethrowaway 2y ago
I would rather read an 80,000 word blog post. It would satisfy my curiosity and it’s exactly the sort of material I come to HN for. It’s Hacker News. Not Digest. It’s also why I don’t read the news often posted here from big media companies - they’re often just awful hit pieces against someone or something. Or are pushing a product. But a well articulated, technically correct post that’s evenly paced? Heavenly. Its a David Attenborough documentary for tech nerds. It’s exactly what I am after. I wouldn’t say anything against having an upfront summary for people who don’t have time/patience. 9 years working at a top tech company of bleeding edge work reduced down to “I made money. Oh, I made money. My stocks did well, so I made even more money” is the pinnacle of intellectual laziness. That’s not a postmortem by any stretch of imagination.
bzhang255 2y ago
I think it's shallow and not because it's short. To me, it just sounds very typical: "I joined Google back when it was fun. Now it's more bureaucratic and less fun. But I made a ton of money on the stock." I think there have been countless blog posts from Ex-Googlers like this. It's fairly shallow. And it is worth noting that a lot of the bullet point lists do start with "I made a ton of money" in as many words, which is also just not very interesting to most folks, though it is certainly very relevant and important to the writer.
- lexlash 2y ago
  The most interesting thing is the timeline at the end, which shows what they were successful at and promoted for (management-type roles) and what happened when they tried to transition from SRE management to SWE IC (they fell back into management). I don't see that reflected in the rest of their postmortem learning - other than them being dissatisfied with doing what they were good at / promoted for - so that kind of helps me ignore the rest of the postmortem. :)
- tickerticker 2y ago
  Level 1: a ton of money. Level 2: L1 + interesting work Level 3: L2 + intelligent co-workers Level 4: L3 + deep skills Level 5: L4 + mentor Level 6: L5 + awesome network Level 7: L6 + personal growth Level 8: L7 + meaningful contribution Level 9: L8 + work-life balance Level 10: L9 + recognized SME Timing and circumstances influence what you get....not always the same for equally talented ppl. Making a "ton of money"....it matters because new people want to know what price is paid for exceptional comp.

by redrix 2y ago

stonethrowaway 2y ago

I would rather read an 80,000 word blog post. It would satisfy my curiosity and it’s exactly the sort of material I come to HN for. It’s Hacker News. Not Digest. It’s also why I don’t read the news often posted here from big media companies - they’re often just awful hit pieces against someone or something. Or are pushing a product. But a well articulated, technically correct post that’s evenly paced? Heavenly. Its a David Attenborough documentary for tech nerds. It’s exactly what I am after. I wouldn’t say anything against having an upfront summary for people who don’t have time/patience. 9 years working at a top tech company of bleeding edge work reduced down to “I made money. Oh, I made money. My stocks did well, so I made even more money” is the pinnacle of intellectual laziness. That’s not a postmortem by any stretch of imagination.

bzhang255 2y ago

I think it's shallow and not because it's short. To me, it just sounds very typical: "I joined Google back when it was fun. Now it's more bureaucratic and less fun. But I made a ton of money on the stock." I think there have been countless blog posts from Ex-Googlers like this. It's fairly shallow. And it is worth noting that a lot of the bullet point lists do start with "I made a ton of money" in as many words, which is also just not very interesting to most folks, though it is certainly very relevant and important to the writer.

lexlash 2y ago
The most interesting thing is the timeline at the end, which shows what they were successful at and promoted for (management-type roles) and what happened when they tried to transition from SRE management to SWE IC (they fell back into management). I don't see that reflected in the rest of their postmortem learning - other than them being dissatisfied with doing what they were good at / promoted for - so that kind of helps me ignore the rest of the postmortem. :)
tickerticker 2y ago
Level 1: a ton of money. Level 2: L1 + interesting work Level 3: L2 + intelligent co-workers Level 4: L3 + deep skills Level 5: L4 + mentor Level 6: L5 + awesome network Level 7: L6 + personal growth Level 8: L7 + meaningful contribution Level 9: L8 + work-life balance Level 10: L9 + recognized SME Timing and circumstances influence what you get....not always the same for equally talented ppl. Making a "ton of money"....it matters because new people want to know what price is paid for exceptional comp.