6 ms·

>People get hired by contributing to the repo. It’s a very self directed job, with one meeting a week and a goal of making tinygrad better I find this organiza

>People get hired by contributing to the repo. It’s a very self directed job, with one meeting a week and a goal of making tinygrad better I find this organizational structure compelling, probably the closest to reaching 100% productivity in a week as you can get.

ttul 9mo ago
I wonder what happened to George’s old policy of requiring everyone to move to San Diego?
- georgehotz 9mo ago
  That's comma.ai's policy since they make hardware and solve physical problems. The tiny corp has been hybrid (remote-first) since day 1 because it primarily writes open source software, and there's a long track record of success with remote for this kind of task. We have a few whole-team meetups in Hong Kong each year for 2-4 weeks, and there's a San Diego or Hong Kong office that anyone can work from as they choose. We also have a wide array of fancy multi GPU boxes that everyone on the team gets full access to (known external contributors can get some access also). I think many companies that were quick to embrace remote have walked it back, not everyone is capable of working productively remotely, nor are all types of work amenable to remote.
  - dustbunny 9mo ago
    Why Hong Kong? I guess you have a bunch of contributors near there?
    - quux0r 9mo ago
      If I recall correctly, George recently relocated there.
  - octoberfranklin 9mo ago
    Have you run into problems with contributors who can't enter the PRC?
    - JSR_FDED 9mo ago
      Actually the opposite is the problem: “International scientists rethink U.S. conference attendance“ https://www.science.org/content/article/international-scientists-rethink-us-conference-attendance#:~:text=She%20may%20decide%20not%20to,Societies%20in%20December%20in%20Honolulu. https://www.science.org/content/article/international-scient...
      - octoberfranklin 9mo ago
        This is not helpful.
        nisegami 9mo ago
        It's not a helpful reply to that particular comment, but I think it's worth recognizing that the US is now in the same camp as HK or mainland China now where there will be some people who just simply cannot enter.
    - sampullman 9mo ago
      The mainland and Hong Kong still have significantly different visa policies. I'm not sure if it's changed at all since the handover, except for mainlanders entering HK.
      - octoberfranklin 9mo ago
        Yes I know, but HK is still part of the PRC and there are people who cannot travel to the PRC. It's not about (in)ability to obtain a visa.
  - ttul 9mo ago
    An answer from the man himself. Thank you.
- bytesandbits 9mo ago
  that's for comma.ai different company
stathibus 9mo ago
It’s hard to argue against hiring contributors, but a bounty system that pays pennies vs. market value for skilled developers shouldn’t be the only interview path, it’s borderline exploitative.
- jasonvorhe 9mo ago
  All other interview processes (that I've witnessed or heard of) waste anyone's time with barely anything to show for though, regardless if it ever comes to a offer.
- 0xpgm 9mo ago
  To me, it's better than spending months of your free time grinding leetcode to get past an interview (everyone wants to hire like FAANG now). You get a small reward in return if the contribution is accepted and you get to contribute to the world corpus of knowledge.
- andy99 9mo ago
  It’s not exploitive if you like working on it. I can see an additional upside here (for tinygrad) that they better screen out people who are just trying to optimize for job prospects or money, who would do better elsewhere, and get people who actually like contributing. Few people with no innate interest in the project are likely to ramp up and start contributing just for a shot at a job. Whereas if you’re Facebook or whoever you are much more likely to get people who don’t care about the product and just have decided they can make a lot of money by jumping through the right hoops.
  - TylerLives 9mo ago
    This idea that you're supposed to accept worse pay because you believe in the idea doesn't apply to George. If his companies succeed, he'll be rich. Of course, there's nothing wrong with even working for free if that's what you like, just don't make a moral principle out of it.
    - andy99 9mo ago

ttul 9mo ago

I wonder what happened to George’s old policy of requiring everyone to move to San Diego?

georgehotz 9mo ago
That's comma.ai's policy since they make hardware and solve physical problems. The tiny corp has been hybrid (remote-first) since day 1 because it primarily writes open source software, and there's a long track record of success with remote for this kind of task. We have a few whole-team meetups in Hong Kong each year for 2-4 weeks, and there's a San Diego or Hong Kong office that anyone can work from as they choose. We also have a wide array of fancy multi GPU boxes that everyone on the team gets full access to (known external contributors can get some access also). I think many companies that were quick to embrace remote have walked it back, not everyone is capable of working productively remotely, nor are all types of work amenable to remote.
- dustbunny 9mo ago
  Why Hong Kong? I guess you have a bunch of contributors near there?
  - quux0r 9mo ago
    If I recall correctly, George recently relocated there.
- octoberfranklin 9mo ago
  Have you run into problems with contributors who can't enter the PRC?
  - JSR_FDED 9mo ago
    Actually the opposite is the problem: “International scientists rethink U.S. conference attendance“ https://www.science.org/content/article/international-scientists-rethink-us-conference-attendance#:~:text=She%20may%20decide%20not%20to,Societies%20in%20December%20in%20Honolulu. https://www.science.org/content/article/international-scient...
    - octoberfranklin 9mo ago
      This is not helpful.
      - nisegami 9mo ago
        It's not a helpful reply to that particular comment, but I think it's worth recognizing that the US is now in the same camp as HK or mainland China now where there will be some people who just simply cannot enter.
  - sampullman 9mo ago
    The mainland and Hong Kong still have significantly different visa policies. I'm not sure if it's changed at all since the handover, except for mainlanders entering HK.
    - octoberfranklin 9mo ago
      Yes I know, but HK is still part of the PRC and there are people who cannot travel to the PRC. It's not about (in)ability to obtain a visa.
- ttul 9mo ago
  An answer from the man himself. Thank you.
bytesandbits 9mo ago
that's for comma.ai different company

stathibus 9mo ago

It’s hard to argue against hiring contributors, but a bounty system that pays pennies vs. market value for skilled developers shouldn’t be the only interview path, it’s borderline exploitative.

jasonvorhe 9mo ago
All other interview processes (that I've witnessed or heard of) waste anyone's time with barely anything to show for though, regardless if it ever comes to a offer.
0xpgm 9mo ago
To me, it's better than spending months of your free time grinding leetcode to get past an interview (everyone wants to hire like FAANG now). You get a small reward in return if the contribution is accepted and you get to contribute to the world corpus of knowledge.
andy99 9mo ago
It’s not exploitive if you like working on it. I can see an additional upside here (for tinygrad) that they better screen out people who are just trying to optimize for job prospects or money, who would do better elsewhere, and get people who actually like contributing. Few people with no innate interest in the project are likely to ramp up and start contributing just for a shot at a job. Whereas if you’re Facebook or whoever you are much more likely to get people who don’t care about the product and just have decided they can make a lot of money by jumping through the right hoops.
- TylerLives 9mo ago
  This idea that you're supposed to accept worse pay because you believe in the idea doesn't apply to George. If his companies succeed, he'll be rich. Of course, there's nothing wrong with even working for free if that's what you like, just don't make a moral principle out of it.
  - andy99 9mo ago