4 ms·

Well, they got you to leave. (For the record, I feel bad saying this... but I'm also just returning snark with snark, so... oh well.)

michaelochurch 13y ago
There's a difference. You know very little about me and where I come from and why I see things the way I do. Do I bring a lot of negativity into these discussions? Sure, but that's needed because I don't want thousands of people to repeat mistakes that I did. If bringing a realistic or even slightly pessimistic tone to this often out-of-touch startup discussion is the cost to prevent a thousand young kids from wrecking their careers, then good. However, I've articulated deep managerial problems with Google that the company refuses to solve, and many of those can be fixed easily and for free. So there's no comparison between what I say and what you said.
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  What are you guys talking about? What is a Perf Room?
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    Don't worry about it if you don't work at Google. Every quarter, managers get together to horse-trade "performance points" (or "calibration scores") and generate a company-wide stack ranking of all engineers. If you end up in the bottom 5% (which sometimes happens to people just because their managers don't show up) then you end up on a PIP and your career at Google is over. That monstrosity is called Perf. The "Perf Room" is a metaphor on most campuses because most of the smaller ones don't actually have a dedicated room "where it happens" for calibration. "Take you into the Perf Room" is a common managerial threat, but actually everyone is calibrated and the meeting happens in secret (most engineers never learn their scores) so people don't actually literally get taken "into the Perf Room". It's just an expression for a bad review.
    - stephengillie 13y ago
      Oh, it's basically quarterly stack-ranking? Adding Google to the list of companies not to be employed by...
      - VikingCoder 13y ago
        If it were bottom 5%, then one out of 20 Google employees would have their careers over every year. That's not the case.
- droithomme 13y ago
  Your comment about infrastructure was actually quite hilarious and interesting, and Vikings's repartee comeback was witty as well. This post though made the whole exchange less fun! Next time, I recommend try either responding with "LOL" to acknowledge Viking's wit, or come back with an even more humorous response.
- VikingCoder 13y ago
  I know you're the type of person who publicly tells their former employer, "Choke on a fucking taint, Google. Choke. On. A. Taint." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508058 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508058 I also know you think there are easy and free solutions to the problems that every company on the planet struggles with every day (measuring and rewarding performance). I think you're arrogant, disrespectful, and that you over-simplify problems to an absurd degree. I can conclude that if I worked at Google, I don't think I'd appreciate working on your team. And you're right, my post didn't have very much to do with yours. Did yours have a lot to do with Google Maps responding quickly to an emerging tragedy? No, it did not.
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    I know you're the type of person who publicly tells their former employer, "Choke on a fucking taint, Google. Choke. On. A. Taint." You shaved off the enclosing context: $100M payouts to nontechnical executives when regular engineers can't even transfer without permission of the perf-industrial complex. I'm sorry, but I just can't defend a company that behaves that way. Seriously, you think it's okay that engineers have to deal with phony scarcity ("calibration score" and "headcount" nonsense) when non-technical executives make several hundred times more? I think you're arrogant, disrespectful, and that you over-simplify problems to an absurd degree. It's more that I don't have patience for junk complexity that exists only to keep power for those who don't deserve it. Did yours have a lot to do with Google Maps responding quickly to an emerging tragedy? Yes, actually. It's good that they updated their map quickly. If they paid the same respect to internal problems, they'd be a much better company.
    - VikingCoder 13y ago
      You're lying: I did not shave off the enclosing context, I explicitly provided the link for everyone to see. It's good that they got you to leave. If they got everyone like you to leave, it would be a much better company. See, my post has exactly as much relevancy as yours does.

michaelochurch 13y ago

There's a difference. You know very little about me and where I come from and why I see things the way I do. Do I bring a lot of negativity into these discussions? Sure, but that's needed because I don't want thousands of people to repeat mistakes that I did. If bringing a realistic or even slightly pessimistic tone to this often out-of-touch startup discussion is the cost to prevent a thousand young kids from wrecking their careers, then good. However, I've articulated deep managerial problems with Google that the company refuses to solve, and many of those can be fixed easily and for free. So there's no comparison between what I say and what you said.

MichaelApproved 13y ago
What are you guys talking about? What is a Perf Room?
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  Don't worry about it if you don't work at Google. Every quarter, managers get together to horse-trade "performance points" (or "calibration scores") and generate a company-wide stack ranking of all engineers. If you end up in the bottom 5% (which sometimes happens to people just because their managers don't show up) then you end up on a PIP and your career at Google is over. That monstrosity is called Perf. The "Perf Room" is a metaphor on most campuses because most of the smaller ones don't actually have a dedicated room "where it happens" for calibration. "Take you into the Perf Room" is a common managerial threat, but actually everyone is calibrated and the meeting happens in secret (most engineers never learn their scores) so people don't actually literally get taken "into the Perf Room". It's just an expression for a bad review.
  - stephengillie 13y ago
    Oh, it's basically quarterly stack-ranking? Adding Google to the list of companies not to be employed by...
    - VikingCoder 13y ago
      If it were bottom 5%, then one out of 20 Google employees would have their careers over every year. That's not the case.
droithomme 13y ago
Your comment about infrastructure was actually quite hilarious and interesting, and Vikings's repartee comeback was witty as well. This post though made the whole exchange less fun! Next time, I recommend try either responding with "LOL" to acknowledge Viking's wit, or come back with an even more humorous response.
VikingCoder 13y ago
I know you're the type of person who publicly tells their former employer, "Choke on a fucking taint, Google. Choke. On. A. Taint." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508058 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508058 I also know you think there are easy and free solutions to the problems that every company on the planet struggles with every day (measuring and rewarding performance). I think you're arrogant, disrespectful, and that you over-simplify problems to an absurd degree. I can conclude that if I worked at Google, I don't think I'd appreciate working on your team. And you're right, my post didn't have very much to do with yours. Did yours have a lot to do with Google Maps responding quickly to an emerging tragedy? No, it did not.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  I know you're the type of person who publicly tells their former employer, "Choke on a fucking taint, Google. Choke. On. A. Taint." You shaved off the enclosing context: $100M payouts to nontechnical executives when regular engineers can't even transfer without permission of the perf-industrial complex. I'm sorry, but I just can't defend a company that behaves that way. Seriously, you think it's okay that engineers have to deal with phony scarcity ("calibration score" and "headcount" nonsense) when non-technical executives make several hundred times more? I think you're arrogant, disrespectful, and that you over-simplify problems to an absurd degree. It's more that I don't have patience for junk complexity that exists only to keep power for those who don't deserve it. Did yours have a lot to do with Google Maps responding quickly to an emerging tragedy? Yes, actually. It's good that they updated their map quickly. If they paid the same respect to internal problems, they'd be a much better company.
  - VikingCoder 13y ago
    You're lying: I did not shave off the enclosing context, I explicitly provided the link for everyone to see. It's good that they got you to leave. If they got everyone like you to leave, it would be a much better company. See, my post has exactly as much relevancy as yours does.