new VIBECAMP cabin: Re-observation Cabin, Organizer Cabin, Celebration Cabin, Safety From The Ills Of This World Cabin, etc
present members: myself @arithmoquine@lukalotl@ognevtsi@slLuxia@autocrystallize
inquire in replies if you wish to join
Notes on 100+ Recent Technical Interviews
I interview a ton of engineers. Recruiting is the single most important technical CEO activity. Here are a bunch of impressions
1. There is a severe ZIRP engineering overhang that is currently washing out. They're getting laid off, managed out, etc. after having been massively overhired around 2020-2022. This is worst for Tier-2 big tech (think PayPal, Bill, etc.) but also FAANGs. These are overwhelmingly bad engineers.
2. This flood of unqualified but good-on-paper candidates makes this the hardest SF hiring market I have ever seen, due to the amount of nominally strong-looking candidates that you need to grind through.
3. I am highly skeptical of "AI as a cause for engineering layoffs". I think this is a large-scale polite fiction -- the companies don't want to admit they overhired, the engineers don't want to admit they are bad at their jobs. Everyone's blaming AI when it's really just the market rectifying itself.
4. Many of these engineers appear never to have had a real engineering function at their corporations. They're sitting in meetings, "making decisions about technology" but are unable to write software. I leave many interviews baffled by what exactly they were doing for so many years, let alone what their manager was doing.
5. I have interviewed some engineers from FAANG companies so shockingly nontechnical that I am forced to conclude that there is either (1) a lot of resume fraud going on or (2) that there are kickback grifts within those organizations -- people hiring their cousins and splitting the pay, that kind of thing. I have no other explanation.
6. There's a fun side-effect where after interviewing 20+ people from certain small but public companies, I actually feel like I am gaining a short sellers' advantage: there are financial technology companies out there that, knowing what I now know, I would never deposit a single dollar into.
8. Based on this "exhaust" data, and extrapolating a little bit, maybe aggressively so: I think folks like @pmarca are basically right when they say that ~every tech company is overstaffed by a factor of 2-4x. Whatever the reason -- staffing ahead of need, monopolizing certain engineer types (Google-style), headcount-driven promotion incentives, the reality is that a lot of these companies are not being run for the shareholders. The aggregate SBC expense is insane, and I expect this is going to get rectified eventually.
I'm sure that AI will play a role in rectifying this -- but I fear that people are going to blame AI for taking people's jobs when the reality is that the jobs were already long-gone, possibly always useless, but the highly-paid butts-in-seats remained. People will be mad at AI for taking away their lucrative sinecures. Maybe that's the same effect from a public policy perspective, but it feels different morally.
you dont have to believe in existential risk or job loss for this to be scary: ai is real, you can replicate human thought in machines. it is redefining what it means to be human. even if they are strictly corrigible tools that do what we ask, this can be traumatic
We’re breaking ground on Stargate Michigan—a 1GW data center utilizing closed-loop cooling that uses water at the rate of a typical office building, creates thousands of union jobs, and brings over $40m in free Codex credits for all college, community college, and trade school students statewide. https://t.co/3a3w9vL91T
half of the best engineers i know say shit like "yeah i spent 2.5 years at a startup, we were doing insurance for greek frogs out of college and i made $80k, but now i make $5m working on spaceships"
I don't know who needs to hear this.
You're in a tech job. You're making more than the median wage of the US worker. You're probably worried your skills are atrophying and you're not part of the leading edge of this stuff or doing the "important" work or on the right side of things.
But you're actually probably doing fine.
There are people out here, massive followings, legends amongst themselves, who can't do what you do. They can't build what you build.
They couldn't interview for nor hold the job that you're holding.
You might think you should quit and start something of your own. For a very small percentage of you that has a 20% chance of working and maybe you should take the chance if you understand the risks.
But for most people in this position, all you have to do is take it day by day. Work on some cool shit at night. Keep your eyes open and look for something better, more challenging. The opportunities won't disappear if you're vigilant; they'll just change shape.
You're probably in your mid-20s. Many of you are even younger. When I was your age I was repairing iPhones for $10 an hour and I'd eat MREs out of my National Guard coworker's car so I wouldn't blow an hour of pay or more on lunch. I didn't even know what Y Combinator or any of that stuff was until I was 24 or 25.
I give out a lot of advice for free and never charge people for coaching. I had a call with this founder who's one of the most incredible engineers I've met. He's burnt out after doing startups. He's like 22 and asked me "is it bad that I just want to be a 22 year old?" and I was like no man. You'll only be 22 once. There will probably be things to do for those with the courage to seek them forever. Don't worry about it, but don't coast either. Most life mistakes are worse than "I got burnt out" and are more like "I got addicted to drugs" or "I followed the wrong people around until my life blew up".
You don't have to worry all the time. You just have to try and make it happen, move to places with power-law scaling opportunities (dense cities with lots of capital), and keep trying until something clicks.
I worked at that iPhone repair shop until one day I called every studio in town asking to sweep the floors. The engineer for Lady Antebellum picked up the phone on the other end.
Even after the GRAMMY I couldn't really get a job. So I packed my stuff up and got to NYC where I moved in with my girlfriend and my roommate.
Got sick later. Lost it all. Worked at a bank. Discovered code completion early. The rest was history. The girlfriend became my wife. All I had to do was keep doing the thing until it became no easier but more reliable.
You will get there. But you will only be as young as you are once.
Don't burn that because you think you have to get ahead.
But don't let yourself become a 40 year old craving camp for grown-ups either.
You'll be fine if you exist in the middle bound of giving a shit.
The California State Assembly has passed the Protect Our Games Act, a bill to protect user rights after a game's service ends
Under this, games shutting down would need to provide at least 60 days notice to consumers, while also ensuring that purchasers will still have access to the game via an alt version or patch that allows it to be played offline. And if not, they must offer refunds
The bill must still be passed by the California Senate
Saw backrooms, 6/10, the character stuff didnt work at all, they hit every single zoomer horror trope, but overall solid, the dinner scene fucking sucks tho
Anthropic has confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Pending completion of SEC review, this gives us the option to pursue an initial public offering.
Read more: https://t.co/onGZAhRLvD