Copernican @ Copernican @lemmy.world

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567

Joined

2 yr. ago

I think the other thing you need to highlight is that during that rapid growth phase 2 years ago it meant building up teams. In tech it really became an job market where employees had lot of the power in negotiation which drove up the cost of labor to fill this surplus of openings. I worked at a company where team members were being offered 10k to 25k annual retention bonuses to not quit (if you want quit within a certain time you pay it back, but if you quit hopefully your new employer spots you a signing bonus to cover it). But with all of the factors you mentioned in this cool down, you end up with a problem that you now have too much staff, but also too expensive staff that you can't afford. Employees are definitely losing now with the layoffs, but for the ones that were able to make job moves and survive the layoffs, they're probably are doing much better because of it (at least from a compensation POV, not sure about anxiety worrying about being laid off next).

What does this gesture do to I pact the means of production and labor to push towards a state of communism?

I'm having trouble connecting this paragraph about US provided intelligence for targets:

“They’re probably targeting people, targeting officers,” Lawrence Cline, who served as an intelligence engagement officer in Iraq before retirement, told The Intercept. Targeting intelligence refers to the identification and characterization of enemy activities including missile and artillery launches, location of leadership and command and control centers, and key facilities. “What I can see is we’ve got a lot of global assets in terms of satellites and the like and the Israelis have a lot in terms of more localized radar coverage.”

With this paragraph about how Israel selects targets:

The Israeli military intentionally strikes Palestinian civilian infrastructure, known as “power targets,” in order to “create a shock,” according to an investigation by the Israeli news website +972 Magazine. Targets are generated using an artificial intelligence system known as “Habsora,” Hebrew for “gospel.”

This makes it sound like US engagement is trying to identify military targets that follow some criteria of what a military target is. But Israel is doing their own thing using AI?

I hear you. You are going to see a lot more worker bees than VPs laid off in part because there's a lot more worker bees than VPs.

per https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/discord-layoffs-citron-overhiring-gaming-18603308.php

The notice, required when companies perform mass layoffs, said the employees would officially leave Discord on Feb. 2. Dozens of engineers are among the casualties, as are several trust and safety employees, product managers and data scientists, according to the notice.

Depending on how the structure is laid out and what product areas were cut, I'm guessing up to the director level would be impacted.

I think it's an unfair and naive assumption to think VPs all keep their jobs. I've seen some pretty nasty game of thrones plays by executive leadership during layoffs due to consolidation of teams and remits. Someone might get a bonus that doesn't deserve it, but someone is going to get let go at a high level (albeit with a generous severance not offered to the rest of the employees).

Also, when new senior leadership comes in, it's not uncommon for them to let heads roll at the leadership level to fill out the team with folks they know or trust. I'm not shedding a tear about where those folks will go on to find similar employment, but I think there's a misconception about how safe those positions actually are.

But that's why I don't think the private vs public company distinction is what matters. When it comes to private, there's a whole class of private equity owned companies that some people won't even consider working at because of the reputation their cost cutting and flip mentality is. It's not a black and white private good public bad because only one has public share holders and exchanges.

In this thread: Fuck Discord! Fuck capitalism! No company should lay off 170 people.

In other thread: Fuck Boeing! Fuck capitalism! The company should die along with all 150,000 jobs occupied by their employees.

But isn't Reddit still private?

As someone who works in tech, it doesn't surprise me. I had a lot of friends get poached 2 years ago with salary increases that shocked me during this blitz on hiring. What surprises me is timing. Some companies recognized the over optimistic forecasting earlier and realized to let folks off a year ago. Some folks are just now getting laid off. I'm. Not sure what led some companies to drag it out vs drop the hammer earlier. Did some see the writing on the wall and choose to cut earlier? Did other folks really try to keep employees hoping things would turn around?

I fully agree on .44% being high. I raise an eyebrow on anything over .10%. But if you follow the old reddit personal finance prime directive... You should max out your 401k inso far as you maximize the employer match. Then max out your Roth IRA where you hopefully have access to better expense ratio target funds. I have been trying out the 0% Fidelity index mutual funds as opposed to older S&P500 funds to maximize potential there.

I haven't really looked at the robo brokers though. What are fees like for betterment and the like?

Either way, I think people are shooting themselves in the foot for not investing in index funds or target funds out of moral principle. Unfortunately there isn't much other safety net for your retirement, and you're probably going to be forced to spend cash for everyday goods from major corporations. Might as well try to secure some value of those same corporations at the same time instead of letting your savings constantly depreciate over time.

I think I crack the top 10 percent income earner I agree (not sure where I am in the USA net worth wise). I don't consider myself rich, but that is very much in part because I live in NYC, but if I didn't live there I probably wouldn't be 10% earner. A big market change could have very significant impacts on my life, housing, etc. Fuck the 1% percent though.

One thing I have noticed about folks that talk about income and wealth in my bracket is that they talk about Stock benefits like options, RSU's, and ESPP as income. When I was making salary and around folks under 75k no one really talked about those types of benefits as income meaningfully (partially because they didn't get it or didn't get a significant amount of it). But for those high income earners in the top 10% that factor their stock as part of their income lifestyle, that puts them more at risk for greater income swings in the event of market crashes to a certain degree (assuming job loss doesn't occur).

Are the fees of target funds usually that significant? Vanguard Target Funds have an expense ratio of 0.08%. They say the average comparative fund is 0.44%, which is a bit high for my liking, but not terribel compared to other managed funds. https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vfifx#performance-fees

Only income derived through labor should be truly safe, as labor is useful to civilization, unlike gambling, often with winnings from previous gambling gained using loaded market influence dice and marked insider information cards.

AI and Automation is going to destroy these human labor=value claims of classical Marxism even further. The point is you can't choose not to live in a capitalist society as if you're an ostrich burying your head in the sand. I invest my retirement and portion of my savings in market index funds because keeping it in a bank will lose value over time due to inflation. Keeping the money I have earned through my labor as cash or in a savings account is pretty much guaranteed to lose value as inflation occurs. There is risk in the market, but I'd hardly call that type of investment gambling.

There is a reality we live in, and regardless of political beliefs or opinions on labor and capital, you are in capitalism, your participate in capitalism whether you like it or not, so might as well protect yourself and future by playing the game of capitalism to some degree.

Marx enjoyed the fruits of bourgeois society and participating in fox hunts arranged by Engels. I don't think it's a problem to have some irony in fighting the good fight, while investing in a 401k.

Yeah. Didn't the feds have to regulate that so that it was an equal playing field for transaction latency?

Accounts such as the 401k were probably devised to tie up regular people’s money into the stock market

Aren't pensions also tied up in the stock market. Yes there's a difference of who manages and how the contributions are made, but both plans put the security of your retirement in the market in some capacity, right?

So why don't you think the laid off Spotify employees will have an equally soft landing of just being absorbed into other companies?

Exactly. So it's weird to see a popular sentiment be Spotify laying off 1500 is bad corporate greed. But then celebrated wishful thinking that Boeing should die due to corporate greed and put 150,000 employees out of work which is somehow good.

I don't understand the ultra anti business vibe these days. If a company has to do lay offs (like Spotify) because they over predicted growth, it's up in arms for the worker getting screwed due corporate greed. Then we have this angle where everyone wants Boeing to die, which will result in a ton of workers losing their jobs. Why isn't the hope just the board doing their jobs, changing leadership to align with the old boeing, let workers keep their jobs, and let their stock benefits increase in value for contributing to a good company?

Text intensive games are hard to read at times on the deck. Magnifier helps, but not ideal. Games like Against the Storm or some digital board games would benefit from higher resolution.

I thought that Slack was what that use case is for. It's an acronym that stands for Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge. I didn't realize folks were using discord for productivity use cases.