In corporate context it's because that's, in theory, an effective use of resources:
If 20 teams are constantly "there is a huge risk of fire", a lot of mental energy is wasted figuring out how to stack rank those 20 and how real of a fire risk there is. If instead you wait when there is a real fire, you can get the 15 teams actually fixing that one.
In practice, you've probably noticed that the most politics-playing & winning teams are the teams which are really effective at :
1) faking fires
2) exaggerating minor fires
3) moving fast & breaking things on purpose (or at least as a nice side effect) to create more fires in their area of ownership* , and get rewarded with more visibility & headcount to fix those fires.
* As long as they have firm grip of that area... If they don't, they risk having it re-orged to another team.
Scanning, dumping, and diffing of active directory also helps seeing when people got promoted. ("Software Engineer" -> "Software Engineer II" -> "Senior Software Engineer" etc). Useful for figuring out stats on "promotion velocity" in one org vs other.
Wouldn't work at "a certain company" if such company now made all their levels secret by default of course.
> In-person is much better if you don't know what you need to build, are trying to "figure it out as you go along", and are relying on the implicit fast feedback loop of standing next to each other.
true.
> For large companies like FAANG, I actually think they mostly fall in bucket 2
Also true most fall in the "figure it out" bucket... But here's where it gets funny: just meet in-person you say?
No, this is FAANG. You're in MTV, but the people you need to collaborate are in NYC, LAX, SEA, AUS, SFO...
So your in-person experience is you booking a room just for yourself so you can video conference all those people who also booked a room for themselves.
Because every other team is in same situation, finding a meeting room is a challenge in itself.
Take the call from your desk then?
No, this is FAANG, every building is open office layout, it'd be rude & disrespectful to your colleagues around who are busy coding.
"Exempts manufacturers or distributors of certain medical devices, motor vehicles, any power generation or storage equipment, or equipment for fueling or charging motor vehicles."
Wondering what type of farmer equipment count as "motor vehicles" here, and if tractors are counted or not.
> (Other) Motor vehicles are not the focus of the bill, but could be impacted by the bill, especially for things like touch screens in vehicles and electric vehicle chargers. The industry would appreciate an exemption to exclude motor vehicles and related devices from the scope of the bill
> (Other) There are concerns regarding the definition of digital electronic equipment. A clarifying amendment to exclude digital electronic equipment in vehicle charging stations would be appreciated. New York's right to repair law had similar language.
The list of entities testifying in the "(Other)" category (versus "(In support)") is thankfully visible in these docs you only need to Ctrl+F for "(Other)".
> Seems like Americans are left with the choice to either risk killing someone/themselves driving home or just not going out.
If only there was a service where you can pay money to be driven somewhere... I heard Americans invented these smartphones with apps, Maybe they can even invent an app-based version of that paid ride service!
> Programs which have offered the homeless real homes, with privacy, the ability to safely store belongings and keep pets, and the ability to decorate, cook, and sleep in quiet, have not had any difficulty filling those homes, but these programs are few and far between (none exist in the US, that I know of).
> They couldn't do a massive layoff in the past because it would get them bad rep
Forget about "bad rep", it was a bad economic decision: why let go a slight underperformer (a now-known 0.8x engineer) that you hired in 2015 at pay X, if in exchange you hire a "expected normal 1.0x engineer", but at a price of 1.8*X in 2021 due to crazy escalation of SWE salaries in that period.
(Assuming you have a perfected/more picky hiring process that knows the median hire will be a 1.0x engineer)
Now in 2023, the situation is different: you can hire a "expected normal 1.0x engineer" but at pay 0.8*X (adjusted for inflation - ratios all made up)
This announcement will at least make it more fair going forward to teams that sticked to the rules and did report the days off. The teams that didn't report still get an advantage in a larger payout though.
- title change ( I (entry level) -> II -> Senior -> Principal -> ...)
- internal ladder descriptions (someone who worked at at least 2 FAANG companies can trivially figure out what maps to what, the titles & on-paper responsibilities are pretty standardized across most FAANG)
This extreme of "no zoning" doesn't work because of the negative externalities you can create, affecting your neighbors
Simply put: if you get to build your perfect house, with a nice mountain view, the neighbor west of you could build a building the size of the empire state building, and so does your neighbor east of you. Now you don't have any sunlight. The neighbor south of you could build a smelly & noisy factory, and the one north of you could build a nightclub.
It has a "Design controversies" section that's very relevant to today:
> Complaints also surfaced about the taillights on 1958-model Edsel station wagons. The lenses were boomerang-shaped and placed in a reverse fashion. At a distance, they appeared as arrows pointed in the opposite direction of the turn being made. When the left turn signal flashed, its arrow shape pointed right, and vice versa
Sympathetic to your story, it's a really unfortunate situation, and glad you were able to salvage your trip.
> Also what would have happened if we weren't fortunate enough to be able to pay for this in the first place? Would we just be out on the streets?
You would go to your home's country embassy and explain the situation?
Having your passport/luggage locked in the Airbnb isn't different from having it stolen on a train or something like that. This unfortunately could happen to travelers whether they're staying at a hotel or an Airbnb. At least you had your phone and means of payment available, and were able to recover the documents/luggage after some time.
I wonder what help Airbnb provides if the situation is flipped: let's say the owner has to change the locks for $750 because the renter never returned the key. Is the owner eating that cost?
In your situation, you're the party who lost the keys. Maybe Airbnb rental terms should have a clear cost for lost keys situation, $1k for this is steep!
In corporate context it's because that's, in theory, an effective use of resources:
If 20 teams are constantly "there is a huge risk of fire", a lot of mental energy is wasted figuring out how to stack rank those 20 and how real of a fire risk there is. If instead you wait when there is a real fire, you can get the 15 teams actually fixing that one.
In practice, you've probably noticed that the most politics-playing & winning teams are the teams which are really effective at :
1) faking fires
2) exaggerating minor fires
3) moving fast & breaking things on purpose (or at least as a nice side effect) to create more fires in their area of ownership* , and get rewarded with more visibility & headcount to fix those fires.
* As long as they have firm grip of that area... If they don't, they risk having it re-orged to another team.