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A comment on How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites. Parent comment

Re:How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites by niyazpk on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @06:02PM (#21197776)
>> I learned that to achieve better results that everybody else, you just need to do a little more upront work. People tend to not do that. The funny part is that after you do that upront work you are usually in a place where you have to work less than everybody else.

I think what you and Matt are missing here is the case where things don't work out. What if Wordpress decides after the trial that I am not a good fit? What if I decide that I don't like the job? What happens to the 3 months I spent working for less? How many under-payed jobs in your mind should an engineer do before the "math" stops working?

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Re:How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites by xyzzyz on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @06:50PM (#21198132)
If you don't like the deal, just don't do it. If Automattic ends up being unable to hire the developers they want, they'll change. Seriously, I don't get people complaining about this. There's no way I'd do the Automattic trial myself, but if others do, and the system works for Automattic, why should I care?
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Re:How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites by niyazpk on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @08:33PM (#21198768)
>> why should I care?

Because we all have the responsibility to improve the working conditions in the software industry? I love this field too mu ch to leave it up to "markets will figure it out".

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Re:How Automattic develops software for over 75M websites by 1123581321 on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @02:44AM (#21200698)
Did you see that he included the numbers to answer your questions in his comment? An 80% gain in annual job utility, lasting four years, with a 50% chance to achieve the gain for each two month period during which he experiences a 60% utility lost. Using those numbers, it would be worth doing at least a few of these trials and it would be very unlikely to have to do more than that (especially if his skill is increasing during the trial periods.)
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