I spent five years golden handcuffed at Facebook and hired a large number of brilliant, driven people there. Most of them are still there because of the obscenely large sums of money Facebook pays to keep them there. Note that Facebook does not do counteroffers, and instead makes sure to keep the best people financially motivated to stay each year.

Curious, why did you leave?

Since you are on the outside now, do you still agree with their mission and tactics or do you see them on a path towards 'user-engagement metrics over everything' ending in destruction.

What exactly does that mean, "Facebook does not do counteroffers"?

So you name an amount and either take you or not?

To clarify, if you're employed at Facebook and get an offer from another company, Facebook won't attempt to counter that offer to keep you. The initial offer to get employed at Facebook is of course negotiable.

Probably for the better. People who have already gotten a competitive offer must be determined to leave.

Yes, it is genuinely a good policy. It results in happy employees not being penalized for not shopping around for offers.

What do those people work on?

Zstandard is pretty nice: https://github.com/facebook/zstd

Facebook has some top notch systems and infrastructure.

Those people won’t be excellent for long in a Dead Sea.

I've never seen this comparison before. Are you suggesting that Facebook is similar to an endorheic basin?

They are referring to the Dead Sea effect: http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...

Hmm, interesting. I have always thought of it as a kettle lake. But you're right! There is a strong argument for endorheic basic.