Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by piyh on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @04:49PM
(#25934476)
Let's say X engineers making 200k a year work on this. This is a 5x return on your money in 5 years if it took 8 people working the full year to complete it. Sounds like a solid business case to me.
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Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by johncena33 on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @06:29PM
(#25935644)
You also have to keep in mind that this work was interesting and it probably helped to keep few rockstart engineers from leaving.
Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by b3kart on Thursday January 28, 2021 @10:05AM
(#25942830)
Agreed. At this level of competition for top talent you need to pamper your staff, which includes letting them work on the kinds of projects that they’ll proudly mention on their CVs, even if it’s not the highest priority project business-wise. I am sure a company like Dropbox can afford to do this once in a while.
Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by X6S1x6Okd1st on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @05:20PM
(#25934892)
That makes sense if all engineers are fungable, and you are never limited by engineering capacity.
Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by dheera on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @05:17PM
(#25934853)
You also need to subtract the value those 8 people could create if they worked on something else.
Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by Closi on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @05:19PM
(#25934880)
You don't - If you do that you are double counting the cost of the engineers (If they were working on something else, you wouldn't account their salary against this optimisation).
Re:Machine learning saves us $1.7M a year on document previews
by arthurcolle on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @05:27PM
(#25934978)
This is unknowable