Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs?

Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by matrix87 on Friday January 12, 2024 @01:45AM (#38964805)

> It turns out that compared to the dedicated nerds of the previous generation, most new people just don't care that much about tech and don't want to go deeper than the bare minimum required by their job.

The average day-to-day work is menial, for example investigating a production issue. That isn't something that people get into as a hobby, that's work in a very unromantic sense. Maybe having good systems background can help in those situations, but it's a little more subtle

I do think though that it works the other way: people who actually care about computers don't care if tech is no longer a money field, they just want to work on computer stuff. And maybe earlier it wasn't as much of a money field. But that doesn't imply that the enthusiasts are better at fulfilling work responsibilities. A lot of work stuff is business specific and not very dependent on systems background

So yeah, I don't think the part about over-hiring is necessarily wrong, but this sort of "I'm better than you" attitude isn't very becoming. Maybe you should give this [0] a read, just to see a different perspective

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

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Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by noduerme on Friday January 12, 2024 @04:57AM (#38966127)

I'd never heard of that novel or these laws, but as an American it would be unthinkable to consider them anything other than Kafkaesque dark satire. The idea that they've moved from that to some sort of positive model for egalitarian society is downright creepy. Specifically, because they all contain the hypocrisy of saying explicitly as a group the very thing they're telling the individual not to say. Taking the side of we is therefore willfully brutal and repugnant to individual dignity. Presented without irony, is this some sort of fascism-light?

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Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by whearyou on Friday January 12, 2024 @05:18AM (#38966270)

Or communist-light, but the latter ideology doesn’t seem to hold the same sting as a descriptor despite very similar outcomes

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Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by noduerme on Saturday January 13, 2024 @01:57PM (#38983256)

Sure, if you like. Although a nit: communism historically doesn't mind celebrating individual heroics or achievements as such, if they're seen as selflessly done in service of the cause. The view of society as a single organism which knows better than you is more central to the definition and prototype of fascism, even if it's also a result of any kind of collective reordering of a society.

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Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by ric2b on Friday January 12, 2024 @02:31PM (#38972784)

They are satire:

> The "Law" was first formulated as ten rules in Sandemose's satirical novel A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks

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Re:Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs? by danielscrubs on Saturday January 13, 2024 @04:38AM (#38978456)

Scandinavians know there is some truth to it. But it has more to do with what you say and do. You can DO amazing things but you are not allowed to brag about it. This is better than bragging but not doing which is very common in certain places.

But this mentality has basically vanished from the main cities in the last three decades because marketing is a competitive field, and you need all the tools in the toolbox to not get eaten alive.

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