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Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by sitkack on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @06:25PM (#44438506)
Anytime someone tells you to be in it for the mission, you are expendable and underpaid.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by ponector on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @06:36PM (#44438583)
That could be genuine words. Mission is to be expendable and make them rich.

Don't forget about the mission during next round of layoffs and record high quarterly profits.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by vram22 on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @09:46PM (#44439567)
Totally agree.

Well said.

Man, you are on a mission, to enable manumission!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumission

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by chaosharmonic on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @08:48PM (#44439285)
I don't at all disagree with you, but at the kind of money you'd be making at an org like OAI, it's easy to envision there being a ceiling, past which the additional financial compensation doesn't necessarily matter that much.

The problem with the argument is that most places saying this are paying more like a sub-basement, not that there can't genuinely be more important things.

That said, Sam Altman is also a guy who stuck nondisparagement terms into their equity agreement... and in that same vein, framing poaching as "someone has broken into our home" reads like cult language.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by ryandrake on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @01:21AM (#44440466)
We shouldn’t even be using the offensive word “poaching.” As an employee, I am not a deer or wild boar owned by a feudal lord by working for his company. And another employer isn’t some thief stealing me away. I have agency and control over who I enter into an employment arrangement with!
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by jaza on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @01:40AM (#44440542)
So then, is "headhunting" more or less bad?
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by ryandrake on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @01:45AM (#44440565)
I think anything that evokes “hunting on someone else’s land for his property” is equally inappropriate.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by jack_riminton on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @02:29AM (#44440774)
Would "bought" be better then? implies slavery!
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by vasco on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @07:41AM (#44442482)
There's a word for this, it's called being hired.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by saubeidl on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @09:06AM (#44443271)
"Making a more competitive offer"
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by chaosharmonic on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @10:54AM (#44444524)
I don't disagree with this either -- it's very clearly just a free market working both ways.

It also immediately reminds me of the no-call agreements companies had with each other last decade 10 or 15yrs ago.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by mbac32768 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @12:41AM (#44440313)
Could Facebook hire away OpenAI people just by matching their comp? Doubtful. Facebook is widely hated and embarrassing to work at. Facebook has to offer significantly more.

And if someone at OpenAI says hey Facebook just offered me more money to jump ship, that's when OpenAI says "Sorry to hear, best of luck. Seeya!"

In this scenario, you're only underpaid by staying at OpenAI if you have no sense of shame.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by simianwords on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @02:11AM (#44440694)
I wonder what is it that Facebook offered? It can’t be money so I think it’s more responsibility or freedom. Or they had some secret breakthroughs?
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by Palmik on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @02:22AM (#44440734)
It's money. It's also a fresh, small org and a new project, which is exciting for variety of reasons.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by simianwords on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @02:28AM (#44440763)
I can't explain why but I don't think money is it. Nor a new project or whatever can't be it either. Its just too small of a value proposition when you are already in openAI making banger models used by the world.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by pm90 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @08:52AM (#44443150)
According to reports, the comp packages were in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I doubt anyone but execs are making that kind of money at OpenAI; its the sort of money you hope from a successful exit after years of efforts. I don’t blame them for jumping ship.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by lonesword on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @05:26AM (#44441645)
> Facebook is widely hated and embarrassing to work at.

Not sure it's widely hated (disclaimer: I work there), despite all the bad press. The vast majority of people I meet respond with "oh how cool!" when they hear that someone works for the company that owns Instagram.

"Embarassing to work at" - I can count on one hand the number of developers I've met who would refuse to work for Meta out of principle. They are there, but they are rarer than HN likes to believe. Most devs I know associate a FAANG job with competence (correctly or incorrectly).

> Could Facebook hire away OpenAI people just by matching their comp?

My guess is some people might value Meta's RSUs which are very liquid higher than OAI's illiquid stocks? I have no clue how equity compensation works at OAI.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by 999900000999 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @07:45AM (#44442518)
Honestly I’d be happy to work at any FAANG. Early FB in particular was great in terms of keeping up with friends.

I’ve only interviewed with Meta once and failed during a final interview. Aside from online dating and defense I don’t have any moral qualms regarding employment.

My dream in my younger days was to hit 500k tc and retire by 40. Too late now

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by dmoy on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @09:51AM (#44443726)
> defense

By defense do you mean like weapons development, or do you mean the entire DoD-and-related contractor system, including like tiny SIBR chasing companies researching things like, uh

"Multi-Agent Debloating Environment to Increase Robustness in Applications"

https://www.sbir.gov/awards/211845

Which was totally not named in a backronym-gymnastics way of remembering the lead researcher's last vacation destination or hometown or anything, probably.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by 999900000999 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @10:19AM (#44444045)
I'm trying to avoid anything primarily DoD related.

I guess I'd be ok with getting a job at Atlassian even if some DoD units use Jira.

I don't have anything against anyone who works on DOD projects, it's just not something I'm comfortable with

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by pm90 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @08:46AM (#44443093)
Within my (admittedly limited) social circle of engineers/developers there is consensus that working at Facebook is pretty taboo. I’ve personally asked recruiters to not bother.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by scarface_74 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @12:06PM (#44445406)
> Doubtful. Facebook is widely hated and embarrassing to work at. Facebook has to offer significantly more.

I’m at a point in my career and life at 51 that I wouldn’t work for any BigTech company (again) even if I made twice what I make now. Not that I ever struck it rich. But I’m doing okay. Yes I’ve turned down overtures at both GCP, Azure, etc.

But I did work for AWS (ProServe) from the time I was 46-49 remotely knowing going in that it was a toxic shit show for both the money and for the niche I wanted to pivot to (cloud consulting) I knew it would open doors and it has.

If I were younger and still focused on money instead of skating my way to retirement working remotely, doing the digital nomad thing off an on etc, I would have no moral qualms about grinding leetcode and exchanging my labor for as much money as possible at Meta. No one is out here feeding starving children or making the world a better place working for a for profit company.

My “mission” would be to exchange as much money as possible for labor and I tell all of the younger grads the same thing.

Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by DanielHB on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @03:17AM (#44440988)
Crazy that this proves that engineers making >1 million USD /year can still be underpaid
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by pm90 on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @08:43AM (#44443059)
Yes Capitalism is an amazing thing
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by javcasas on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @06:08AM (#44441888)
And will be fired/thrown under the bus the moment firing you is barely more profitable for the CxO than having you around.
Re:Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries... by blitzar on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @11:08AM (#44444689)
I need you to be a team player on this one.