i_love_music

Cool observation. Fascinating to see how corporate speak spreads and builds off each other. These are like memes in their technical definition - "behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation"

Once a company or two uses these phrases it become politically acceptable to repeat them because they have now been "vetted". Contrarian or outsider views are not well received most of the time despite all of us wanting to believe we're different/unique/contrarian.

Humans are such an interesting species.

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. I really hope you're doing ok and seek appropriate mental health support. Don't fret over the ranking of companies - we're all dead and forgotten in a few generations anyways. This is true for every Google and Netflix engineer in existence.

Great comments. I agree with your take on what being an ML Eng actually means. Of course this will vary to a degree from team to team and company to company, but I think you still capture it well.

I absolutely think MLEng is important and much needed, but too often under appreciated. Being this half breed part engineer part ML leaves you on a lonely island often in many orgs. The ML managers don't really understand what you do and neither do the engineering managers. It is kind of thankless unless your management really understands your role and appropriately advocates for you.

MLEng is often an engineer who wanted to get into the sexy ML space and since it is in the title it feels cool. Then you realize you're more an Ops engineer who deals with the inane code of many "true" DS/ML scientists. Thankless, indeed.

Definitely agree with your first two paragraphs, but am confused by the pay paths. Can you expand on what the paths mean?

Thanks for calling this out. I too have noticed the same behavior and it’s frustrating. I’m happy to see others notice the same phenomenon.

+1 for Dream Theatre. Progressive metal is my number one source of Frisson. Brutal, heavy lows followed by soaring, melodic highs really does it for me.

Before I learned of the name frisson, I always thought it was an adrenaline response.

Ha yes exactly. "We have transcended the need for rules. Except this one rule. And maybe another rule if you keep being mean. And if you break that rule I'll call my mom on you"

I love this take. Refreshing to read. Thanks for your words. It has helped me slow down and enjoy my day.

I personally love your take. I don't know about this person, but it resonates with me. Especially the part about treating life as a game or competition and the only success metric is work/money/power. I'm by no means a lost cause, but I dabble in that game more than I want to. Or, I should say, I assign too much self worth around those metrics.

Yes, best interpretation yet. This data is whack. I would take it all with a massive planet size grain of rice.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I love this community but sometimes it bums me out. If work is what truly makes people happen, then awesome, have at it. Personally, I get some but not all of self-fulfillment out of it. I use the paycheck to do the things I actually care about.

Right? I really appreciate OPs work ethic, but he/she should not project their inability to manage their time or their team onto others.

I will say it. FANG/MANG is as easy as it gets. These companies hire people so their competitors don't, not that the people hired are expected to generate tons and tons of value. It is easy to put these companies on a pedestal, but the more you look into it the more you learn that these companies are HUGE and that finding a team that only requires you to work 2 hours a day is pretty normal. This at least has been my experience and the experience of many friends as senior+ in FANGMA

I appreciate your words. The passion and the way you write about nature is great. I connect with it. It does remind me that humans have become numb to the world around us. That we are just animals dependent on the ecosystem and we disturb it at our own peril.

This post and the subsequent thread are great. Sadly, HN is part of my internet/screens addiction, but it is nice to step aside and reflect on how life has changed between pre and post internet. Thanks for you well thought out comment.