icotyl

Certainly, the salaries are a bit of an illusion when you take the insane housing costs of the Bay Area into account.

If breaking up the American tech companies helped disperse jobs outside of Silicon Valley, that would be a good thing.

Many companies across many industries vertically integrate. Should they all be broken up?

“Shady data practices” is hand-wavey and non-specific. What do you mean? Many companies today (again, across All industries) have had issues with keeping user data secure, selling it to untrustworthy third parties, not giving users transparency or controls in what information is shared, etc. Google’s track record in these areas is far better than most. How does this necessitate a breakup?

Concentrating industry through M&A is a legitimate issue, in my opinion, but it’s also probably the easiest to regulate.

Our tech companies are the most competitive in the world, bar none. I’m not sure that cutting them off at the knees will help with that. ”We did it before,” isn’t a convincing argument that we should do it now, under much different circumstances.

Has Europe’s pro-union climate led to more competitive software companies, or better pay and benefits for its software engineers?

Every European engineer I talk to seems either amazed or resentful about American software engineers’ salaries and benefits. How have the unions helped you in this regard? How have they helped your tech companies be more competitive in the global economy?

What is the corporate abuse here that necessitates a breakup?

Yeah, I think you are in agreement.

It’s worse than that though, because I’d be afraid to say anything contrary to the activist’s opinions. I don’t want to be stalked or harassed. The company is extremely tolerant of what employees say, the activists not so much.

The mental gymnastics some of us are using to justify the bad actions of these employees are astounding.

Making documents and calendars accessible is one example of Google’s “open culture.” When these features are abused in an attempt to strong arm a company or coworkers into kowtowing to each of your demands, that’s sabotage of the company’s culture at the expense of tens of thousands of your coworkers who may not share your political views on every issue. Say your piece, keep saying it if you feel so compelled, but don’t cross the line into unethical behavior and cry “retaliation!” when you’re caught.

> the only people who the company encouraged socializing with.

This is not my experience at all. Work-life balance there was way ahead of other tech companies I’ve worked for. Most people show up, work reasonable hours, and go home. Evenings and weekends are yours.

In my experience, Bay Area startups are way more guilty of trying to exploit young people with a sense of that the startup is your family. Eat, work, play, and socialize with your team, 24/7. Some people enjoy that, and sometimes these same startups go belly up, and your social network is lost.

I have no idea where your rhetoric comes from, though.

That's not an actual quote, FYI. They peddled something called "community-adjusted EBITDA."

> "Now the problem is "Productivity" is stagnating since the 80's"

This is the exact opposite of what your chart shows. Productivity, in the economic sense, is growing since the 1980s. It's wages that have stagnated. The wealth generated by increased productivity is all flowing to top.

Dalio recognizes this: "Increased productivity will also substantially increase the wealth gap." He knows this trend is not sustainable.

It’s unfortunate that the batteries in these things wear out so quickly. And the battery is glued inside, making them $200+ disposable headphones.

But even so, AirPods are one of my favorite products I’ve bought in years.