It’s kind of fine if it becomes just another Truth social though, isn’t it? Kind of a containment zone. The big problem is if it’s the one place where everyone is.

We power on, my friend. We’ll make it in the end

It’s not to say I accept it, but I also know that I don’t exactly have a choice in the matter.

This has been the worst part about working in tech since the big layoff period from about the beginning of 2023 - unthinkable levels of uncertainty in your life.

Still definitely got a better deal than most in life, but damn if it hasn’t been mentally taxing

Depends on if the good people have better places to go, I guess. My guess is that you’re probably going to lose people who have some amount of tenure, especially if you’re the kind of company that gives equity that vests on a 4-year schedule. Even if you’re not, people with some amount of tenure will be the ones trending towards being checked out already.

Losing people with tenure means you lose organisational memory, which can definitely be negative.

This is all to say that as an organisation, you should think twice about doing any kind of layoff. They are all bad in their own way. This just happens to be the format that is least bad for most workers, which is why I prefer it.

I mean, you’re probably right, but between this and regular layoffs? This every day of the week

This is the best way to do headcount reductions imo. In large organisations there’s always someone who’s been there for a long time and gotten tired of the work, and that would gladly take this type of offer if it’s lucrative enough.

To demonstrate - imagine that you’ve been considering quitting your job for a while. Then someone comes along and says that if you do that, you also get some additional cash for free. You’d probably take it, right?

And if you necessarily need to reduce headcount, then there’s also the argument that if someone leaves voluntarily, then someone who wants to stay doesn’t have to get pushed out.

So yeah, I’m not against this

Exposing your database directly to the internet? God damn, it really is amateur hour.

Reason is a shit rag, and I don’t think their slop should be posted.

Buying assumes a willing seller, and I don’t think ByteDance are willing.

I’m not sure if you’re up to date on how layoffs have been done lately in tech, but management has been primary targets in layoffs. Full layers of management have been removed, and middle managers have often been expected to take on twice as many reports for no increase in compensation.

No comments on the C-level part which is largely correct

Indeed! I was planning on mentioning that as well but forgot.

IKEA is an acronym: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd - the name of the founder Ingvar Kamprad, the village of Elmtaryd (now spelled Älmtaryd) located in the parish of Agunnaryd.

Älmtaryd/Agunnaryd are located in Småland.

It is indeed.

It’s a bit of a play on words, since Småland literally translates to Small land, making it apt as this is where you can leave your children at IKEA.

I looked up the etymology of the name out of interest, and it seems like it stems from it being made up of a collection of smaller self-ruling villages, located between Skåne that has often been under Danish control, and Götaland which was controlled by Götar.

Note that there’s a typo in the source article:

One woman, from the southern province of Smålandeven, Småland, even managed to get Social Security benefits for calling in gay.

Yeah, the drop in sound quality is not exactly large nor is it a big concern for me.

I’ve mostly transitioned to using in-ear headphones instead of over-ear, partially for this reason.

The other reason being the far less space they take up.

The con is that the battery life is not as good and the sound quality I guess is arguably a bit worse, but on balance I find the tradeoff worth it

heatpumps don’t work below about -20C

I don’t think that’s true? There are cold weather models that can work at COPs > 1.5 at -30C. Are we talking about a sizing constraint for the model here, perhaps?

I hope circumstance treats you better soon, best of luck

This doesn’t sound like a healthy living arrangement, my friend.

There’s no sense in spending limited public funding on nuclear now - renewables and storage is winning on all fronts.

Shutting down what nuclear existed was a costly mistake, but going down that path again is an even worse one

Chickpeas, tofu and chicken are often recurring on our cooking, along with rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

When eating out my go-to is falafel, with a few different chicken options as second choice.