[HN Gopher] Stack Overflow CEO announces 10% reduction in force ...
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Stack Overflow CEO announces 10% reduction in force (58 employees)
Author : brycewray
Score : 37 points
Date : 2023-05-10 18:12 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (stackoverflow.blog)
(TXT) w3m dump (stackoverflow.blog)
| diversionfactor wrote:
| Here's an idea for those who want to achieve a fast high ranking
| on Stack Overflow:
|
| 1. Use their API 2.3 to get the latest questions for your area of
| interest (Javascript/React, whatever):
|
| https://api.stackexchange.com/docs
|
| 2. Feed the questions into your LLM of choice such as Huggingface
| StarCoder:
|
| https://huggingface.co/blog/starcoder
|
| 3. Review the answer manually to make sure it's legit and not a
| hallucination or just plain wrong: ideally writing some nice UI
| so you can see, say, the SO Q on the left, proposed answer on the
| right, and a bottom terminal where you can run the proposed
| solution code to verify. With enough self-verification loops you
| could cut out the wetware middleperson, but this manual step is
| crucial to avoid incorrect answers and to keep with SO policy:
|
| https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421831/temporary-po...
|
| 4. Parley #3 to quickly up your ranking to be one of the top
| users in your area of expertise:
|
| https://stackoverflow.com/users
|
| 5. Submit a Y Combinator application to create a company doing
| 1-4 above to solve real world software problems posted online,
| like Mechanical Turk meets Stack Overflow meets Upwork.
|
| https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
|
| 6. Bonus points if you are the first "post-code" startup whose
| code for doing #5 above is actually written 100% by transformer
| agents:
|
| https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/transformers_agents
| ggorlen wrote:
| I'm not sure if this comment is a joke or not, but please don't
| do this. Stack Overflow is trying to curate a resource of high-
| quality questions and answers. The rule is that content is
| created by humans, generally subject matter experts.
|
| LLMs are banned for a reason. I flag dozens of LLMs answers a
| week for removal. These answers are a serious problem for
| accuracy and cleaning them up is a waste of time for moderators
| and normal users. Most of these answers are flat out incorrect.
| People using this technique or are interested in rep farming
| generally don't know how to review the answer, or they'd write
| it themselves. If OP wanted an LLM answer, they'd just ask an
| LLM directly. They're there to ask human SMEs.
|
| It seems to me one's time in life is better served by actually
| learning useful technical skills rather than trying to game
| systems to the detriment of the commons for fake internet
| points, although I guess in this day and age the latter gets
| you further (see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35885342
| "My friends who cheated in interviews are getting promoted").
|
| Anyway, parent comment has nothing to do with the linked topic
| and seems inconsiderate of the people laid off.
| noncoml wrote:
| > but please don't do this
|
| Nothing unethical about doing that.
|
| SO takes advantage of the collective effort of people
| answering questions. LLMs take advantage of SO. So nothing
| ethically wrong by someone doing what the grand parent
| suggest.
|
| Folks please do it if you fell like it.
| fatfingerd wrote:
| This kind of reminds me of the joke about building micro
| services and moving to a more reliable API for some data you
| are dependent on, only to realize it is sourcing data from you.
| turtleyacht wrote:
| Reduction in Force (RIF)
| brycewray wrote:
| Made that change. Thanks.
| WWLink wrote:
| Wouldn't be more accurate to say they fired 58 people? Laid
| off? Sacked? Sent off to greener pastures? I don't care what
| form of corporate speak they use, it's all just another word
| for "fired" lol
|
| "Today we are embarking upon an Employee Enrichment Initiative
| - we are sending 58 people on a journey for a better future -
| by releasing them from their current obligations"
| garbagecoder wrote:
| A RIF has a legal meaning under the WARN act[1]. AFAIK,
| that's the origin of the term and it's (for once) not a comms
| team coining.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retra
| ini...
| garbagecoder wrote:
| I'm sorry, you don't have enough reputation points to keep your
| job. This job is already performed in another thread (that's 8
| years old but totally not out of date).
|
| I also have an irrelevant pedantic objection to your job that I
| will couch in sneering dismissals of your question and fake brags
| about my credentials, but please make sure to upvote this answer
| on your way out of the building.
| fabian2k wrote:
| This is a rather disrespectful way to comment on the
| announcement of people losing their jobs.
| [deleted]
| noncoml wrote:
| -1 please see guidelines and provide minimal reproducible
| example
| garbagecoder wrote:
| I don't think so at all.
| gjvc wrote:
| "sharing"... Please.
| nolawi89 wrote:
| Its purely archive site.. if you can write the question... chat
| GPT can answer it better. Obviously the learning experience
| writing the question in a way everyone understood was a learning
| thing.. i will miss that... RIP Stackoverflow
| rvz wrote:
| Here it comes, lots of human programmers deprecated and replaced.
| Both seniors and juniors affected.
|
| Learn to adapt and migrate to Copilot, Ghostwriter and AI
| assisted programming with assisted code documentation and less of
| a need for programmers in general.
| roflyear wrote:
| Certainly only developers are using these tools
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Or just stack overflow has a bad business model and not so
| great leadership. Look at the events for the last few years and
| are those still right?
| latchkey wrote:
| I'm starting to notice a trend of mentioning AI in these layoff
| notices.
| gumballindie wrote:
| What's a ceo supposed to do? Admit incompetence? Lack of skill
| in growing a company? Instead they blame [insert current media
| story arc].
| kevviiinn wrote:
| How about not lay people off to pad profits
| disruptiveink wrote:
| This doesn't feel like it's about competence or lack thereof.
|
| Reading that post, the cynic in me couldn't help but think
| that the CEO of Stack Overflow just wanted to do "the hip
| thing" these days, which is to lay off people for no reason
| and write a blog post taking "full responsibility". What best
| way to polish your CEO CV in 2023 than to be in the company
| of Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and etc?
|
| Of course, the fact that people are getting fired over the
| performance is a tiny detail easily glossed over.
| fatfingerd wrote:
| I was expecting something about competition from AI or
| potentially customers deciding to wait and see. This just
| mentions it is one of their own R&D priorities, so presumably
| no one laid off was working on that.
| jstarfish wrote:
| It's typical corporate doublespeak.
|
| I guarantee you this is going to be a batch of older workers
| and PIP candidates.
|
| AI is new and fresh. It is the domain of younger employees.
| cableshaft wrote:
| I'm older (old enough that I should be shot according to the
| movie Primer).
|
| I'm using AI in my workflow with success. It's not that
| difficult.
| cnasc wrote:
| > (old enough that I should be shot according to the movie
| Primer)
|
| I think you mean Looper! Both are great movies though
| jtimdwyer wrote:
| I think it's a reference to this scene.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN-VAdAnoZ4
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