[quaquaqua1]

Jack Welch is indirectly the reason I got fired at Oracle, because some group of bean counters thought it is smart to fire people regularly based on some subjective measurement.

However I am very sad he died because I subsequently got a raise and met my wife at my next company.

[magduf]

It sounds like it was a good thing you got fired from Oracle. You got a raise in your next job (so Oracle was underpaying you), and you got away from a crappy company. Your only mistake, in hindsight, might be that you didn't leave Oracle sooner.

I stuck around at one company for way too long too, earlier in my career. I finally got pushed out because of a bunch of layoffs. I got a huge raise at my next company, plus a more interesting job too, and better coworkers. I should have looked around earlier, but I was comfortable at that job and afraid of leaving. (That next job ended up not lasting too, again due to mismanagement resulting in laying off my whole team, but the job after also came with another big raise...)

I think the moral here is to not ever get too comfortable at any one job, and don't take things personally if you get laid off: the company is probably being stupid and losing a great asset.

[dayofthedaleks]

See? Creative Destruction is real!

[quaquaqua1]

All of these replies are making me laugh, because there is some truth to all of them :)

List of ideas:

1) Oracle fired me to save money, or something? But then replaced me with x number of fresh grad employees who have to be onboarded to my level of productivity?

2) My salary went up and I am much more productive at my new company, which is also a big corp... so theoretically I am more "efficiently allocated" and literally everything was a win/win?

3) But also like others said, it could all be luck and randomness and there are others who get very depressed and/or can't find any work at all?

It's very tough to say, there's no way to predict the future, so it's wise not to attach lots of meaning to anecdotes :)

[briandear]

There is something to be said about your comment: this illustrates the value of free markets and the efficient allocation of resources; you were allocated more efficiently and you made more money and got your wife.

[purplezooey]

Really? My sense is that he is sardonically looking back at a shitty situation, not of his own making, that happened to work out for the better, and despite this would not wish it upon anyone, rather than endorsing it as being part of some larger 1980s laissez-faire bullshit ideology.

[Ghjklov]

Purely luck though he could’ve also alternatively remained jobless with a bout of depression and became homeless after spiraling into ruin.

[magduf]

I wouldn't call it luck; it really depends on a lot of factors. If he's a software dev like most people here, then he's in an industry where there's a high demand for his talents, so it's generally not that hard to find a new job. Unfortunately, this is of course not the case for all workers; laid-off coal miners for instance will have a much harder time.

[quaquaqua1]

Can confirm I am a software developer and it was relatively easy to find "just any" gig, but I am not working for Google or anything like that :)

[Psyladine]

The best part of survivorship bias is when you are a survivor.