[leaves83829]

i saw this ALL the time at past employers. Employers higher all kinds of interns who eagerly get truck loads of work done and build great connections. and 2 years later the company is getting sold off, out of business, or mass lay offs all over the place. what's the point of highering all those interns in the first place?? geez.

[chasd00]

Interns getting “truck loads” of work done has not been my experience. Potted plant is a better metaphor.

[organ1cwast3]

Liquidity in the currency market.

Need to propagate a lot of dollars fast, 24/7 as a moat on it remaining a reserve currency.

99% of these software startups are basic software that can be handled by a single dev; see Reddit apps and such.

But that money printer was running hot and heavy. Needed to funnel it somewhere. Why not that favorite political cudgel of the elites; pointless busy work jobs! Let's invest in a bunch of shops nearby for them to lunch at too!

[locknitpicker]

> 99% of these software startups are basic software that can be handled by a single dev; see Reddit apps and such.

This sounds like specious reasoning, similar to the tired old interview question "how would you design Twitter".

Twitter is just a table in a RDBMS, isn't it right? Any fool implements that in an afternoon.

Except it isn't, and the actual complexity of real world software often lies in festures you are completely oblivious.

[organ1cwast3]

> you are completely oblivious.

Sounds like specious reasoning similar to the tired trope of "someone is wrong on the internet and I must correct them".

Twitter is in the 1% not the "99% of these..." but don't let reading comprehension get in the way.

I was a phonics kid not a 3-cuing student. Reading scores have nose dived since phonics was phased out. So I understand it's not entirely your fault.

[lelanthran]

Twitter is not even in the 1%. In reality, Twitter scale problems are more like 1 in a million.

[fauchletenerum]

All of these companies feed their workers in their posh corporate cafeterias while the restaurants around their offices remain mostly empty

[organ1cwast3]

Big tech, sure, but not all the startups. I can assure you having freelanced and mentored many a SWE at 5-20 person startups the last 6 years they are not all hiring pro chefs.

Have you not been reading the headlines about urban offices empty? Low taxes to create foot traffic for other businesses?

The trickle down of the ZIRP era was about spreading all the dollars they could print as quickly as possible to maintain dominance of the dollar.

SaaS apps are meaningless to future generations. We were never creating pyramids of Egypt like wonders. We were missionaries for contemporary American propaganda.

[faangguyindia]

>mass lay offs all over the place. what's the point of highering all those interns in the first place?? geez.

If you don't hire them, someone else can hire them. Out of 1,000 you hire, one could be an "attention all you need" research paper writer, who could set up the next stage of innovation which you'll completely miss if you do not get anyone.

Initially, you’ve got to starve out the market of talent to stop competition from growing by nipping the threat in the bud.

Future can pay for all of this if you succeed.

[deathanatos]

> Out of 1,000 you hire, one could be an "attention all you need" research paper writer, who could set up the next stage of innovation which you'll completely miss if you do not get anyone.

I have worked with people of this caliber. The company did nothing to retain them, and the company did not retain them.

Every time. Without fail.

[brabel]

I am part of Management in my company. We explicitly maintain a list of key people in the company we don’t want to lose. The truth is that just a few people are what makes a company. Lose them and you are in trouble. Some companies don’t seem to understand that, but perhaps after a certain size, it doesn’t matter anymore! The machinery just keeps turning.

[Freedom2]

Well how can they have the time or resources to invest in retaining talent? They're busy hiring more interns, where one could be an "attention all you need" research paper writer, who could set up the next stage of innovation which you'll completely miss if you do not get anyone.

[lordnacho]

I met a guy this happened to. He got a special award within the company, asked for a bit of equity, didn't get it, in fact got blacklisted and booted out.

Luckily for him it worked out very very nicely.

[pjc50]

Yes. The intent is not to retain them or keep them happy, it's just to prevent them from doing inventive work for anyone else.