It might have been a few years ago, but having Amazon on my CV has offered almost nothing. If anything, I get fewer legitimate interview offers than I did before.

Europe is a huge continent, with many countries with entirely different rules/laws/customs, so it’s near impossible to say that it’s better or worse.

At least the MySpace guy was able to run a fun site, cash out before social media became crazy, and spend the rest of his life having fun with that money.

Trump will lose, and Musk will be holding on to a useless site that serves nothing. He’ll probably sell for a fraction of what he paid (not that it was his money in the first place), but by that point it’ll be too late. Twitter will be long dead.

Is there a way to rank tech companies on how shitty they are? I’d love some kind of directory of companies and all the cunty things they have done in the last few years - like uncov but for established companies.

That’s a shame, and sadly it’s all too uncommon. Given Amazon’s history with layoffs, and the countless stories of people that moved from NYC to Seattle, only to be laid off days/weeks later, there’s no way I’d move for Amazon.

The funny thing is that many people in our Seattle team constantly complain about not being able to park at the office - and that’s without everyone at the office and more to come.

I’m one of those few lucky people that finds it relatively easy to exercise (and be decently good at it), so I was often that weird dweeb that loved DBZ that would win in sports day, score in football games, make the top four consistently in tennis, win the 1500m, etc. I was that weird kid that loved the bleep test, because it was something I was good at.

My experience was very similar in PE. Popular people would get cheered on, I’d dominate them, and it would be met with a mixture of indifference and annoyance that I wasn’t unfit like everyone else I hung around with to discuss the intricacies of Neon Genesis Evangelion at lunch time.

IMO it’s worse than this. It’s likely to do with Seattle real estate only, because Amazon has their HQ in Seattle, most of the STeam is in Seattle, and it’s where most of the big decisions are focused. There is an acronym that has existed at Amazon for decades, NEWS (Not Everyone Works in Seattle). Sadly, like many Amazonian things, they’re not really a thing any more…

When I joined Amazon, I was told that for some roles in the US Amazon received more applications than corporate employees worldwide - so I assume 1M+.

That number has probably reduced significantly, given we’ve now had two rounds of RTO. I know some recruiters are really struggling to find external candidates to join, and rightly so, but I don’t doubt that Amazon can find someone to fill these roles, or can find someone outside of North America or Europe to take that role.

The FAANG acronym was the worst thing to happen to tech, because people will flock to Amazon to say “I worked for FAANG”. Prestige is a powerful thing to some, and they’ll deal with some insane shit for the clout that comes from being here.

(FWIW, I’ve been at Amazon as a software engineer for close to four years now, and I’ve noticed zero improvement in opportunities afforded to me)

Happy Birthday, just because it’ll be interesting to see what we all choose to do instead of singing that song.

Never move to Britain then. It’s essentially our national anthem at this point…

Out of interest, what do you do and where are you based? It’s a shitty place to work, but if you’re near an Amazon office and you do Amazony things I’m happy to send a reference your way.

It does, if you want an alcoholic drink, or want to be around other people drinking. The vibe is very different between the two.

I know that we Europeans love to shit on America, but this is something I am truly jealous of.

Due to the drinking culture here in the UK, diners aren’t really a thing. Sometimes I would love to go out late at night and have a coffee or a cheap bite to eat while chatting to someone, but you’re basically limited to restaurants or bars. You don’t even really see coffee shops open past 6pm, which is a real shame.

If there were an easy way to do this, almost totally anonymously, so that Amazon cannot shut it down, and so someone can see that it is a legit attempt to unionize, I would love to see it.

There’s plenty of “talk” about it, but there’s a lot of fear of retaliation in doing so.

I mean, killing prisoners is cruel and unusual in a civilised society.

Here in the UK you can’t buy more than two packs at a given time…

Pretty much every media outlet across the world.

The opposing party in the UK is electing leaders, and they’ve all been asked what they think of him. Like it or not, but in turning one of the biggest multi-billion dollar social media platforms into a small million dollar right-wing platform for crypto bots, he’s now got a lot of influence on politics across the world.

What makes it funnier is that he probably doesn’t give a fuck about the Tories in the UK, but if Trump loses he’ll own a right-wing platform with zero influence on what he cares about.

Here’s an idea.

In the UK we have a presenter called Alex Jones, and she’s absolutely lovely. She is a host on a show called The One Show, which is basically a topical light-hearted show that jumps from one thing to the next at hilarious speed (think heartwarming story about puppies to a sad story about someone dying or ovarian cancer in the space of a few seconds, while their guest immediately wipes the smile from their face).

Keep Infowars running, but replace the Alex Jones and turn Infowars into a family friendly topical show that brightens everyone’s day. Let it succeed, and have him succeeded by the (Good) Alex Jones.

It surprises me a little, because on some instances there seems to be a lot of power users/tech influencer types, but not a lot of engagement between smaller accounts. Active users is around 1 in 12, which is again higher than expected, so maybe it’s just me/Hackyderm?

My very first lessons were around just this, getting used to the bite point where the clutch needs to be to roll forward, and where you start to apply the accelerator. We practiced a few times on different levels of road, and within maybe 1-2 lessons it was fine.

With that said, I can see it being much harder if you’re already experienced or have passed a test, as it is a new skill to learn. It’s a bit like riding a bike in that aspect, I guess.