Jaime Garza🫡 @jogarza@qoto.org

And it's gone. Goodbye #galactica https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-large-language-model-ai-only-survived-three-days-gpt-3-science/

#riptwitter

The list of things that have gone wrong at Twitter is, well, extensive. But the simplest one happened at the very start, was exacerbated by Musk's subsequent communication, and was extremely, IMHO, predictable.

So, let's talk about the difference between startups and established tech companies.

I worked at a startup as my first job out of college. Put five years in. It was an amazing experience and I was truly fortunate to have it; I was thrown into the deep end, learned things about software architecture that would serve me well throughout my whole career, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

I also:

* broke off a date with my future wife because I was the only one of three team members who could make a demo work for the next day. We pulled an all-nighter.

* became well-familiar with the biker gang that pulled up to the bar across the street from our office every Saturday night; could set my clock by them arriving. Did often, on account of all the seven-day weeks.

* got the sickest I'd ever been, out three weeks. Week two, my CEO calls and checks to see if there's any duty I could take on because we had no other hands to do it. I wrote some user-facing documentation. Three months later, someone caught all the obvious typos and asked "What idiot wrote this?" I dead-panned that I think I missed some issues on account of all the vivid hallucinations.

* had a conversation with my doctor about the indigestion that was waking me up at night. He suggested I relieve stress. I responded "I work at a startup, so what are the options that don't require a career change?"

And eventually, I left because I was ready to stop living like that.

Here's the thing: there is *so much* of the software dev ecosystem where you don't *live* like that. You live like that because you're working on something you're willing to sacrifice yourself for it (I'm not talking about being passionate about the work---you can be passionate and have a work-life balance---I'm talking actual sacrifice; things you won't get back) or you are expecting a *huge* payout relative to the invested effort. If those ingredients aren't there? You don't take that gig. And companies that aren't willing to offer that payout or the kind of we-are-here-to-change-the-world opportunity don't get those employees.

Twitter was once such a startup. It's not anymore. It went public. Once a company goes public, it's no longer a startup; it's a place people who want a reliable paycheck and a reasonable work-life balance go to work. At Google, we were counseled to have a "startup mentality" by leadership, and people certainly tried to give it their all, but... You just don't work like you're at a startup at a 100,000-person company. You can't. The buy-in isn't there. It does you no good to pull seven-day weeks when the database team you're relying upon works five-day weeks, holds all the credentials to modify the DB, and just won't answer their email on a Saturday. What's the point then? Go home, love your spouse, work on your house, hike in the park, touch grass.

Musk tried something I don't think I've seen before: he tried taking a company that "won the game," as it were, and *roll it back to a startup.* He took a place people had a stable job making a product people use and tried to make it a place where the future was uncertain again. And then he confirmed that, yes, he *was* expecting those employees to work seven-day weeks to realize a vision... A vision he didn't even enunciate.

Twitter was a place steady hands were working to maintain a mature product for a reliable paycheck. A mass exodus is entirely expected. I don't know why *he* didn't expect it.

Ok, trying again from a different app (toot!)… let’s see if the video comes through:

telling my grandchildren about twitter

@feraluniverse @TheAssCat it's a blep

Boudicca and Moo last Caturday

Just toss it in #StrayLiotta

Mood

My password is just every Unicode codepoint concatenated into a single UTF-8 string.
https://xkcd.com/2700/

"Two papers were published on the find this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and according to the literature, there are two especially astounding galaxies sitting in the region. Just a small percentage of the Milky Way's size, these tiny realms are hypothesized to have existed approximately 350 million and 450 million years after the Big Bang (that's immensely close to the beginning of time)."

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasas-webb-telescope-reveals-yet-another-invisible-pocket-of-space/

Sunset at Salk Institute today.

Laying off 90% of your staff and locking them out of your offices a few days before the World cup when you need all-hands to keep the whole thing tipping up is .. a choice

Hi, I'm new here. I'm a landscape photographer & home energy auditor in Minnesota. I'm an advocate for climate action & mental health. I enjoy snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking & music. I love bands like Pearl Jam, Gaslight Anthem, Jason Isbell & similar artists. Here's a few somewhat recent photos #Photography #LandscapePhotography #sunrise #travel

I posted a message to mastodon via ham radio! iPhone via Bluetooth to a Mobilinkd TNC3 modem to BaoFeng UB5R. The signal went about 4 miles to the UT Austin Amateur Radio Club's antenna on top of Physics building (KA5D) where their iGate send it to 4X5MG whose bot posted it. Pretty neat! https://botsin.space/@aprs/109316550326136608

The Asymmetric Nebula Surrounding Wolf-Rayet Star 18

Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Woronow

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221109.html #APOD

A few tips for newcomers, as I have learned myself in the past week...

#AltText Descriptions: Please use them, many folks here depend upon them and have been using them for years before we all arrived.

#CamelCase: when you use hashtags, use Camel Case if you have more than one word: #WelcomeToMastodon is easier to read than #welcometomastodon - so do that. Use WAAAAY more hashtags than you are used to on Twitter. Mastodon is hashtag dependent.

#ContentWarning: If you are posting something that might even in the slightest trigger another person, use the Content Warning (CW) option that you can toggle on at the bottom of the toot window. It's polite here. People can choose how they want to view and interact. Use CW more than you are used to on Twitter.

#Diversity: a few people have commented, "lots of white men here!" Well, ok, but you can also find each other by using hashtags like #WomenInStem #BlackMastodon and many more including my favorites that I started up: #Desi and #MixedDesi (i.e. me). Start your own if you don't see yourself represented, so others can find you, too.

#DMs: are under the globe option in the toot window for privacy setting and they appear in your full list / feed of notifications (don't freak out at that).

#Donations: This is all run by volunteers. Make a donation. Click on the "about this server" at the bottom of your screen (might appear in a different location than on mine) and find out who is running your server and how to make a donation. And thank them!

#Introductions: Please write a friendly intro and use the hashtag #introduction so people can learn about you. Be interested in others. Grow your community through daily, friendly interaction.

Have fun! This is like a big global cafe with many tables to sit at, and conversations to be had.

Lots more tips linked in my feed. Welcome!

Got my dad to 3D scan his cat and now she doesn’t understand why he won’t stop laughing

Just found mastodon, and signed up. Now I want to try to run a server for mastodon on a raspi 😂