Had breakfast briefly w/ Chuck and Aaron.
Aaron is a pretty brilliantly smart guy -- now he's at Facebook and was telling us a few things
1- the amount of engineering is amazing. They are building their own hardware, data centers, etc. All open source as well
http://www.opencompute.org/
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/facebook-opens-data-center-filled-entirely-with-servers-it-designed/
2 -- its all young people. Aaron said its mostly 23-26 yo's who work pretty odd hours and ride skateboards around and are out of shape.
3 -- he wouldn't have passed as a developer because their tests are super hard. also he failed to get in in '2007 and got in in '2009 instead.. costing him prob $10m bucks! I am guessing he made a few million off it regardless but not like mega-buckaroos. But point is, if he couldn't get in then I wouldn't get in either...
So all in all, it makes me wonder if my dream of getting back into Silicon Valley is just a dream or what.. I mean I am thinking after 6years out of hard core tech, and 6years older, now 40, that I could still waltz my way back.. perhaps I'm not thinking straight ?
Sure I can waltz back into Samsung or some mid-grade role, but Goog or FB.. I think that time has passed me by. Probably my peak time to go that route was 10yrs ago when I went to BGI instead of Netflix, Apple, Ebay or some other top tier tech firm. Today I can prob get into an HP or Samsung, but then my work life may be similarly disinteresting as it is now... ? or would it? Hmmm new things to think about as I ponder my next move in life.
Thinking to work this current job for another 20years is depressing me.
As for Chuck, he bought a Tesla and is enjoying life. he is 68... damn that is old, but he is looking/doing very well and I'm very glad he made time to have breakfast with me on short notice.
Aaron is a pretty brilliantly smart guy -- now he's at Facebook and was telling us a few things
1- the amount of engineering is amazing. They are building their own hardware, data centers, etc. All open source as well
http://www.opencompute.org/
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/facebook-opens-data-center-filled-entirely-with-servers-it-designed/
2 -- its all young people. Aaron said its mostly 23-26 yo's who work pretty odd hours and ride skateboards around and are out of shape.
3 -- he wouldn't have passed as a developer because their tests are super hard. also he failed to get in in '2007 and got in in '2009 instead.. costing him prob $10m bucks! I am guessing he made a few million off it regardless but not like mega-buckaroos. But point is, if he couldn't get in then I wouldn't get in either...
So all in all, it makes me wonder if my dream of getting back into Silicon Valley is just a dream or what.. I mean I am thinking after 6years out of hard core tech, and 6years older, now 40, that I could still waltz my way back.. perhaps I'm not thinking straight ?
Sure I can waltz back into Samsung or some mid-grade role, but Goog or FB.. I think that time has passed me by. Probably my peak time to go that route was 10yrs ago when I went to BGI instead of Netflix, Apple, Ebay or some other top tier tech firm. Today I can prob get into an HP or Samsung, but then my work life may be similarly disinteresting as it is now... ? or would it? Hmmm new things to think about as I ponder my next move in life.
Thinking to work this current job for another 20years is depressing me.
As for Chuck, he bought a Tesla and is enjoying life. he is 68... damn that is old, but he is looking/doing very well and I'm very glad he made time to have breakfast with me on short notice.
