More than a dozen former Facebook employees detailed how the company's leadership and its performance review system has created a culture where any dissent is discouraged. Employees say Facebook's stack ranking performance review system drives employees to push out products and features that drive user engagement without fully considering potential long-term negative impacts on user … Continue reading Inside Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to be happy all the time
Author: Eric
Python Decorators
In short, a decorator takes in a function, adds some functionality and returns it. This feature in Python is very similar to what is in Ruby. You open up a class and add feature to it - monkey patching. Python has an interesting feature called decorators to add functionality to an existing code. This is … Continue reading Python Decorators
*args and **kwargs in Python
In Python, there are two special symbols that you can use when defining functions to allow them to take in a variable number of arguments. The syntax is to use the symbol * to take in a variable number of arguments; by convention, it is often used with the word args. What *args allows you … Continue reading *args and **kwargs in Python
Why It’s Hard to Escape Amazon’s Long Reach
In 1994, soon after Jeff Bezos incorporated what would become Amazon, the entrepreneur briefly contemplated changing the company’s name. The nascent firm had been dubbed “Cadabra,” but Bezos wanted a less playful, more accurate alternative: “Relentless.” (Relentless.com redirects to Amazon.com to this day.) Twenty-four years later, perhaps no adjective better describes Bezos’ empire than the … Continue reading Why It’s Hard to Escape Amazon’s Long Reach
Captcha if you can: how you’ve been training AI for years without realising it
All those little visual puzzles add up to AI advances Congratulations are in order. You, yes you, dear reader, have been part of something incredible. Thanks to your hard work, millions of books containing pretty much the sum-total of human knowledge have been successfully digitised, saving their texts for future generations. All because of you. … Continue reading Captcha if you can: how you’ve been training AI for years without realising it
How I Quit Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon
A reflection on my month without Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, plus a how-to guide if you want to quit the biggest companies in tech. It was just before closing time at a Verizon store in Bushwick, New York last May when I burst through the door, sweaty and exasperated. I had just sprinted—okay … Continue reading How I Quit Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon
LemonBox, which brings US vitamins to Chinese consumers, raises $2M
LemonBox, a Chinese e-commerce startup that imports vitamins and health products from the U.S., has raised $2 million to develop its business. The company graduated from Y Combinator’s most recent program in the U.S. and, fueled by the demo day, has pulled in the new capital from 10 investors, which include Partech, Tekton Ventures, Cathexis … Continue reading LemonBox, which brings US vitamins to Chinese consumers, raises $2M
I’m Leaving Google — Here’s the Real Deal Behind Google Cloud
Let’s start from the end: after almost 6.5 years, I’m leaving what’s IMO the best company in the world to work for. This was my longest stint at any one company. I’m leaving to pursue a high-risk high-reward opportunity with a company that’s disrupting personal finance. I joined Google Cloud before it was even a … Continue reading I’m Leaving Google — Here’s the Real Deal Behind Google Cloud
After losing half its value, Nvidia faces reckoning
Nvidia is a company that has reached the highest highs and the lowest lows, all in the span of a couple of weeks. Over the past two months, Nvidia’s stock has dropped from a closing price of $289.36 on Oct. 1 to today’s opening of $148.42, a decline of 48.8%. It takes a lot for … Continue reading After losing half its value, Nvidia faces reckoning
AR startup Blippar in danger of becoming a blip as shareholders fight over future funding
Blippar, the U.K.-based AR startup that raised more than $130 million, may be nearing the end of the road. The company has been burning through cash in a bid to pivot in search of a profitable AR business model, and now shareholders are in dispute over whether to throw Blippar any more money to aid … Continue reading AR startup Blippar in danger of becoming a blip as shareholders fight over future funding
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