Tech Talent Underutilized

A discussion about the reality of working at major tech companies, highlighting the contrast between employees' high qualifications and the often trivial nature of their work assignments.

Key Points:

• Highly Qualified Talent Working on Minor Features:

  • MIT graduates potentially working on cat emoji animations instead of space exploration
  • Brilliant employees spending time on small engagement metrics
  • Example: PMM at Facebook working on sticker features instead of meaningful connectivity projects

• The Reality of Big Tech Work:

  • Work often focuses on increasing user engagement through minor features
  • Employees essentially working "inside a slot machine" trying to extract more user time
  • Projects often revolve around A/B testing trivial elements like thumbnails

• Impact vs. Reality:

  • Many join big tech companies hoping to make meaningful impact
  • End up working on incremental improvements to existing features
  • The scale of impact is large (billions of users) but the work itself can feel meaningless

• Employee Perspective:

  • Some justify it through the massive reach (improving life for billions by 1%)
  • Others become disillusioned and leave for more meaningful work
  • Quote: "You're bringing a gun to a knife fight" regarding overqualified people working on simple problems

• Career Decisions:

  • Some choose to leave for more meaningful work despite lower pay
  • Others stay for the compensation despite the work feeling trivial
  • The trade-off between impact and compensation becomes a personal choice

• The "Jenga Law":

  • If removing yourself doesn't impact the tower (company), you probably don't matter there
  • Hard to get excited about work when individual impact feels minimal
  • Better to work somewhere where your contribution is significant