Comment by tomcam
2 years ago
I’m not a nostalgic person, but for some reason I wish irrationally that that Murray Hill building could be preserved as is. I read so much about of it in the history of computing, and just like (from the pictures) the building interior itself so much I just feel like I missed out on some thing not to have been there myself.
I was lucky enough to work at Microsoft in building 2, one of 8 matching buildings from the mid-80s, and it absolutely felt special at the time. In my imagination, it had some of the same vibe as Bell Labs did in its heyday. I was on the Visual Studio team, and great things were happening. I knew it. I also knew that team was special.
No one else in Visual Studio seemed that interested – they were just too busy and I think maybe too young to get it.
Buildings 1-8 were demolished few years ago, but I had been gone from the company for decades by that time. I did grieve a bit.
I wonder where can you find those types of places currently?
Places developing the next mRNA vaccines for cancer?
Places developing AI?
Electric cars?
NASA.
I know a few people who wanted to get away from the FANG hype grind and went to NASA.
They tell me they’re doing actual engineering for engineerings sake. Which sounds great.
Salary obviously not comparable to FANG 400k plus but the satisfaction and pride is well worth the sacrifice to them.
Me and most of my friends are “super American” like I’m an immigrant who wears USA hats and t shirts. I would love to work at NASA once I have established a little place for myself here. I would be so proud to contribute to this country and its success in space and research.
I think that if you have a PhD in the right field and enough hip publications that many of the FAANG companies still have research teams like that operating in a diminished capacity. It appears to me that many of these positions have been replaced by administrators who are more interested in hiring to a specific set of demographics.
Have you ever seen something fundamental coming from FAANG? No, and you won't, because what they're doing (even when very technical) is purely for the improvement of their business. Things like AI are coming from smaller groups such as OpenAI, even when backed by big companies like Microsoft.
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Perhaps Altos Labs (aging). Perhaps also Isomorphic Labs (protein design) will also become such a place. Both are still quite new.
Microsoft Research is also pivoting into this area.
mRNA designs are still a bit primitive. Moderna and BioNTech resemble corporations, rather than skunkworks.