Comment by mxstbr
2 days ago
It's interesting that he signs off with "So long, and thanks for all the fish," which is a quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Just before the Vogons demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass, the dolphins, knowing what’s coming, leave the planet and their farewell message is “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
I wonder what he's implying about GitHub…
> I wonder what he's implying about GitHub
Nothing. It's just a common(-ish) reference/joke.
Yes. I've also used this when leaving a job, albeit with a slight modification since the job did not provide fish. I suppose you could read it with the subtext that the dolphins are saying "see ya suckers" but I think it's more appropriate to read it as the dolphins actually saying "thank you" even though things didn't entirely work out.
One of my reports was a hardcore HHGG fan, including carrying a towel on towel day. He signed off with the "so long and thanks for all the fish", and I don't think anyone read anything negative into this.
In fact, while that was some years ago, it was a tight-knit team and we still meet up for dinner with the original team members about 2-3x a year :)
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I had a coworker say this when quitting. Most people that knew the reference interpreted it in a negative way. I would not recommend using it because of how ambiguous it is
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If I remember correctly, the dolphins had tried to warn humanity without success and eventually gave up and left, so the “see ya suckers” reading doesn’t quite track.
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"Thanks for all the phish."
Yeah, I didn't know it was a reference to something - it was just a saying to me without any background context.
Vogsphere is the home planet of the Vogons, and features an especially fascinating type of flora that can read one’s thoughts, and anytime it detects an original thought, it jumps out of the ground and swiftly smacks said thinker square in the face. It’s a world that punishes novelty and intelligence.
My home wifi network has been named Vogsphere for some time now…
It would make a great name for an AI startup.
> I wonder what he's implying about GitHub…
Don't forget to carry a towel at all times, of course!
Or don't listen to Vogon poetry.
well, the rest of it, at least from the BBC TV series:
so long and thanks for all the fish, so sad that it should come to this, the world's about to be destroyed, there's no point getting all annoyed, lie back and let the planet dissolve
He is probably just trying to sound cool after years of being an "AI" apparatchik. GitHub stole our code under the pretense of "democratizing" software development (while people in poor countries cannot afford the plagiarism machine).
It's also a common goodbye message from "cool people" lol, I won't read too much into it.
Don't read too much into it. It's a common sign-off in GitHub's internal culture for when people leave.
The reference likely hints at GitHub's transformation under Microsoft - the dolphins (Thomas and team) foresaw changes coming (AI integration and corporate direction) and are gracefully departing before the "demolition" of what GitHub originally stood for.
I rather think the AI integration was mainly driven by this dude, given his recent dumb AI related tweets before he was stepped down.