meldyr | 3 years ago | on: 3M to end 'forever chemicals' output
meldyr's comments
meldyr | 3 years ago | on: Automattic open to hiring ex-Twitter individuals or even entire teams
It seems they only hire people that can increase there revenue from 65 million to 650 million dollar.
That is not hiring or worth a blogpost.
meldyr | 3 years ago | on: Show HN: I'm trying to guess your personality by your comments with an NLP model
Have to admit. I've been an idiot and fell for this data-gathering trap
meldyr | 3 years ago | on: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
I see self-checkouts, electronic toll collection, vending machines, automation of assembly lines, robots doing order picking in warehouses, self-driving trains in airports and many others replacing hourly workers today.
However, I am not aware of any AI-system replacing a middle manager.
I know it is popular to hate on middle-managers. But good middle manager culture is probably one of the best predictors of company performance.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2019/04/24/it-tur...
meldyr | 3 years ago | on: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?
When large companies can do hiring freezes they do not immediately fire a large proportion of their recruiters immediately.
Recruiters will spent the same time interviewing for less vacancies to fill. Be careful not to waste your time on this.
meldyr | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: Have You Left Kubernetes?
If you want your Devs to learn kubernetes you should pay them for doing it.
If you can't, hire a contractor with the expertise you need.
meldyr | 4 years ago | on: Post Office scandal: Public inquiry to examine wrongful convictions
Many people living on government allowances had been paid too much. Instead of admitting their mistake government officials decided to retrieve the money and sue for fraud.
The result is that many people struggling with poverty had to repay a lot of money, pay for their legal defense and pay fines. Because they had been labeled fraudulent they could often not reapply to any government allowance. Children were taken away from their ‘criminal parents’ and many of them burnt out, relapsed into previous psychological illness or had to live in poverty for years.
It is lazy to blame this on the software. Nobody bothered to check their story or owned up for there mistake.
meldyr | 4 years ago | on: Microsoft's low-code strategy paints a target on UIPath and other RPA companies
An example is a SME which wants to download the billing information of 100 employee from ATNT’s customer port
The market signal on that using PFAS is imposes serious liabilities on a company is crystal clear. Even a giant like 3M is in rough waters because it cannot bear the liabilities.
It is common that large public companies deinvest some part of their business that cause bad PR. They usually sell a part of their business to a smaller/more anonymous/non-public company that is prepared to take the liabilities. In this case there is no indication of a possible sale of the 3M plants and a complete closure is the most likely scenario.
A second aspect is that many 3m-customers will be forced to reevaluate the decision to use PFAS. A good example is the usage in firefighting foam. Any producer of firefighting-foam is now fully aware that selling foam which is guaranteed to be released into the environment is a major liability.
There are even proposals to ban end-products that contain PFAS at the EU-level. Lobbying is not fully transparent, but I suspect 3M was one of the last strongholds that lobbied against such regulation.
Today, in many emerging markets environment law is weak or the enforcement is absent today. However, we see that all emerging markets are catching-up. In 5 to 10 years PFAS-producers will face a similar regulatory risk in some emerging markets.
The last element is that the market-share of 3M was huge. It is unlikely that competitors in emerging markets can fill that gap in 3 years.
In the short term, we will see some PFAS-producing companies in emerging markets making record profits because of this decision. However, I think it is unlikely that growth in emerging markets will come even close to filling this gap.