As a Proton customer, this is disappointing to hear that it's like this, because I definitely got the sense that it's a company that would operate differently. It actually sounds (unfortunately) like the culture of a lot of the places I've worked...
On the other hand, I do see the situation their leadership is in, even though they're not handling it in a respectful way. If the company needs to provide competitive services vs. everyone else who is using AI, they're just going to get left behind. And even for security: like if their engineers are skeptical about adopting AI how can they protect their system in a world with Mythos and all other kinds of AI running around attacking them? I imagine their product would attract employees who are more skeptical about AI, which is hard to change . They need to find a balance between keeping with the spirit and principles of their product but not be in denial about the new world we live in.
> If the company needs to provide competitive services vs. everyone else who is using AI, they're just going to get left behind
Why not just build a damn good product that has a steady revenue stream? You don’t have to compete in a race to the bottom. There are other ways.
My email provider is boring. They do email and nothing else. Feature development is glacial but reliable. I doubt they’re rich. I doubt they’re tripling their ARR. But they have a stable business as best as I can tell and seem happy with it.
This whole “the only way to compete is to eat the world” is stupid and only makes things worse.
> And even for security: like if their engineers are skeptical about adopting AI how can they protect their system in a world with Mythos and all other kinds of AI running around attacking them
Rotfl there's even this idea that you need vibecoded crap to resist Mythos? Oh my freaking god.
AI is not the issue here. But when your business is based on security and privacy you better adopt it carefully and deliberately. If you're measuring your teams on how much AI they use, I don't trust that you're putting security front and center. AI can be used to improve security, but you can absolutely do the opposite if you push too hard.
Also, any time anything comes out it gives a clear impression that the leadership are bullies, from the CEO on down. That creates an environment in which people are afraid to speak up, which means issues get overlooked. Which isn't great for security either.
I would have absolutely no problem with a CEO setting a solid, well-founded direction about the use of AI to improve their products while keeping a foundation of security and privacy. But Yen just sounds like a Silicon Valley tokenmaxxing douchebag.
Well-put, I agree. This is basically why I cancelled my subscription yesterday, though regretfully I was in a hurry and didn't write it up in the comment field.
Another way of thinking about it is that it's really all these little bits together that make the situation seem so bleak. That level of aggressiveness regarding AI, the thing about not having enough velocity, the fact that it seems like a workplace where people are afraid to speak up--all that paints a picture that is basically the opposite of what I want out of the service. The whole brand, as I understood it, was that Proton was focused on security and privacy. I don't think the workplace described in that article really matches up to that brand.
Glad I hadn't really migrated mail to Proton yet, so now I can figure something else out. What's wild is a week ago I was actually thinking about expanding my subscription to their other products too.
The problem at Goodreads is not that they haven't made any improvements over the past decade that Amazon bought it. The problem is that they've only made technical improvements and other changes under the hood that no user ever notices. They weren't able to drive a strong product vision forward under Amazon because of poor product vision and poor organizational incentives. It should be a cautionary tale to the people who always complain about not working enough on tech debt - too much of that can be fatal too.
Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013 - if you had interviewed after the acquisition, you'd have encountered Amazon's style of interviews, which is much more professional and better than the experience you describe.
How is this computed? It looks cool, but it's difficult to use as a book discovery tool unless you know more about why it considers one book related to another.
This feels like a missed opportunity. There's a lot of data Shippo could share about USPS and that would help add more context to what's happening in the news. But it's difficult to understand anything concrete from this. It would be more helpful to see how this fits into long term trends and other context on how abnormal it is.
Wow! Q3F! That was my absolute favorite game back in the day, and I was always sad how it fell off. I couldn't get a game loaded here yet, but looking forward to it.
On the applicant side, one of the more interesting questions I've been asked (as a product manager) was something to the effect of:
"What is something you believe about product management that differs from conventional wisdom (or what the majority of other product managers believe?)"
I thought it was a good question, because it gives the chance for the candidate to talk about how they think, and it gives them a license to speak a little more honestly than they ordinarily would say in a normal interview. It shows you how much thought the person has given to their profession and how they approach their job.
If you were asking this during hiring, I think it should be done with care on your end, because I could see it easily being misinterpreted by the wrong team/interviewer.
For example, if someone came in and said something like "Compared to others, I think A/B testing is a waste of time", it would behoove you to dive in a little bit more to understand why they think that. It shouldn't be disqualifying if you're a team that does a lot of A/B testing.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Remote: No
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Technologies: R, SQL, Javascript, D3.js, Python, iOS/Android, Jira, Web Analytics
Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5aigPCvgtxAbWpyT0hNc19jMTQ/view?usp=sharing
Email: [email protected]
Product Manager with a background in analytics, user-centric, and a deep care for design. Have managed mobile products with millions of dollars of revenue and MAU of hundreds of thousands. Looking for consumer-oriented companies or otherwise doing work in interesting industries. Feel free to send me an email.
On the other hand, I do see the situation their leadership is in, even though they're not handling it in a respectful way. If the company needs to provide competitive services vs. everyone else who is using AI, they're just going to get left behind. And even for security: like if their engineers are skeptical about adopting AI how can they protect their system in a world with Mythos and all other kinds of AI running around attacking them? I imagine their product would attract employees who are more skeptical about AI, which is hard to change . They need to find a balance between keeping with the spirit and principles of their product but not be in denial about the new world we live in.
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