Astral Codex Ten

FAANG

3 min read

FAANG

Article

FAANG is a recurring organization in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between March 27, 2022 and June 06, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “Ukrainian senior infra engineer normally at a FAANG”; “all of my friends have cool FAANG internships”; “A similar phenomenon happens in the non-FAANG computer programming world”. It most often appears alongside ACX Book Review Contest, ACX/LW meetups, Andrew Ng.

Metadata

  • Category: Organizations
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: March 27, 2022
  • Last seen: June 06, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Open Thread 217
March 27, 2022 · Original source
Ukrainian senior infra engineer normally at a FAANG but now stranded in Ukraine looking for Rust/C++ short/mid-term work/contract
Inline links: Ukrainian senior infra engineer normally at a FAANG but now stranded in Ukraine looking for Rust/C++ short/mid-term work/contract
Idol Words
March 30, 2022 · Original source
I sighed. “Sir, I’m spending my summer at the temple of the three omniscient idols, one of which always tells the truth, one of which always lies, and one of which answers randomly, while all of my friends have cool FAANG internships. Because my guidance counselor told me that comparative religion was an easy A for people who couldn’t make it in computer science. I make $8.55 per hour. Please don’t ask me for financial advice.”
Maybe that was what I’d been missing. I’d thought of Comparative Religion as an easy A, something to do when I couldn’t get the FAANG internships all of my friends were winning. Maybe the idols were telling me to take myself more seriously. Maybe there was something there, some signal in all of the noise. I imagined the sort of entity who would create omniscient gods beyond my comprehension just to send humanity the tiniest ghost of a message, and all my concerns about making less money than the Comp Sci students started to feel very small. Maybe Comparative Religion was the field for me. Maybe I should stop feeling so smugly detached from everything and actually study.
Highlights From The Comments On The Academic Job Market
June 06, 2023 · Original source
A similar phenomenon happens in the non-FAANG computer programming world. Junior devs get hired at something like $60-$80k, then within about two years are worth double that. But the company that hired them will never promote that dev to a $140k salary because it would upset the apple cart of all the devs making $120k wondering why they don't get a 100% raise in two years, or anything close.