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0 pointsTerretta9y ago0 comments

// DISCLAIMER: I work there.

For those who've built tech companies up from the 10 to 1000 people range, there's a lot in that link that's very easy to recognize.

If you interpret back from the more traditional business lingo, you will recognize key 'iterative development' ideas applied outside engineering.

This allows a sizable 30 year old enterprise to handle new ideas much more as a tech startup would.

On the main article topic, instead of the article's quote, “like trying to make Ray’s brain into a computer”, I'd say as an engineer imagine if you could "run a company under a debugger." Frame it that way, and I think you could imagine some neat possibilities.

If you're very good at software development / distributed systems engineering, and think self-driving management or a self-driving fund might be even more interesting than yet another self-driving car, we're always hiring. Hit me up via profile.

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qwrusz9y ago· 1 in thread

//Disclaimer I don't work there. But I know people who do.

While there are some articles out there bashing Bridgewater's work culture (similar to how Amazon's work culture got attacked in the press), the people I know who work at Bridgewater like it and find the work interesting and feel they are well compensated. Though, no one I know who works there had any finance background before taking the job and that seems to be OK.

Just curious if you have any thoughts on if previous finance experience before working at Bridgewater is a good thing or bad thing or irrelevant? And is there any connection between those employees that succeed at BW and whether they have previously worked in finance?

TerrettaOP9y ago

Good questions. These are just my personal thoughts.

I think software engineers from more fields would do well and have fun in this environment than they imagine. You do need to be good, but you don't need a background in finance.

You can read in the link above the idea that people come to the table with values and skills, where it's hard to change what you're like, easier to adapt your skills.

Couple that with the observation that for open minded people who like to learn, effective engineering values and skills seem to translate pretty well across problem domains.

This means it's less about the kind of tech stunts interview folklore attributes to Google, more about trying to understand how you think about problems and get things done.

Sounds trite, but if you think well and do things (need both), you can succeed.

jamez19y ago

It sounds to me like what he's building is a lot closer to a custom version of an issue tracking product than an artificial version of Dalio's brain.

Is this accurate?

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