Not the same exactly but this really rubs me the wrong way about Gergely Orosz. He was an EM (not even Senior) at Uber, overall tenure of 4 years. Left 2 years ago. But writes about the place like he was some SVP or CTO
There were literally hundreds of people who had a better view of the org than him
I like the idea of his newsletter (engineer turned journalist) but it often falls short of expectations for the reason you mentioned: Overselling his own experience and exaggerating the sourcing of his information. Most of his Big Tech reporting reduces to “I asked someone who worked at this company and they said this”. He even had to retract a big claim recently because it turned out to be entirely untrue.
His newsletter makes more sense when you read about how he considers it his most successful business after a long string of startups that didn’t work out. He’s basically growth hacking his way to more subscribers with every trick in the book.
Hate to break it to you but almost all journalism is “we asked some people questions”
I don’t know what claim you mention, but his newsletter goes into lots of details, is open about how this is just what he is hearing from people, etc. I don’t know what major claim you’re talking about though, but I do get your point about the business angle.
Tho honestly I would not trust any SVP at a company like Uber to have an understanding of what it’s actually like to be an IC, or PM level. Hearing what people at that level are thinking is way more valuable to me.
“But writes about the place like he was some SVP or CTO”
What do you mean? He shares true stories and is insightful. He never claims to have been an SVP or CTO. As a CEO myself, I’d much rather read about how a company works from an engineer’s or eng manager’s perspective than from a senior leadership perspective. I think that’s part of why Gergely’s writing is so valuable. You get specific, well sourced stories about how things actually are inside a variety of companies—not just what the external perception is.
Especially at FAANG and those (ex)Unicorn type of companies. Overall employee tenure is never high since initial stock offerings fall off around the 4 year mark. This creates a lot of opportunity to learn the ins and outs just out of necessity.
There were literally hundreds of people who had a better view of the org than him