John Carmack resigns from Meta

[Foodles]

Seems like the writing had been on the wall for some time now, probably won't surprise a lot of you.

 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0iPixEvPJQGzNa6t2x6HUL5TYqfmKGqSgfkBg6QaTyHF5frXQi7eLGxC7uPQv5U5jl&id=100006735798590&__cft__[0]=AZXsDdV3k6gSu83P0a2jJg4FQsWHW-usRsi2ayd7dymrA9C6yBA-uWSUgw7A8Mhza8gpZFkCvbip_sJRxDvUMP273PIS0FOSQQWGmL2Cbv3HVg&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

[heliumlamb]

i am morally obligated to post this image

[Biodegradable]

His Facebook post certainly gives us a glimpse into Meta's inner-workings. It appears ol' Carmack got fed-up with slow progress of the VR project as people faffed about and he felt like time was being wasted on a project that lacked real enthusiasm:

 

Quote

"The issue is our efficiency. Some will ask why I care how the progress is happening, as long as it is happening?

If I am trying to sway others, I would say that an org that has only known inefficiency is ill prepared for the inevitable competition and/or belt tightening, but really, it is the more personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization number in production. I am offended by it. As a systems optimization person, I care deeply about efficiency. When you work hard at optimization for most of your life, seeing something that is grossly inefficient hurts your soul. I was likening observing our organization's performance to seeing a tragically low number on a profiling tool. We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy. Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say “Half? Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!”

 

It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover.

 

Enough complaining. I wearied of the fight and have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta. Maybe it actually is possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

 

Make better decisions and fill your products with Give a Damn!"

 

Whatever the hell they're trying to do with the Metaverse, losing Carmack will likely hamper their slow progress even further.

[TasAcri]

This whole thing has been a massive failure. Pretty sure Carmack doesn't want to be associated with this anymore.

[Mr Masker]

What are they going to do without Super Cyborg Time Traveller Interdimensional Space Wizard John C. Armack?!

[Ordon]

1 hour ago, heliumlamb said:

i am morally obligated to post this image

John Crackman

[Azuris]

38 minutes ago, Mr Masker said:

What are they going to do without Super Cyborg Time Traveller Interdimensional Space Wizard John C. Armack?!

 

Firing 11000 employees, as no other human being can handle so much people at the same time.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

His Facebook post certainly gives us a glimpse into Meta's inner-workings. It appears ol' Carmack got fed-up with slow progress of the VR project as people faffed about and he felt like time was being wasted on a project that lacked real enthusiasm:

I have another explanation to propose for why Carmack would abandon ship:

 

 

[Biodegradable]

Touché, Gez.

[yakfak]

(still waiting for the first exciting idea proposed by a rich guy in the 21st century)

 

good on him for leaving I guess, it's obvious that he just likes to work on stuff and doesn't care what happens

[Thelokk]

Umm, so is this Meta thing, like, still a thing? Wasn't it, like, dead already or something?

[Spooner5020]

17 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

Umm, so is this Meta thing, like, still a thing? Wasn't it, like, dead already or something?

It was pretty much dead when they started showing commercials for it on TV.

[TheHambourgeois]

cool to see the new dot com bubble bursting in real time

[Mr. Freeze]

Come home, id man.

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

59 minutes ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Come home, id man.

As fun and nice it would be to see Carmack back at ID I doubt his hearth is still in gaming. He realy seems like the type of person that likes to move forward, so I doubt he would be interested to tread older grounds.

[Budoka]

1 hour ago, Thelokk said:

Umm, so is this Meta thing, like, still a thing? Wasn't it, like, dead already or something?

It was always dead and still is, but they're keeping it going regardless.

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Come home, id man.

What would they have him do anyway? Given the success of both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, it seems pretty obvious that Id does not need him anymore.

[Gez]

Especially since they're reverted some of his last design decisions. RIP MegaTexures, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars -- Doom 2016.

[CFWMagic]

Nice to see Carmack go. And while Gez makes a very valid point, I seem to recall Carmack having bad blood with FB/Meta for a while now. Before the stocks tanked into oblivion. Something about Carmack wanting to do research and development, while meta wants corporate activity and monetization above all. I'm a bit biased towards Carmack since he's a childhood hero for me.

Still, while it might very well be about the money, my personal belief is that Carmack got shafted. He had to leave id because id was starting to fail and needed corporate involvement (Beth) to survive, meaning John would have less creative freedom. So he took off to do actual R&D and science ... Only for that field being the very same corporate world Carmack tried to flee in the first place.

Just my two cents, anyway. Take this with a grain of salt since I have a tendency to idealize Carmack thanks to his belief in open sourcing things.

[Rudolph]

36 minutes ago, Gez said:

Especially since they're reverted some of his last design decisions. RIP MegaTexures, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars -- Doom 2016.

Oh, really? I did not know that. I wonder if John Carmack would be willing to work with John Romero again. Maybe he would be able to make sure his first-person shooter project gets released.

[Skeletonpatch]

Welp, there goes the last point of interest I had in getting an Oculus... Ahem, "Meta" headset. Guess I'll go with the Index after all. Though, even if he'd stayed, Mark's antics during the past few years had already killed their chances of receiving my money anyway.

 

I'm glad to see Carmack leave this dumpster fire, regardless of his reasons for doing so. If his focus is still on VR, I hope he's able to find a home that lets him really spread his wings instead of... whatever the hell Meta thinks they're doing. Trying to make video games an extension of all the aspects of life that people use video games to escape from, I guess? I hope Mark doesn't get his head out of whatever crevice he's jammed it into so that Meta can crash and burn completely, though with how deeply he's seemingly inserted it, I'm not sure a course correction is even possible unless Meta as a company gets decapitated.

 

Not sure if that metaphor makes sense.

[Redneckerz]

No worries, Carmack is now working on Human-like AI at his startup:

Keen Technologies.

 

And he is the CEO, thus... the Commander. I like the irony.

 

And Carmack has his ideas on AI:

 

 

[Rudolph]

Meta Mark needs to worry; he can always get Tommy Wiseau to replace John Carmack at Meta.

 

I am sure the latter will be more than happy to log in on the Metaverse every morning to say "Oh, hi, Mark!"

[Azuris]

8 hours ago, MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai said:

As fun and nice it would be to see Carmack back at ID I doubt his hearth is still in gaming. He realy seems like the type of person that likes to move forward, so I doubt he would be interested to tread older grounds.

 

I agree, he made Rockets and VR, i think he wants more than something simple as making a Game.

 

But i can imagine that he would make a Game maybe when he retires, just for Fun.

[CFWMagic]

7 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

-snip-

 

Good post. Can't wait for Carmack's work. And if he keeps an open mind about how he builds things ... I.e. teaches people through sharing code ... I'm getting hyped.

[Sena]

I can deal with demons from hell, but the management at Facebook is just too much.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

13 hours ago, Gez said:

I have another explanation to propose for why Carmack would abandon ship:

 

Good call on Mental Outlaw. That guy is great for no sugar coating tech coverage. 

 

As for the topic at hand, Facebook never deserved Carmack. Hope he does something that he loves.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

3 hours ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Good call on Mental Outlaw. That guy is great for no sugar coating tech coverage. 

Ah yes, the based tech-tuber, one of the only reasons I still watch stuff from YouTube (through this invidious instance)

Spoiler

Not really on topic but I actually switched to Arch Linux because of him, now I'm on Artix but for other reasons (And some influence of Luke Smith), hopefully his channel will grow more because his content is S tier.

 

[Bucket]

Look at all the effort, the man-hours, the several fortunes, sunk into making VR what it is. It's definitely cleared some bar of convenience but it still, after ALL this, has zero momentum. The instant you stop pouring endless money into R&D and focused testing, people are going to drop it like a ton of bricks. Sorry about that sunk cost, John, but you might have to come to terms with the possibility that maybe consumers don't a shit.

[Caffeine Freak]

'Efficiency at Meta is like efficiency in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not important. So fuck this shit, I'm out.' --- John Carmack