Random Friday Message – 2019-09-20 (you can sign-up for the Random Tech list
here<https://www.freelists.org/list/random>)
Random topics today… (as always: typing fast, possibly in the shuttle, so
please pardon the typos!)
* What is the difference between Microsoft and Amazon? Let’s not avoid the
elephant in the room, because it is really big. My answer is (indeed, copying
what a colleague told and it is the best answer I’ve heard so far): Microsoft
is a software company. Amazon is solutions company. Both are great companies,
and I’m very grateful to have had the first hand experience of working on both.
By no means I think one is better than the other. They just had different
priorities and, over time, I see some inevitable convergence. The specific team
you work on within each company will likely have far more influence in your job
satisfaction than the “umbrella corporation”. Obviously, living 1-mile away
from the main Microsoft campus in Redmond, I’m “optimized for Microsoft”, as
another colleague perfectly expressed it recently. All other factors being the
same, a 7-minutes commute, which is the same by car or bicycle, definitely
presents a great advantage!
* Bootcamps: Couldn’t have written it better than this article on academies
and bootcamps: https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3361872
* Flight simulator: If you like Flight Simulators, follow the “Insider
Sign-up” link in the https://www.flightsimulator.com site! Good surprises ahead.
Thanks!
Alisson Sol
