| ▲ | andsoitis 5 hours ago |
| https://archive.is/fM36L Lisa Gelobter, whose work helped shape the modern web, was also on the launch team at Hulu. Ms. Gelobter was the director of program management at Macromedia where she helped develop Shockwave into a web plug-in that allowed for video games and animation on the web, turning still images into moving GIFs — animated images known as a graphics interchange format. Notably absent on resume and in the news article is proficiency in AI or machine learning, so I am curious to see how she plans to weave that into the portfolio of work and help transform NYC. |
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| ▲ | bob001 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The job is 99% program management and 1% tech. It’s the government. Anyone focused on tech will burn out in 2 weeks and quit loudly via twitter. You know, like DOGE. |
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| ▲ | ch4s3 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Every tech person I know who tried to work in NYC government burned out rather quickly. The government is so sclerotic and shackled to laws meant to break up the Tammany Hall machine that its impossible to do anything good or fast. | | |
| ▲ | steveBK123 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | A lot of stuff gets bid out, and the procurement process is overly burdensome... Which results in a limited number of qualified bidders collecting rents, and then subbing out the work to subs who then sub it out further.. such that its all done offshore for peanuts while we pay real money to some schmuck who ticked the right boxes in order to collect said rents. | | |
| ▲ | ch4s3 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Briefly in the mid 2010s the NYC Department of City Planning tried to build some stuff in house and hired some good people, but the old ghouls in the city ruined it by obstruction and everyone left by the end of 2017. City government in most US cities is so fucked, it's really wild. Another guy I know who graduated from NYU Wagner as a planner got hired by the city to do some mapping work but his boss miscoded his job in a way that precluded him from ever being promoted, so he quit. As of 2023 at least there were people working in city planning who didn't have computers and refused to use them, professional staff. |
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| ▲ | indoordin0saur 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Sort of off-topic but fun fact: Tammany Hall is now a dogfood and kitty litter store! Source: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Petco/@40.7364792,-73.9890... | | |
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| ▲ | idop 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If anything, the job is 99% awarding contracts and 1% monthly progress meetings. |
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| ▲ | CharlieDigital 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| CTO is typically an executive position, not an IC position. The CTO at my $500m, YC, series-C startup is not the most technical member of the staff, does not have the broadest technical knowledge, is not the most experienced, nor is he the best in any single technical field in our team. You misunderstand the role of the CTO in most orgs. His job is to guide technical strategy based on where business is headed. Manage staffing levels, general technical org operations, manage people, be the final arbiter on some org-level technical decisions based on business strategy alignment. |
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| ▲ | andsoitis 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > You misunderstand the role of the CTO in most orgs. His job is to guide technical strategy based on where business is headed. A great CTO not only guides the technical strategy based on business direction BUT ALSO shapes the business strategy informed by technology direction. | |
| ▲ | hobs 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It really depends on the size, it can span from the lead programmer to the lead architect to the lead technical manager to the strategic technical partner and/or technical visionary for the company. | | |
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| ▲ | jordanb 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This made me laugh but then I remembered I'm on HN and you're probably serious. |
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| ▲ | triceratops 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Why do you think she doesn't have an high-level knowledge of AI? Like what's a NN, a transformer, how they're trained? Anyone can pick that up over a weekend. She doesn't need to have experience training models or designing new architectures for this job. EDIT - someone posted a link to her Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Gelobter), which states: "Gelobter enrolled in Brown University in 1987, eventually graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a concentration in artificial intelligence and machine learning." |
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| ▲ | andsoitis 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I’m not thinking granular low-level knowledge, but rather a strategic point of view to shape the tech strategy and organizational goals of NYC. We know that AI has to form part of that story and so you want a CTO who can steer clarity and vision, without resorting to keyword soup and hype. To be clear, I have no signal where this CTO is likely to fall on that spectrum, so I’m very much looking forward to the difference she will make. |
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| ▲ | 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| [deleted] |
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| ▲ | rich_sasha 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I so totally read this as "Hooli" on first reading. |
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| ▲ | CalRobert 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Gell Mann amnesia hitting hard on this one. |
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| ▲ | Larrikin 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Good? Seems like she was there when Hulu was great and when Macromedia was great. |
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| ▲ | Finnucane 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| >Notably absent on resume and in the news article is proficiency in AI or machine learning, You say that like it's a bad thing. |
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| ▲ | JPKab 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, we wouldn't want someone who understands the most revolutionary technology in 100 years to be the technical advisor to the mayor of the largest city in the United States or anything. That would be silly. | | |
| ▲ | triceratops 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Why do you assume she doesn't understand it? From her Wikipedia article: "Gelobter enrolled in Brown University in 1987, eventually graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a concentration in artificial intelligence and machine learning." |
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| ▲ | SilverElfin 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Macromedia was a great company |
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| ▲ | NoImmatureAdHom 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Hilarious |
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| ▲ | jihadjihad 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| There's still time to add the /s |
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| ▲ | fillskills 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Unnecessarily being voted down. Post is adding some information. Doesnt violate any HN rules. cc @dang |
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| ▲ | giraffe_lady 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | HN doesn't have rules it has guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html I don't know what the difference is intended to be but the guidelines also don't have anything to say about voting on comments except not to complain about it. The comment sucked so I downvoted it. Yours too. | | |
| ▲ | andsoitis 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > The comment sucked A great CTO not only guides the technical strategy based on business direction BUT ALSO shapes the business strategy informed by technology direction. We know that AI has to form part of that story and so you want a CTO who can steer clarity and vision, without resorting to keyword soup and hype. To be clear, I have no signal where this CTO is likely to fall on that spectrum, so I’m very much looking forward to the difference she will make. |
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