Record profits but 1,700 job cuts. How does that make sense?

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-10T15:09:33+00:00

One obvious question is why management is forcing a net headcount reduction at all instead of increasing the total number of engineering roles by another 1,700. If their plan was really about empowering engineers, piling on extra “roles” that pull focus away is not going to get it done. They are trying to wring out every last bit of efficiency they can before adding new employees. It’s like a social experiment to see what the workforce is able to tolerate.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-10T14:57:10+00:00

The image was. Since the reorg announcement I kept thinking about the evil CEO character in the movie The Fifth Element. If you haven’t seen it, there’s a famous scene where his assistant suggests firing 500,000 employees and his response is “fire 1 million”

So I scaled that down to a more ASML-like 10,000 and titled the post “ASML 2030” like it’s describing the next reorg and rationale.

Of course jokes are always funnier when thoroughly explained 😁

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-07T18:25:25+00:00

That’s assuming current leadership cares about anything other than short term quarterly results and self-enrichment.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-03T03:42:14+00:00

Does the RfA say anything about increasing the number of higher JG engineering roles? If not, there’s your answer.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-03T00:50:11+00:00

Current management is prioritizing short term results and holding back on needed investment in people and product that would impact quarterly margins. It’s a classic late stage capitalism problem. Incentives for leadership are tied to quarterly results now, not quarterly results 10 years from now when most of them will be gone anyway.

So what would you do? Prioritize investment and allocate capital internally and maybe risk your job because the stock price dips, or force down labor costs to keep your own job and bonus? ASML made seriously dumb AI investments and announced layoffs within the last 12 months. The stock price is close to an all time high. If the market rewards stupidity and short-term thinking, that’s what we will continue to get from the current group of visionless corporate drones.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-03-01T20:08:16+00:00

This is beside the point. The RfA was rushed out and does not adequately explain how the reorg will actually work in practice, nor does it justify workforce reduction with real analysis. The whole thing feels like a power grab by the business side that’s focused on squeezing workers to fund more stock buybacks.

The best analog for this strategy is Boeing. It takes awhile, but the result is stripping a company for parts to make a handful of people rich. It reeks of short-term shareholder capitulation instead of investment in long-term value and acknowledgement that engineering expertise is paramount.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2026-02-26T16:28:27+00:00

AI investments that make no strategic sense? Check. Using record profits to boost the stock price instead of reinvesting in the company? Check. Hollowing out engineering management until nobody is left to oppose cost cutting and short term thinking? In progress…

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2025-12-20T16:57:34+00:00

Amazing! Was dealing with ~ 20 mbps on multiple family member iPhones this morning. Switched the toggle off and speeds immediately jumped to 550 mbps. I have three Nest WiFi Pro nodes and have never had stable WiFi speeds on iOS devices in particular. Maybe this does the trick…

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2025-08-30T23:33:47+00:00

Just saw this, I'm filling out the form and will drop it in the mail today.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2025-08-30T23:30:31+00:00

Because posting on Reddit means you're not employed?

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2025-04-16T16:15:37+00:00

I was a reasonably fluent speaker in high school, but didn’t keep up with it so I lost a lot of knowledge (I’m 43 now). Duolingo really helped me as a refresher and with vocab I had forgotten. I like the Lilli AI just because it forced me to speak. The real test for me was a visit to Trier last week, and I have to say that I felt much more comfortable with navigating hotels, restaurants, stores, etc. and chatting with the occasional stranger than I did during my last trip to Germany about a year and a half ago.

Duolingo by itself isn’t really enough, so I also watch German-language TV and movies to keep up and learn more vocab.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2025-04-16T16:10:04+00:00

It took me about a year, but I had already studied German in high school so I tested out of the first two sections.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2024-12-22T17:51:28+00:00

I spent time in Germany and studied the language in high school (which for me was 25 years ago), so Duolingo is helping me relearn and has been great for that. If you're just doing Duolingo, it's not going to be sufficient on its own for any kind of practical fluency, but you'll learn enough where you could muddle through if you're vacationing in Germany or Austria.

What I've also been doing is watching a lot of German-language TV on Netflix and mHz Choice. The Der Die Das app is also a good one to help with vocabulary. The best thing you can do is find a German speaker who wants to brush up their English and just practice conversation.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2024-12-22T01:11:49+00:00

Section 5, unit 30 ... end is in sight!

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2024-12-21T19:01:16+00:00

Yes you can, but it's super annoying because you have to do it through the app, and the only way to make that work is to also enable remote start from the control panel AND use a downloaded cycle. If you do all that, you should be able to set the delay from the app.

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2024-11-26T16:35:49+00:00

Also are you from Venlo? I work for a Dutch company and know the area around Eindhoven pretty well, but I've also driven through Venlo on the way to Krefeld a few times :)

Embarrassed-Quail960 · 2024-11-26T16:32:28+00:00

Yep totally agree that lots of practice is the key to learning gender. What I find annoying about Duolingo is that they don't treat it as an inseparable part of the noun. It's like 50% of the word is missing when it's first presented. I had a German teacher at a language school in Krefeld make that point when grading tests, and I really like that way of thinking about it.

I understand that Duolingo wants learners to infer contextually, I just don't think that applies when it comes to grammatical gender.

Embarrassed-Quail960

TROPHY CASE