How to lose your talent in a simple step

2022-05-10 · 1 minute read

Zoë Schiffer from The Verge reports that the director of machine learning at Apple is leaving the company due to its return to work policy:

Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, is leaving the company due to its return to work policy. In a note to staff, he said “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.” He was likely the company’s most cited ML expert.
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) May 7, 2022

I have had this conversation with peers and co-workers over and over again in the past few months: there is no going back to pre-pandemic life. And while I value in-person activities (looking at you, in-person research seminars), I am totally sure that organisations failing to accommodate what people want will lose talent to more flexible workplaces.

Update: as of May 18, 2022, it looks like he is joining Alphabet’s DeepMind. What a loss for Apple.