
Ask HN: Palantir Software Engineering - turd_ferguson
I&#x27;m trying to collect more info from anyone working (or has worked) at Palantir. Most of the reviews on glassdoor seem copy-and-pasted. If anyone has anything to say, I&#x27;d really appreciate it!
======
kafkaesq
Just don't expect any answers to serious questions.

Like to what extent their software is used in planning drone strikes and other
military operations. And what, exactly, Palantir knows about the number of
civilians killed and maimed in these operations. Let alone how any of the
engineers working there, behind their hoodies and their high-end headphones --
perhaps reading this very thread right now, as we speak -- personally feel
about this situation.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_US_dr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_US_drone_strikes)

~~~
rabidonrails
Let me ask, and mostly for my own edification as this has come up before,
what's the link between Palantir and actual drone strikes or something like
"Palantir knows about the number of civilians killed and maimed in these
operations."

From my reading on Palantir they seem like a big data mining company. Sure,
they can try to grab a ton of data and try to show some correlations but
somewhere there must be someone reading that information and making decisions,
right? It's not like Palantir is carrying out drone strikes by itself (or at
least I can't find any reference to this).

~~~
BWStearns
Yeah, Palantir is used by the military and it's a bit closer to the action
than MS Word (Used in planning 100% of drone strikes!/snark), but it's not a
drone strike-ing software, it's a data mining system. It's also used
extensively in the finance industry. No one is getting a surprise hellfire
delivery because Palantir spits out a kill order. Also it's used extensively
across the military, intelligence, and finance worlds for a bunch of stuff and
drone stuff makes up a very small part of two of those worlds.

I don't/never have worked for Palantir (I've heard it's very cultish fwiw so
I've never applied). I have used their software though (not for drones), and
it is actually pretty awesome, so I can't speak to their software quality but
their product team was doing solid at least.

Also I really can't conceive as to why Palantir would have information
regarding civilian casualties or anything else from their clients' data.
There's about 0% chance that the government would allow a private contractor
to hold that data (obviously _if_ it were being tracked it would be on the
copy running in production but Palantir wouldn't own that data).

~~~
kafkaesq
The basic point is that Palantir's ties with intelligence and military
branches are quite extensive -- and at one point they openly boasted about the
success in helping both the Marines and Special Forces get various kinds of
stuff (never exactly specified) done on the ground in Afghanistan -- such that
it'd be surprising if they _weren 't_ involved in the Drone program in some
fashion, at this stage.

~~~
floppydisk
One of their big projects was helping forces predict the locations of IEDs in
Iraq and Afghanistan [1]. It did a better job at aggregating all the intel
they were getting on IEDs into a unified interface and platform that let
ground commanders ensure their soldiers left knowing all the risks and
possible bomb locations.

[1] [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-
has...](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-has-to-fight-
to-purchase-lauded-ied-buste/?page=all)

~~~
kafkaesq
OK - but what do we about the extent to which they (may be) involved in drone
attacks?

Or in identifying "terrorist" targets generally?

~~~
floppydisk
I think I'm missing the gist of your argument and I see it going one of two
ways.

1) Drone Program / Terrorist Hunting / intelligence = bad therefore companies
helping with intelligence gathering / processing = bad/nefarious?

2) Software used by the government to execute programs some might disagree
with is tainted/bad therefore we should boycott it/protest against it?

There are hundreds if not thousands of government contractors providing
similar services to the Govt, albeit quietly and behind the scenes. The only
reason Palantir gets a lot of press is they do it better than most other
people and they aren't based in the DC area. If we're supposed to "do
something about Palantir" what are we supposed to do about the rest of them?

Palantir et al. aren't in the control room pushing the big red button or even
doing the actual terrorist "hunting". They provide a platform that lets the
people doing the analyzing/hunting to quickly and efficiently process data
they already have. As the article points out, Palantir didn't add data to the
system, it just made searching it and sorting it more efficient than having to
log into 3 separate systems and search them out.

------
argonaut
I know some people there. They set a high technical bar, on par with Google
(their reputation in SV is actually that they're tougher than Google/Facebook,
which may or may not be true, I can't be too sure since the small sample of
interview questions I've heard of were not any more difficult than Google
questions). Expect a typical mix of algorithmic/systems design questions. Like
Google/Facebook/etc, they draw heavily from elite colleges. Lots of Stanford,
Harvard, MIT grads. The organization is very flat; not a lot of hierarchy.

The company itself is essentially an elite technology consulting firm (albeit
one that is actually technically competent). They have a set of core generic
products (they have a finance analysis product, government analysis product,
some other ones). BWStearn's description is accurate (a tool for analyzing
entities and their relationships). But the key to their success is they take
that generic product and then dispatch teams of engineers to customize each
deployment for each client (hence consulting). Often clients will hire them
because the client has engineering talent and has to hire Palantir because of
that.

From what I've noticed the culture does learn fratty, but I didn't find it
uncomfortably fratty. However, the people there work hard and they work long
hours.

~~~
populacesoho
How's the pay?

~~~
argonaut
I don't know. From what I've heard it's about market rate. Not any higher than
other similar companies (Google, etc.). Everyone I know who has worked there
has worked there because they liked the environment/work.

------
pinewurst
I always view a large number of copy-and-pasted Glassdoor reviews as
indicative that there's something wrong with a potential employer.

At least one of the non-clone ones mentions a strong Palantir internal push to
pad GD with positive reviews.

------
irremediable
I've visited friends at their London office a bit. Fun place, a lot like the
Google campus -- e.g. free food, Star Wars statues, Segways, etc. But high-ish
security; any visitor gets a printed name badge that expires and changes
colour after X hours.

I have no experience of their software, but the people I know who work there
are very smart. Some of the best developers I've ever known. OTOH, many of the
other best developers I've known refuse to work there on principle.

