Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Sep 29, 2025

Ex-Facebook engineer posts YouTube videos mocking the culture and joking about how he was fired

Patrick Shyu, a former tech lead at Google, has posted a series of videos making fun of Facebook, where he worked as a software engineer until last month. Shyu criticizes the company’s culture, calling it a “popularity contest,” where ideas and projects are driven by likes and comments rather than logic. Shyu’s YouTube channel has more than 500,000 subscribers and he says in a video that he makes more money from it than he made at Google or Facebook.

A former Facebook software engineer named Patrick Shyu took to his YouTube channel this week to post a video called “Day in the Life of a Facebook Software Engineer.”

It’s not about any ordinary day, but rather the day Facebook fired him just over a month ago. In the clip, he pretends to walk into a meeting with a human resources representative, who fires him, in part because she didn’t like his YouTube channel. Shyu then proceeds to make fun of Facebook and criticize its culture, calling it a “popularity contest,” where ideas and projects are driven by likes and comments instead of logic.

“Imagine receiving multiple notifications every day where people are just telling me what they’ve accomplished, how great they are,” Shyu said in the video.

Shyu, whose “TechLead” YouTube channel has over 500,000 subscribers, has been routinely poking Facebook, publishing six videos about getting fired since the day he says he was dismissed, Aug. 26. On that day, he posted a video titled “I got fired from Facebook (for having a YouTube channel),” which he shot from his car after apparently leaving the office. He also tweeted out the announcement with a link to the video.

“I know that everybody is shocked,” he said. “And at a dire time like this, I feel like what we really need to do is just take a pause, and thank our sponsor.” He then launches into an advertisement.

Shyu joined Facebook in May 2018 and previously spent almost four years at Google, according to his LinkedIn profile. While at Google, he worked in the office in San Bruno, California, where YouTube is based.

Many of his videos give insights into the life of software developers. They typically get between a few hundred thousand and over 1 million views. In a Sept. 9 video titled, “How much I make on 1,000,000 YouTube views (after getting fired from Facebook),” he says that he’s probably making well over $500,000 on the site.

“It’s funny that I’m generating more on YouTube than what I made as a tech lead at Google or as a staff software engineer at Facebook,” he said.

In the latest video this week, Shyu said Facebook employees have to constantly boast about their mundane accomplishments on Workplace, the company’s internal social network, in order to get ahead.

“It’s kind of this game for people to get as many likes and comments on their posts,” he said. “If you’re into popularity contests, if you thrive in that type of environment then you’ll probably do really well.”

Facebook’s culture was described as “cult-like” by former employees who spoke with CNBC in January for a report about the company’s performance review system.

Shyu and Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
×