He should fake it until he make's it. At least pretend not to be culture shocked.
Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
21–30 of 32 posts
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#22Hacker culture: "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution"[1] and "In the Beginning was the Command Line"[2]
Startup culture: http://www.wired.com/2014/04/no-exit/
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer...
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#23The "Silicon Valley" TV show :P
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#24In the non-fiction sphere they could do worse than to read:
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
Both books have had a huge impact on hacker culture, as well as doing a good job of documenting it. They will convey aspects of the culture that more traditional startup books can't convey - hacker language, attitude, motivation etc.
They are both great reads too.
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#25An unconventional one, but important: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
It's 20 years old, and dated in terms of technology but a good overview of valley culture in the mid 90's.
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#26Paul Graham (YC/HN founder) has some good essays on startup/hacker culture. http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html is probably the one that had the biggest impact on me and is sort of a manifesto for startups.
I second Paul Grahams essays. Paul has written a lot of essays. They are all pretty interesting to read, and they have some great information in them.
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#27Suspect valuations are the concern here IMO. This would be a big red flag for me, while the culture shock would be a distant second.
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#28The question I'd ask him is how he's felt about the lifetime of command and control? If he's always been the guy who kept trying to change things, adjusting to a startup is going to be a matter of helping him understand how to best have an impact (and get used to the fact that people will actually appreciate and support his efforts). If he's the guy who followed the handbook, he's in for a much bigger shock.
For me, I've been bouncing off the walls for 12 years in a large bureaucracy. Reading Eric Ries's Lean Startup and finding Paul's blog was like drinking water for the first time. I hope he has the same experience.
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#29Culture shock is really bad news for a new position or a new hire. It's very difficult to change culture. Your friend needs to be a leader, not someone who is catching up. It's probably not the right place for him to be.
This is an excellent answer. Not because it's probably true (it's as likely the asker's friend has as much to contribute from a different background as they have to learn for their new situation) but because they're likely to hear more of this from people who'd prefer to occupy an echo chamber, so it's probably best to get a certain thick skin up now.
It's really hard to parse your tone from your comment, but you seem to be implying that people who think like me are A) wrong and B) advocates of homogeneous, exclusive cultures at companies.
I know about the studies showing that diversity is beneficial, and I've seen it anecdotally in my own career.
But "culture differences" are not the same as having no idea what your coworkers are talking about (which OP mentioned).
There are many instances where big corporate culture and startup culture clash. Those two environments operate very differently, and if you've spent your whole career in one, it's very hard to switch to the other. It has nothing to do with diversity. (Those studies were about race and gender.)
Re: Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture
#30I've been looking for an entrepreneur book list for a long time too. I'm not nearly as experienced as your friend, so my books may be too basic. - Start here: http://www.ycombinator.com/resources/ There are many wonderful articles written by Graham himself. - The Four Steps to the Epiphany , Steve Blank. - The Art of the Start , Guy Kawasaki. - The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great C…
Aren't the two books by Steve Blank listed here mostly the same, content wise? I haven't read the Four Steps book, but in The Startup Owner's Manual, Steve Blank mentions it as being a successor, I think. Obviously, someone who's actually read both could comment better than I.
I've read both and I wouldn't recommend The Four Steps since the second book came out. However, it is still very good.