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How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

wsj.com

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Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#31

Post by MathsOX »

HiLo wrote: post #13
n0us wrote: post #2

I think his status as a single child-free person goes understated in this article. It takes a special kind of husband/wife to be okay with someone who works this hard and not having to juggle a home life frees up his schedule to a huge degree. I can imagine working hard 18hr days while still in my 30s, but I cannot imagine doing that while maintaining a marriage and taking care of a kid or two. The guy is a billionai…

I hear you, I really do, but plenty of guys in finance and trading work these hours and are expected to maintain regular families.

I largely agree with this, but would add that traders (and even investment bankers in their 30s/40s) will work very little on the weekend. Certainly no senior trader is in the office.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#32

Post by dang »

x1024 wrote: post #28
dang wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've posted many uncivil comments to HN. We've asked you more than once not do this. If you can't or won't stop, we will ban your account. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10798178 and marked it off-topic.

Isn't downvoting such an opinion enough? Do we pretend that banning will pacify people that want to stir trouble?

Empirically, no, it's nowhere near enough.

Also, sometimes such comments get upvoted.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#33

Post by codingdave »

I think it is premature to judge his performance as of yet. If he makes both companies succeed, it will be worth a post-mortem to figure out what worked. If not, then there really isn't going to be much of interest to talk about.

I'd suggest everyone revisit this in a year.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#34

Post by Avshalom »

flylib wrote: post #30
littletimmy wrote: post #8

Aren't both Twitter and Square not doing so well? Maybe he should focus on one, or learn to delegate better instead of working 18-hour days.

compared to what? they are two of the most successful tech companies built in the last decade

They really aren't. Or at least if they are it's a terrifying commentary on tech companies because neither of them have ever actually made money.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#35

Post by JustSomeNobody »

n0us wrote: post #2

I think his status as a single child-free person goes understated in this article. It takes a special kind of husband/wife to be okay with someone who works this hard and not having to juggle a home life frees up his schedule to a huge degree. I can imagine working hard 18hr days while still in my 30s, but I cannot imagine doing that while maintaining a marriage and taking care of a kid or two. The guy is a billionai…

Exactly. Coming home after the kids and wife are in bed is not the same as coming home to your family.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#36

Post by martin_bech »

why dont both companies develop PRO features?

Imho Twitter should be offering a PRO feature for easier handling of accounts with large amounts of followers, with increased analytics, possibilities for promotion etc.

Square is already charging a fee on transactions (as it should) but imho it should also aim at beeing the number 1 provider of POS hardware to merchants, and again deliver a pro offering, with analytics of revenue, customerbase and much more.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#37

Post by artwork »

n0us wrote: post #2

I think his status as a single child-free person goes understated in this article. It takes a special kind of husband/wife to be okay with someone who works this hard and not having to juggle a home life frees up his schedule to a huge degree. I can imagine working hard 18hr days while still in my 30s, but I cannot imagine doing that while maintaining a marriage and taking care of a kid or two. The guy is a billionai…

The article does state his status. In any case, not everyone wants to have a spouse and/or children.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#38

Post by wyclif »

fao_ wrote: post #6
kevindeasis wrote: post #4

Would you guys agree that Jack Dorsey is a good CEO? And one of his roles as a CEO is to be able to motivate the employees towards the mission and vision of the company? And one would also be able to delegate tasks accordingly? Also, would you guys agree that working hard for more than 16 hours a day for an extended period of time (months) is not really productive? Even more, I'd even say unhealthy and almost unreali…

It's the Wall Street Journal, it is essentially articles written for CEOs and their staff; what do you expect?

As of 2013, the WSJ had a print circulation of 2.4 million, and 900,000 digital subscribers. Do you seriously think all of those people are CEOs and staff?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#39

Post by ng12 »

blackguardx wrote: post #18
tacos wrote: post #16

Jack Dorsey cut a deal with Starbucks that's lost $100k every day for three years -- and gave up equity and a board seat for the privilege.

Yeah, but it came with a bunch of free advertising at the time. Square also thought Starbucks would help Square launch new customer-facing products because of Howard Schultz's board seat, but that never materialized. I think it was a good deal at first, but definitely wasn't worth it over the long haul. Square was betting that Starbucks would help them in exchange for subsidizing their payment processing, but Starbuc…

> Square also thought Starbucks would help Square launch new customer-facing products

It was obvious that this was never going to happen from the beginning. Square neutered Wallet for the Starbucks deal, turning it into a less compelling implementation of the existing QR-code system.

Re: How Jack Dorsey Runs Both Twitter, Square

#40

Post by givehimagun »

influx wrote: post #21

Jack actually walked out of the Twitter meeting where they were explaining the layoffs to the leftover employees. I'm sure he had an important meeting though.

When you're working 18 hours days and burning out...he is mentally putting a cost/benefit to every single thing he does. I'm sure he decided he could generate more value doing something else (not a vague something else; a specific "I'm going to do this"). It's a coping mechanism and probably one of the few ways to stay productive in the face of insurmountable work.

Having put superhero efforts into a few roles, I can relate to that kind of behavior.

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