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Employee 1: Yahoo

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Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#31

Post by beachstartup »

p4wnc6 wrote: post #25
overcast wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my thirties now, after spending my twenties in pursuit of wealth. I can tell you unequivocally, as cliche as it is, accumulating money/wealth is not rewarding. Of course one needs a certain amount to be comfortable, but obtaining more has absolutely not made me a happier person. Relationships, interesting purposeful work, and travel has been what I have found to be the most rewarding. Basically experiences over th…

I started out from a very young age focused mostly on finding sources of interesting/purposeful work that provide enough wage to afford a comfortable life, but not luxury. I have not been able to find meaningful/purposeful work in any organization. The life lessons I've learned can basically be summarized as: there is no such thing as purposeful work for which you are paid a wage, and businesses rarely extract meanin…

start your own company.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#32

Post by coldtea »

jshen wrote: post #10
overcast wrote: post #8

"I went there with a positive attitude. The work was interesting. It was rewarding and intellectually challenging. But after a few months, I remember looking at my boss and my boss’ boss, and my boss’ boss’ boss, and saying to myself, “You know what? I don’t want any of their jobs.” I saw how they spent their time and didn’t find it interesting or very rewarding. They spent their time managing meetings and office pol…

I think it's fine to decide you don't want their jobs, but it's a mistake to frame it as "bullshit" which he does after the section you quote. Human nature isn't bullshit, and any endeavor which requires a large number of people to accomplish requires the management of human nature.

>Human nature isn't bullshit

No, but it is bullshit to conflate Dilbert-like management culture for "human nature".

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#33

Post by ryandrake »

overcast wrote: post #15
pound wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I saw how they spent their time and didn’t find it interesting or very rewarding." it may not be interesting but I'm sure it's quite rewarding (as in money/wealth)

In my thirties now, after spending my twenties in pursuit of wealth. I can tell you unequivocally, as cliche as it is, accumulating money/wealth is not rewarding. Of course one needs a certain amount to be comfortable, but obtaining more has absolutely not made me a happier person. Relationships, interesting purposeful work, and travel has been what I have found to be the most rewarding. Basically experiences over th…

> In my thirties now, after spending my twenties in pursuit of wealth. I can tell you unequivocally, as cliche as it is, accumulating money/wealth is not rewarding.

As someone a hair's breath away from 40 I can tell you it is if you don't have it. I see my body starting to creak and groan, witness Silicon Valley's blatant ageism, take an honest look at my ability to continue to earn into my 60s, take a frightened peek at my wholly inadequate retirement account, and find myself wishing I did more of that "pursuit of wealth" and less "travel and purpose" earlier on in my life.

I'll be happy to do "enlightenment and purpose" when I'm confident that I won't have to choose between dog food and back medicine when I inevitably get old.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#34

Post by brianpan »

hitekker wrote: post #5

Excellent article; I thought the section copy-pasted below to be a rather non-trivial, unintuitive, and meaningful lesson: > Craig : How was it to ride that wave, especially when the bottom fell out in 2000? > Tim : When things are going well and you’re in a growth industry, you don’t have to deal with many difficult issues. It’s the old cliche, winning solves everything. > Craig : For sure. > Tim : It’s really true.…

I don't know if it's apropos to talk sports, but in a very real way this is what happened to the Warriors. They had an historic, record-breaking season that allowed them all sorts of bad habits. In the Finals when they are on the verge of reaching their goal, those bad habits showed and contributed to their falling short. Coach Steve Kerr talked about recognizing those mistakes during the season but it is hard to correct those things when you are winning. Perhaps a good lesson.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2016/06/24/steve-kerr-...

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#35

Post by coldtea »

jacquesm wrote: post #9
bluedino wrote: post #7

>> Come out to Silicon Valley and get a regular 9 to 5 at a place like at SGI [Silicon Graphics], and then you can moonlight with us. And we’ll see where it goes. That sounds so absurd. Today that would be like, "hey come out here and get a job at Instagram, and them after-hours we'll work on our own thing"

Interesting that SGI would have to be explained. Once upon a time in computing that was as well known as SUN, Apollo, Commodore and Data-General.

A decent chunk of people on HN were born way past after Apollo's, Commodore's and Data-General's heyday.

And even for SUN, a 20 year programmer today was only 14 or so when the company was sold to Oracle and probably didn't follow the tech industry.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#36

Post by coldtea »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #23
bluedino wrote: post #7

>> Come out to Silicon Valley and get a regular 9 to 5 at a place like at SGI [Silicon Graphics], and then you can moonlight with us. And we’ll see where it goes. That sounds so absurd. Today that would be like, "hey come out here and get a job at Instagram, and them after-hours we'll work on our own thing"

> Today that would be like, "hey come out here and get a job at Instagram, and them after-hours we'll work on our own thing" Why is it absurd? It's not uncommon today. It's basically the plot of season 1 of Silicon Valley on HBO (replace SGI/Instagram with Huli).

That's what he means that it's absurd.

That back in the day it was the other way around, and now the "internet startup" like Instagram has taken the place of a company like SGI.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#37

Post by douche »

overcast wrote: post #15
pound wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I saw how they spent their time and didn’t find it interesting or very rewarding." it may not be interesting but I'm sure it's quite rewarding (as in money/wealth)

In my thirties now, after spending my twenties in pursuit of wealth. I can tell you unequivocally, as cliche as it is, accumulating money/wealth is not rewarding. Of course one needs a certain amount to be comfortable, but obtaining more has absolutely not made me a happier person. Relationships, interesting purposeful work, and travel has been what I have found to be the most rewarding. Basically experiences over th…

There's a continuum between hand-to-mouth and fuck-you-money. The closer you can get to the latter, the better.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#38

Post by jventura »

overcast wrote: post #21
sverige wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having held a few of those jobs, I understand the sentiment, but that doesn't mean those positions are unnecessary, especially as organizations get beyond a certain size. I understood his take on it to be that it just wasn't for him since he likes to be able to see something he has built in a fairly short timeframe, and at a place like Motorola in the '90s, middle management and probably many of the executives wouldn…

I think the point was that he was emphasizing the bosses bosses bosses boss. Many levels of nonsense, leading to politics. Managers do need to exist, and I agree they have a purpose, but often times, even in the company I work for currently. There is more management than there is workers.

I had a coworker that used to say that when you have more managers than toilets, something's wrong.. To be honest the company we were working on has now laid off more than half the team!

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#39

Post by douche »

coldtea wrote: post #35
jacquesm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that SGI would have to be explained. Once upon a time in computing that was as well known as SUN, Apollo, Commodore and Data-General.

A decent chunk of people on HN were born way past after Apollo's, Commodore's and Data-General's heyday. And even for SUN, a 20 year programmer today was only 14 or so when the company was sold to Oracle and probably didn't follow the tech industry.

Good spaghetti monster, if you don't recognize Sun or C64, you really need to study the history of your industry a little better.

I am not that old, that I remember Java before it was mostly abandoned by Oracle.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#40

Post by jshen »

coldtea wrote: post #32
jshen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's fine to decide you don't want their jobs, but it's a mistake to frame it as "bullshit" which he does after the section you quote. Human nature isn't bullshit, and any endeavor which requires a large number of people to accomplish requires the management of human nature.

> Human nature isn't bullshit No, but it is bullshit to conflate Dilbert-like management culture for "human nature".

Good thing I didn't do that.
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