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Employee 1: Yahoo

themacro.com

41–50 of 115 posts

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#41
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If all the other companies and people couldn't figure out how to be companies that aren't brainfucked by politics, I think it would be considerable hubris for me to believe that I somehow know better and somehow can get into business without becoming brainfucked by politics.

I think business == brainfucked by politics. That is literally what you are compensated for. For some, it's a trade-off they are happy to make, and can be very lucrative. But you can't kid yourself that there is any possible way to pursue success in the business world, whether on your own by starting a company or by working up the ranks elsewhere, that does not ultimately bottom out at being paid solely for your ability to endure being brainfucked by politics.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#42
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, sitting in meetings all day, essentially accomplishing nothing really is bullshit. Granted, there are some super productive management teams out there, but the majority of time is spent dealing with nonsense politics, and having meetings to schedule meetings. Stereotypes have basis in reality.

Stereotypes have a basis in reality, but there are myriad exceptions to "meetings = doing nothing." Tim Cook pretty much only goes to meetings.

If that's your example, well then my counter is that Apple is arguably in the least innovative, most boring slump of their existence. Nothing but incremental nonsense hardware wise, a desktop OS going no where, and a mobile interface that has largely remained unchanged since 2006.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#43
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 cor…

When I think of the bottom falling out on a team this year, I think of the White Sox. But maybe that's because I'm from Chicago.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#44

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…

> 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 pee…

The tech world doesn't revolve around Silicon Valley, as much as they'd like you to believe. There is TONS of opportunities in this world. Start your own company if you aren't happy with any of them. Thirty-nine is not the end of the road.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#45
post #25

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…

I don't want to be wasting my youth burning myself out in the pursuit. Do things while you have the energy to now. You could be dead tomorrow walking across the street.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#47

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. 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 pee…

The tech world doesn't revolve around Silicon Valley, as much as they'd like you to believe. There is TONS of opportunities in this world. Start your own company if you aren't happy with any of them. Thirty-nine is not the end of the road.

Given the completely asinine cost of living, most tech jobs in other parts of the US will net you more money in the bank at the end of the month.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#48
post #13
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"

I'm curious what do you think is absurd about working at Instagram and moonlighting at the same time? (Note: Many Facebook employees do exactly this.)

Because if you're good, today 40hr is not considered the norm. 9 to 5 is coasting.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#49
post #37

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…

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

I think that depends on your definition of FYM. For me it's $1.3MM. For others it might be $5MM or $750k.

I make a good living for my area but have nowhere near $1.3MM liquid or even my entire net worth. Getting and extra $500k would not give me any peace of mind or security that I don't already have.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#50
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 cor…

The glow of outward success may very well be a lagging indicator of eventual failure, if not the cause. Companies, nation states of years past can also follow this rough pattern.

http://www.historyguide.org/europe/kennan.html

> This phenomenon brings to mind a comparison used by Thomas Mann in his great novel Buddenbrooks. Observing that human institutions often show the greatest outward brilliance at a moment when inner decay is in reality farthest advanced, he compared one of those stars whose light shines most brightly on this world when in reality it has long since ceased to exist.

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