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Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

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Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#101

Post by whatever_dude »

donatj wrote: post #70
whatever_dude wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right - it's very much an American thing. Maybe not exclusive to the US, and it may vary by state or background, but still very common there from my experience with family and friends. In American culture, unless you're financially constrained, you grow up with someone hammering down the idea that you have to be doing something productive and getting better 100% of the time. If you're a kid, you have to be inv…

American here. I don't interpret it that way. I strongly desire to always be growing as a person yet I find quiet reflection some of my most valuable time. I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

> I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

I agree.

The problem to me is on the metrics some parents use to define growth. I do agree with you that quiet reflection is some valuable time. Personally, some of my most valuable ideas and projects came out of the blue, during leisure time.

But my experience is one of seeing parents who think everything should be scheduled to their correct dosages, and that "quiet reflection" is rarely considered as part of the equation. At least in my limited observations, it seems to be there's a certain need for constant measurable growth (or measurable fun), and everything that doesn't fit that framework is to be shunned.

To many parent, "growing" is to be sure to be always moving forward. You need to always have the speedometer at a certain minimum speed. While in reality the twists and turns of healthy learning and healthy living often requires stopping and slowing down at times.

Again, from my limited perspective.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#102

Post by gedrap »

rsp1984 wrote: post #94

The problem is in almost every group of people lacking a formal hierarchy, an informal un-official hierarchy will start to emerge with a higher likelihood of manipulators, sociopaths or other political climbers on top. I'd rather not be part of one of those.

Totally agree. Humans are social, and in social settings leadership emerges naturally, no matter what your management vision is. Sometimes the natural leaders are the same as the official ones, sometimes not.

Although I am curious why do you think that this setting is more likely to attract manipulative personalities, since there is no recognition, status, etc?

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#103

Post by matthewowen »

oblio wrote: post #100
PascLeRasc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Run an 800m by yourself and then with your friend who's really into running. You'll do better the second time since you'll push yourself to be as good as he/she.

I'm still kind of in the dark. Are you saying that during a marathon there will be some "sacrificial" runners (I think they're called "rabbits")? That's like playing in a team, they're not really opponents. You can't interact with the real opponents, as far as I know.

So, there are a few things:

1. Drafting has benefits

2. Different runners have different strengths. Some have a stronger kick at the end of the race, some have a weaker kick but can maintain a higher pace.

One example of how this can play out in a marathon (and, to a greater extent, in something like the 5000) is that a runner who has a faster overall potential but a weaker finishing kick wants the pace to be run at a higher tempo. However, if the runner tries to do this unilaterally, weaker athletes may be able to draft and use the physical and mental benefits to hang on, before winning using their kick.

However, if there are multiple endurance oriented athletes, they're typically more able to enforce a higher tempo throughout the run that will drop those athletes that have a stronger kick.

You'll often notice this in the 5000, where the winning time might be well below the personal or seasonal bests of many of the participating runners. Tactics prevent them from running their optimal race, and then a stronger kicking runner wins.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#104

Post by AimHere »

huac wrote: post #91
AimHere wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit disingenuous to just mention Half Life, although note that work on Half Life series games was still ongoing as of last year (and they did a fair amount of work on the whole series in ~2012/2013 porting it to other operating systems). Those 'blank' 10 years saw the release of Left 4 Dead 1/2, Team Fortress 2, Portal 1/2 and CSGO, for instance, as well as that 'little' Dota2 (which is clearly a large game by…

the majority of those airbnb/uber numbers are customer support not engineering

Which makes whatever Valve does all the more impressive.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#105

Post by huac »

oblio wrote: post #78
matthewowen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the face of it, this seems like a reasonable comment. But it has basically no relationship to reality: Many track cycling events Road cycling Every track event Marathon Marathon swimming Triathlon Sailing This is a non-exhaustive list off the top of my head. They all involve tactical interaction with a group of opponents.

I'm totally in the dark here. How are you interacting (legally) with other competitors during a marathon?

for the most part a marathon is pack running, which has many aspects that you can compare to politics. for example the overall pace - if you think you can outsprint the pack, it's better to force a slower pace, and the reverse if you think you're gonna get outsprinted, force a faster pace or create separation.

in particular, if there are multiple runners from one country, they can/will take turns running in front of the other. this allows them to share the cost of breaking wind and creating draft, allowing the other to coast. if you have this kind of relationship you conserve energy which is sort of important when you need to run 26.2 ~4:40 miles in a row.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#106

Post by sliverstorm »

rsp1984 wrote: post #94

The problem is in almost every group of people lacking a formal hierarchy, an informal un-official hierarchy will start to emerge with a higher likelihood of manipulators, sociopaths or other political climbers on top. I'd rather not be part of one of those.

This is, tangentially, my objection to my friend's dream of anarchy. Maybe the world would be better off without government- but the power vacuum will always be filled, so it's almost certainly better to fill it deliberately.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#107

Post by squeaky-clean »

frik wrote: post #74
AimHere wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it's much more that Valve is an insanely lightweight company for it's customer base. It has something like 330 employees servicing 100 million customers on the go-to PC gaming platform, and a lot of those employees are working on shiny tech and new games. As a comparison, Rockstar North's facility in Edinburgh has roughly the same employee count (slightly more by Wikipedia's count), and all they do is put o…

> shiny tech and new games You mean Half Life with it's last full iteration from 10 years ago, and the second episode with a cliffhanger from 2009? Or the Source engine (HL2) which evolved from GoldSource (HL1) which was based on Quake 1 engine (with some parts from Quake 2 engine) - even the Call of Duty engine which aged well too is based on the more modern Quake 3 engine, and I wouldn't consider it shiny in 2016.…

You don't mention Portal 2, Dota 2, CS:GO, all the TF2 updates, Source 2, all the advancements to Steam, the Steam Controller, Steam Link, the Vive, the Lab VR demos.

Sure the Battlefield team has made Frostbite which is shinier than Source. Did they also make their own store, gamepad, and VR headset?

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#108

Post by huac »

oblio wrote: post #100
PascLeRasc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Run an 800m by yourself and then with your friend who's really into running. You'll do better the second time since you'll push yourself to be as good as he/she.

I'm still kind of in the dark. Are you saying that during a marathon there will be some "sacrificial" runners (I think they're called "rabbits")? That's like playing in a team, they're not really opponents. You can't interact with the real opponents, as far as I know.

rabbits are generally used for time trials/record attempts. if a runner wanted to try for a 4 minute mile, they would have a rabbit run 2 or 3 laps evenly, at slightly better than 4 minute pace (say 800 in 1:58 or 1200 in 2:57). this allows the other racers to draft off the rabbit, as well as focus on running even splits so they have as much energy as possible for the final sprints.

rabbits in marathons are pretty rare (to my knowledge?) though

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#109

Post by cakebrewery »

MIKarlsen wrote: post #37

I find the whole "You are a person who spend every waking hour optimizing yourself to become the best YOU you can be"-frame of mind very intimidating. Maybe it's because I'm not american, but even though I like to work with complex issues, I also like a 9-17 job with a decent income, and the ability to go home and relax when I'm not working. And by relax, I don't mean working on side projects, doing volunteer work or…

This is not an American thing, it is even worse in Japan and Korea, where kids are forced to study from 6 am until late (8pm ish), and this goes on into the workplace as well. I attended an international high school in South Korea (I'm Latin American) and I felt utterly sorry for my Korean classmates. I've heard worse from the Japanese work ethics.

Re: Valve – Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf]

#110

Post by iEchoic »

sebastianbk wrote: post #11

As a Microsoft employee I am so happy that we got rid of stack ranking a few years ago. It encourages a bad behavior and goes against helping your coworkers with whom you are essentially competing for compensation. I am surprised to see that a company like Valve, which seems to be held in high regard by many developers in the industry, still operates with this compensation system. It's system of the 80's if you ask m…

I'm a former MSFT employee that was around when we dropped stack ranking, and I didn't feel like that was a substantial change. Managers still calibrate you against your peers, a stack is still created, and compensation is assigned accordingly. I remember reviews feeling the same before and after. What changed for you?
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