Permissionless innovation • Hacker News Board

Re: Permissionless innovation

#111

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 9:25 AM UTC

jpetso wrote: post #95

specialist wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm starting to get metaphysical about IP leases. (Request, grant, revokation, expiration.) As in: leases are a cure all for all of societial and organizational woes. I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts. But the basic notion is give all the cruft a TTL, after which the cruft cleans itself up. --- Want a new tax, or tax break? Sure. It expires in 36 months. Want an extension? Then ask again and we'll reassess.…

I'm not sure I would want to operate in a country where the tax situation was likely to change drastically from one term to another. If I need Tea Party people to agree on frequent tax extensions, even the sensible/proven ones, I see nothing but zigzag and uncertainty instead of actual, planned forward progress.

If lease times are predictable and actually honored by the government, I'm pretty sure people would handle it.

That said, maybe tax reform is not the right place to try this idea. But I like it WRT regulation, and especially office rules - having an expiration date helps not getting stuck with obsolete regulations.

Re: Permissionless innovation

#112

Post by vidarh » Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 11:40 AM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #99

vidarh wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd never, ever consider working a place like that, as it places the power in the hand of managers who may decide something I consider perfectly reasonable is "abuse", and use this "under their name" bit to harass people. Which means I can't evaluate if the company will be a decent work place or a sweatshop. To me, this is disrespectful to employees in the extreme. It shows a total disregard for the power disparity t…

You'd rather they set rules than treat people like grownups? You say the proposed way of treating people like grownups can be abused. You are correct in that, but you forget that "rules plus a mechanism for asking for exemptions" can also be abused, and has been, often.

I'm suggesting that not setting rules is not treating people like grown-ups at all, but playing tricks with peer pressure and the power disparity.

Re: Permissionless innovation

#113

Post by vidarh » Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 11:45 AM UTC

ythn wrote: post #89

vidarh wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd never, ever consider working a place like that, as it places the power in the hand of managers who may decide something I consider perfectly reasonable is "abuse", and use this "under their name" bit to harass people. Which means I can't evaluate if the company will be a decent work place or a sweatshop. To me, this is disrespectful to employees in the extreme. It shows a total disregard for the power disparity t…

I would rather work at a company with few rules than one where there is red tape around everything. For example, at my current company I don't even have root access on the machines I develop on, and I have to submit tickets to IT to get anything installed or changed. One time I asked them to install Docker and was met with suspicion. IT said they would investigate, and months later it is still is not installed.

That's fine, but "no rules unless you mess up" is very different, because it forces you to basically try to second guess what a number of different managers will consider messing up.

Ask yourself why your current company has that rule, and consider if they could do it in a more practical way without making you guess. E.g. put dev servers on a separate network segment.

Stupid rules are worse than no rules, but if you join a place with stupid rules at least you know what you're going to. Because in reality there are rules in the "no rules" place too - they're just unwritten conventions you have to learn by trial and error.

Re: Permissionless innovation

#114

Post by Doxin » Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 2:12 PM UTC

sharemywin wrote: post #85

drdeadringer wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't remember if it was on HN or reddit, but there was a comment//post about how a job site operated similar to this. To heavily paraphrase over the gist of the second-hand account from the boss: "Our workplace will be rule-free until people start abusing it. When someone goes overboard, a rule against their abuse will be created under their name which will be applicable to everybody; if you think that rule bullsh…

This reminds me of the "no pictures at your desk rule" at a company I contracted at. everyone was allowed to have pictures at their desk until the guy put up a hundred pictures from his side photography business.

Why is putting up a hundred pictures even a problem?

Re: Permissionless innovation

#115

Post by Mz » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 8:35 AM UTC

Doxin wrote: post #114

sharemywin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the "no pictures at your desk rule" at a company I contracted at. everyone was allowed to have pictures at their desk until the guy put up a hundred pictures from his side photography business.

Why is putting up a hundred pictures even a problem?

Probably in part because it was from his side business. It is a form of advertising.