Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job • Hacker News Board

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#521

Post by grzm » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:40 AM UTC

skookumchuck wrote: post #519

grzm wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, there's turnover. And there will likely always be cycles like that. That only means that companies don't last or innovate forever, not that they can't innovate. Out of curiosity, what criteria are you using for "top companies"? Looking at the top 10 of the Fortune 500 ( http://fortune.com/fortune500/ ) and their founding years: 1. Walmart (1945) 2. Berkshire Hathaway (1889) 3. Apple (1977) 4. Exxon Mobil (1870)…

By market cap. I'm a bit curious of your founding dates. Alphabet was formed from a restructuring of Google. Google was founded in 1998, not 1988.

I looked them up on Wikipedia. Good catch! Typo. And if I were consistent, I would have made a note on the restructuring as I did in a couple of other cases. The commenter apologizes for the error. ;)

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#522

Post by skookumchuck » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:47 AM UTC

grzm wrote: post #521

skookumchuck wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By market cap. I'm a bit curious of your founding dates. Alphabet was formed from a restructuring of Google. Google was founded in 1998, not 1988.

I looked them up on Wikipedia. Good catch! Typo. And if I were consistent, I would have made a note on the restructuring as I did in a couple of other cases. The commenter apologizes for the error. ;)

I also checked Berkshire Hathaway (1889). It actually goes back to 1839. But does a series of mergers and acquisitions actually count here? The modern form came from Warren Buffett buying shares in it in 1962, and eventually buying them out years later. Buffett's version of the company has pretty much no resemblance to the company he bought out, they aren't at all in the same business, and he mentioned in 2010 that BH was more of a hindrance than a help.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway#History

Notably absent from the list are behemoths of the past, like RCA, Kodak, Sears, IBM, Ford, GM, US Steel, Union Pacific, etc.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#523

Post by grzm » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:57 AM UTC

skookumchuck wrote: post #522

grzm wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked them up on Wikipedia. Good catch! Typo. And if I were consistent, I would have made a note on the restructuring as I did in a couple of other cases. The commenter apologizes for the error. ;)

I also checked Berkshire Hathaway (1889). It actually goes back to 1839. But does a series of mergers and acquisitions actually count here? The modern form came from Warren Buffett buying shares in it in 1962, and eventually buying them out years later. Buffett's version of the company has pretty much no resemblance to the company he bought out, they aren't at all in the same business, and he mentioned in 2010 that B…

My point (which I'll repeat once and then I'm done) is not that established companies never get disrupted or innovate forever, but to push back against the idea that established companies can't innovate (and that The Innovator's Dilemma contends that disruption is the only way innovation happens), which I took from "Innovation doesn't come from established corporations." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16665304) I don't see anything you've added that contradicts that.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#524

Post by jakeogh » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 4:40 AM UTC

fyi1183 wrote: post #470

jakeogh wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, the better outcome is Marriott showing it's hand. Better to know who is running the show, the consumers do just fine sorting it out. PR is extremely powerful and at least in the US many of us are very conscious about voting with our money. The alternative, where influence by people that are antithetical to our core values stays under the radar is much more damaging. My whole family will soon know this story, and…

This can work sometimes and may even sound wise, until you realize that a lot of people's character and behaviour is determined by their environment. So I prefer the direct approach that is known to work by directly helping people do the right thing, over the indirect approach that may or may not work, depending on circumstances.

"direct approach"

Which is? Decide for them?

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#525

Post by stephen_g » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 4:51 AM UTC

darawk wrote: post #359

stephen_g wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s difficult to compare though, because of other factors. I believe the main one between countries like France and Italy and Germany is actually the Euro currency. It’s generally considered to be overvalued compared to France and Italy’s economies and undervalued compared to Germany’s. This makes Germany’s exports extremely competitive (at the expense of costlier imports) which has spurred on their ability to build…

You have the causality reversed. All of the things you enumerated are caused by the relative economic strengths of those economies. Those relative economic strengths are themselves caused by (in large part) by their regulatory regimes, particularly with respect to things like hiring and firing.

I’m not saying that regulatory environment doesn’t contribute, but the monetary aspect has an amplifying effect.

Germany’s trade surplus wouldn’t be able to be anywhere near as large without the rest of Western Europe pulling down the Euro exchange rate, and unemployment in the trade deficit countries likely wouldn’t be anywhere near as high without (from their perspective) Germany pulling the exchange rate high.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#526

Post by darawk » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 6:05 AM UTC

stephen_g wrote: post #525

darawk wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have the causality reversed. All of the things you enumerated are caused by the relative economic strengths of those economies. Those relative economic strengths are themselves caused by (in large part) by their regulatory regimes, particularly with respect to things like hiring and firing.

I’m not saying that regulatory environment doesn’t contribute, but the monetary aspect has an amplifying effect. Germany’s trade surplus wouldn’t be able to be anywhere near as large without the rest of Western Europe pulling down the Euro exchange rate, and unemployment in the trade deficit countries likely wouldn’t be anywhere near as high without (from their perspective) Germany pulling the exchange rate high.

Ah, ya then I agree. The euro is a terrible mistake. You can't have a universal currency without a universal regulatory scheme, as Europe is discovering, and countries like Britain are resisting.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#527

Post by KozmoNau7 » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 12:26 PM UTC

jakeogh wrote: post #373

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all of this is different from NL or most other European countries how? Hint: it isn't, we just have sensible protections against wrongful termination.

"sensible" is meaningless. Everyone gets to make up their own def. Parent is correct, the US is a free country, which means beyond some _very_ simple rules we don't try to think for employers, we let the consumers do that. That's the point of a functioning market. I prominently tell companies why they don't get my business, and Marriott will hear from me next year when I call, waste their time gleefully explaining ho…

Calling the US "a functioning market" is a bit rich.

The US society and politics are way too heavily tilted towards the employers, the people who already wield an disproportionate amount of power over their employees.

If you actually take the time to voice your displeasure over situations like this, you are an extreme outlier. Most people don't give a shit, and even fewer will even hear of stuff like this happening. Even if they do hear about it, they'll forget in a week or two.

In the end, nothing will actually change. Employers will still exploit the employees for profit, and fire people for absolutely no reason at all, while making potential new employees jump through ever more hoops in the desperate hope for a job.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#528

Post by jodrellblank » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:36 PM UTC

John_KZ wrote: post #175

m3kw9 wrote: post #110

It may not look like it, but this is equivalent to accidentally pressing a missle button and it hit the country on the other side.

Yeah, Americans seem pretty indifferent on such issues, probably because they oppress others too well and don't get to hear such things themselves. What if a major French company lists the Falklands under Argentina? What if open street map deletes Israel? What if Airbus "likes" a tweet from a middle eastern man that calls for the complete removal of US forces from Iraq? Things like that matter, and really piss off th…

What if a major French company lists the Falklands under Argentina?

You'd get a reddit "BritishProblems" grumpy post about it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/2emlt0/i_w...

https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/search?q=country+li...

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#529

Post by coldtea » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 2:06 PM UTC

kodablah wrote: post #512

coldtea wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course not. They'd just ignore you. Not force you to suspend online sales to your 300 stores in the country. That's because there's no threat to them. If the situation was tenser, and there was some open controversy about Hawaii, with another superpower taking sides, they could do all that, and worse.

For a liked tweet? No, not even in a tense situation. We have to stop excusing government sanctions for something like a liked tweet. It's a dumb equivalence and harms the real point by deflecting.

>For a liked tweet? No, not even in a tense situation.

It's not the "liked tweet" itself, it's having come into attention, people demanding something to be done, media blowing it, etc.

Tons of similar gaffes go by without an incident as well...

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#530

Post by nicolas_t » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 2:21 PM UTC

zapita wrote: post #518

kgwgk wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that you’re basing your calculations on a EUR 100k salary. His 100k are the sum of salary and employer-paid charges. It’s true that California taxes are high. But it’s also true that France taxes are higher. And, to be fair, bring with them higher entitlements.

They're higher in France but not meaningfully higher, hence my comment "not that different". In fact if you take into account the cost of typical private employer-paid healthcare, the cost might actually be higher in California. And I maintain that taxes are just not high enough to be a major obstacle to entrepreneurship in France - and yes I am aware of the dreaded "charges sociales". The reason we hear so much abou…

Looking at the numbers, you do indeed have a point. It would be interesting to look at the taxes and charge sociales for different ranges of income but, for software startups who hire highly qualified people, taxes wouldn't be an obstacle compared to Malaysia.

And I very much doubt that availability of qualified hires is the obstacle either since the level of engineering Grandes Ecoles is quite good (I might be biased there)

So, I guess factors for why France is not doing that well re startups would be Employee Protection, Kafkaesque bureaucracy when dealing with creating the company and paying the said Charges Sociales and lack of capital.