Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 379 posts

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#101

Post by cortesoft »

JimBrimble35 wrote: post #17

The real hero of this story is the CEO who decided to take this guy _and_ his idea. He could have easily taken the idea and ran with it on his own, with Montañez spending the rest of his life mopping floors. I wonder how likely this scenario would be in today's world. I have found personally that many companies are unwilling to take risks on employees who aren't formally qualified, even if they demonstrate the skills…

I feel like this comment buys into the assumption that so many people have that 'ideas' are the valuable part. The idea wasn't the valuable thing Montañez contributed... it was the whole execution.

A CEO isn't going to 'execute' on an idea by himself... it isn't like he was going to steal the idea, and go into the kitchen himself and create the cheetos. He needs someone who can drive an idea forward to execution, and that was the real thing he was selecting Montañez for... the idea was the easy part.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#102

Post by egypturnash »

Phrodo_00 wrote: post #76
g_sch wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested (and somewhat taken aback) by the intensity of the reactions to this term. Maybe it's a generational/political thing? For my part, I know significantly more people who refer to themselves as "Latinx" than "Latino".

I'm from south america, been living in the US for a bit, and never encountered the term. Kind of curious to know where it comes from, and why it has a strong reaction. I feel like it's probably trying to include both genders, since spanish doesn't have a neutral gender, and that normally annoys me, since it's normally pretty clear when you mean actually-male or neutral-male, but I'm not necessarily against it. People…

How do you say that out loud? La-tii-nat?

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#103

Post by keerthiko »

rosterface wrote: post #70
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is it considered racist? I can think of some arguments against the term but am having a hard time figuring that one out. Maybe because they perceive it as having been coined by people from outside their group and/or changing the topic to focus on gender > racial justice?

Yes, that’s why they consider it racist. For the most part it’s a term from white academia. I don’t think anyone really wants to be told that the words they’ve used to describe themselves for generations must be changed, especially by people from another ethnicity all together.

Thanks for this interesting data point. Would you/they prefer to just be called latino? Is this common sentiment among Mexicans outside of your family?

I can see latinx only being preferred by non-gender-conforming individuals to whom it applies, as opposed to when referring to individuals rather than to communities (families, neighborhoods, food, etc).

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#104

Post by CondensedBrain »

rosterface wrote: post #53
tylerhou wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender. Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people. EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.

My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.

It's mainly used by nonbinary (enby) people of Latin descent in the US who feel like both Latino and Latina are a poor fit.

These threads always have the same look as the ones where people complained about singular they. Latinx doesn't have centuries of use the way singular they does, but it doesn't really matter. It costs you nothing to respect another person's self-identification.

Whether people should use it as a group term beyond enby Latin American descendants is another matter.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#105

Post by vageli »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #63
bduerst wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of creating a more 'diverse' management roster. No disrespect is intended with this question, but are you sure that was the real reason? I've seen people get laid off before search for reasons why they specifically were singled out, and come up with some pretty biased excuses for themselves when it was really something fairly mundane. Even when their…

It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

> It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

Does that mean that people who don't report abuse aren't victims? I struggle to see the logic behind this statement.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#106

Post by debatem1 »

That's an incredible story and props to the guy, but let's not tapdance around the fact that this is incredible specifically because social mobility on this scale is extremely rare. It took both exceptional determination and unbelievable luck to make this happen. How many others have the doggedness and skill, but not the luck? How many of them are still mopping today?

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#107

Post by shearskill »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #63
bduerst wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of creating a more 'diverse' management roster. No disrespect is intended with this question, but are you sure that was the real reason? I've seen people get laid off before search for reasons why they specifically were singled out, and come up with some pretty biased excuses for themselves when it was really something fairly mundane. Even when their…

It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

This post about Cheetos seems to have attracted a lot of complaints about imaginary leftists and ideological bubbles. Very odd.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#108

Post by rosterface »

CondensedBrain wrote: post #104
rosterface wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.

It's mainly used by nonbinary (enby) people of Latin descent in the US who feel like both Latino and Latina are a poor fit. These threads always have the same look as the ones where people complained about singular they. Latinx doesn't have centuries of use the way singular they does, but it doesn't really matter. It costs you nothing to respect another person's self-identification. Whether people should use it as a…

I agree. I’m talking about applying the term to people who don’t identify as non-binary. They are the people I know (myself included) who don’t like the term. I could see how it would be much more acceptable to non-binary people if they came up with the term to describe themselves.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#109

Post by DrJokepu »

wil421 wrote: post #79
rosterface wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.

What should you say if you don’t know the person is Mexican? Hispanic? I’ve had non- correct me when I said Mexican but I knew the person was actually Mexican. What gives?

Just don’t say anything. If you don’t know it, don’t assume.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#110

Post by pesmhey »

rosterface wrote: post #53
tylerhou wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender. Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people. EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.

My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.

Is there a particular historical reason why it isn’t just ‘Latin’?
Post reply on HN