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

thehustle.co

221–230 of 379 posts

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

#221
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It’s hard to believe an actual citizen of Mexico would be offended by you referring to their nationality. “Latino” is a term primarily used by people in the US of Latin American ancestry. “Latinx” even more so. I would recommend simply ignoring anyone who gets offended about how a group they’re not even part of refers to itself.

> It’s hard to believe an actual citizen of Mexico would be offended by you referring to their nationality.

Perhaps 'actually Mexican' in this context means Mexican ancestry. For communities struggling to be accepted as American, this is a legitimate issue.

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

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Note that I reductively throw around cultural class labels like "lower-middle class" in this comment for purposes of clarity: I don't mean to suggest that a person's social class is fixed, or well-defined, but it's just a brief way to get at the concept of different subcultures and their mannerisms, as well as the rough income bands that people tend to associate with them) > Also interesting is the backlash he faced…

> it's been my experience that the most zealous enforcement of class segregation in social contexts is from the bottom-up You perceive subtle rejection a lot more strongly than you perceive someone else being subtly rejected. The effect you perceive could be explained by pointing out that all of the negative interactions involving you were "bottom-up," while the ones involving the "random lower-middle class friends,"…

That's a very insightful point, but I'm not comparing the way my friends interact with me to the way I interact with them, but rather the way friends in a lower social class interacted with me vs the way those in a (sort of) higher social class interacted with me. I feel like not having much money meant that there were ways in which I was out of place among my childhood milieu too. And yet somehow, I don't recall ever being made to feel out of my place by anyone.

This is obviously partially attributable to the fact that everything about my parents' and my mannerisms fit in well, despite not actually having money. But I feel like the actual (significant) financial gap between me and my social circles provided plenty of opportunity for social friction, and I literally don't remember a single instance of it coming from that group.

More importantly, it would be predictable for people to enforce the advantages that a rigid class system affords them, but it's unexpected to me for those getting the short end of the stick to be enforcing the system more zealously (albeit in a limited context) than those benefiting from it.

(It really bugs me that my comments keep referring to class as if it's a real, important thing about someone's character, but I guess that's sort of the point of my comment: the perhaps-naive disillusionment that I felt upon realizing how insistent most are on enforcing it)

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

#223

This is a fantastic story. There are a few ethical problems including Montañez plagiarizing parts of his presentation and having friends and family buy out the products in the test market, but overall he refused to accept imposed limits and accomplished something phenomenal. One interesting thing is that Frito-Lay had no products targeting Latinos, and no one on the highly paid marketing team did anything about it. T…

> having friends and family buy out the products in the test market It is ethically wrong, however given the fact that he was facing an unfair fight within the organization (other executives trying to make him fail) I believe it was a fair way to combat that.

It might be less then that. If they are limited time products that the purchasers enjoy, they might just be front loading their consumption and eating the products over a period of time. I mean, corn chips last a long time before they go stale.

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

#224
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that a push for diversity is somehow in conflict with a meritocracy is deeply flawed because it relies on the idea that people with diverse backgrounds either haven't shown they are capable or that there are no people with diverse backgrounds that are capable. A good diversity program does two things: 1. It identifies and removes certain unnecessary credentials that might rule out people with diverse backgro…

That’s a fantasy. The reality is that there aren’t enough diverse candidates to reach the diversity goals of every company without hiring incompetent people. If every company wants 50% women and the graduates with interests in CS come out at a 4:1 male to female ratio, the strive for diversity either needs to give up and hire what the pool provides or start giving underqualified women. TL;DR - Companies absolutely ne…

The pipeline problem is a concern long term, but I don’t think it is the primary problem at the moment for a couple reasons.

First, it assumes that the pool of diverse candidates has already been exhausted. Anecdotally I have not seen evidence of that. If it was the problem you claim, we would expect female engineers to make much higher salaries than their male counterparts. There is no evidence that is happening. This will eventually be a problem once every company tries to be more diverse than the pool of candidates, but right now there does not seem to be enough companies prioritizing diversity to an extent that this is an issue.

Secondly one of the causes of the pipeline problem is not having enough visibly successful diverse people in the industry. The more diverse candidates that are put in positions to succeed, the more visible they become to the next generation, and the more likely the next generation believes that this career can be a path they can successfully pursue.

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

#225
post #79

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?

Latino (or Latina) is fine. The parent poster is talking specifically about the unpronounceable abomination "latinx" with an X ending. I'm Latino and my family hates it, too (but mostly because it's very woke liberal coded, not because they find it racist, as was asserted). But there are plenty of Latinxes who use it, so... shrug.

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

#226

This article ends right before the actual interesting part begins. Janitor takes some food his company produces, adds spices, makes a shitty pitch deck and profit? Cool, but... this could have easily happened in a dozen different configurations and gone nowhere. This is more luck than anything else. The interesting story begins after that. This guy didn't end his career there - so, presumably, he was't a one-hit wond…

thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth, a myth that fuels culture of overworked young people[1] struggling against structural changes they're told to ignore. [1]. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-w...

thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream.

Good. We need more of this kind of thing around here, and less negativity and the "luck is everything, effort is irrelevant, sit on your ass and wait for the government to fix all your problems" bullshit that we've been overrun with lately.

This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth

There's a big difference between saying "anyone can make it" and saying "everyone will make it". There's also the fact that there's a wide continuum regarding what "it" means. Not everyone has to become a billionaire to have "made it." If you're working in the fields for less than minimum wage in 110° temperatures, then becoming a manager at McDonalds could easily count as "making it."

People should be encouraged to work hard and pursue their dreams... at the very least, I think we can all recognize that you're more likely to "make it" if you put the effort in, than if you sit around doing nothing.

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

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not to go too far off topic but singular they does have a history of use for hundreds of years, but the current usage as demanded by some non-binary folk is different than the historical uses. It was historically used to either refer to a person of unknown gender, or to optionally refer to a person of a known gender. so your options for singular pronouns might be either he or they, or she or they. But historically (a…

>> " It was historically used to either refer to a person of unknown gender, or to optionally refer to a person of a known gender. so your options for singular pronouns might be either he or they, or she or they. " That's the thing though. Enbies don't generally know their gender. If you would use they without anger for an unknown person of unknown gender, it makes no sense to be mad about using it for a known person…

Perhaps a good start would be just identify as your biological sex.

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

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Note that I reductively throw around cultural class labels like "lower-middle class" in this comment for purposes of clarity: I don't mean to suggest that a person's social class is fixed, or well-defined, but it's just a brief way to get at the concept of different subcultures and their mannerisms, as well as the rough income bands that people tend to associate with them) > Also interesting is the backlash he faced…

it’s good to hear that you recognize your privilege. now what will you do with it? self discipline (class-based, in your description) is something foucault explored quite a bit.

Uh, pretty much my entire comment was about how I recognized my privilege as a child and spent pretty much my whole life deciding to push back against it. Appreciate the condescension though.

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

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to believe an actual citizen of Mexico would be offended by you referring to their nationality. “Latino” is a term primarily used by people in the US of Latin American ancestry. “Latinx” even more so. I would recommend simply ignoring anyone who gets offended about how a group they’re not even part of refers to itself.

> It’s hard to believe an actual citizen of Mexico would be offended by you referring to their nationality. Perhaps 'actually Mexican' in this context means Mexican ancestry. For communities struggling to be accepted as American, this is a legitimate issue.

Yes -- and what ethnic terminology such a person would prefer to use is a complicated and delicate issue, and I think you should call them whatever they want to be called (within reason).

But I certainly wouldn't suggest listening to the opinions of random Anglos who aren't affected by the issue at all claiming that "calling someone Mexican is offensive"

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

#230
post #55
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and running it), to managing scores of plants at HQ in his 40's. Frito-Lay however, is not immune from boneheaded decisions. After 20someodd years of employment, and a trophy case full of awards, he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of crea…

> 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…

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