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

thehustle.co

321–330 of 379 posts

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

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Class diversity is pretty hard to achieve because you usually need some baseline class to actually be able to succeed in a role, i.e. you can't show up to a meeting with customers or shareholders chewing dip and wearing camo jorts. And social mobility from lower classes into corporate-ready roles is rather low in this country, so while there certainly are people who grew up poor and would be useful for companies to f…

Here's the real divider: Viewpoint diversity. Are you ready to have some conservatives/Republicans on your team?

> Are you ready to have some conservatives/Republicans on your team?

Such individuals are no problem.

What I wouldn't want are people who are "my way or highway", non-evidence-based, paranoid conspiracy theorists...

It doesn't matter if they're conservative or liberal - if they're off in the deep end and drowning, they probably aren't going to help a team move forward.

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

#322
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess based on what I read from the grandparent post is there was probably some poor product fit. Perhaps we would have done better marketing it towards "gringos"? From your link: > In July 2001, Dulce de Leche M&M's were introduced in five markets with large Hispanic populations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami, Florida; Mcallen-Brownsville, Texas; and San Antonio, Texas. The flavor never became popular with the Hi…

As someone who ate those Dulce de Leche M&Ms, what would've helped is if they were any good or bore any resemblance to the flavor they were named after.

The other issue was that the whole "Dulce de Leche" market became over-saturated. I remember that time - it was like everything was "dulce-this, dulce-that"; heck, I think there were cough-lozenges in that flavor.

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

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Class diversity is pretty hard to achieve because you usually need some baseline class to actually be able to succeed in a role, i.e. you can't show up to a meeting with customers or shareholders chewing dip and wearing camo jorts. And social mobility from lower classes into corporate-ready roles is rather low in this country, so while there certainly are people who grew up poor and would be useful for companies to f…

Here's the real divider: Viewpoint diversity. Are you ready to have some conservatives/Republicans on your team?

That depends.

Putting aside whether they’re Trumpers or card carrying communists, there’s a reason that some kind of Overton window tends to occur: viewpoints aren’t relative, and some viewpoints are wrong (on facts, on outcomes, ie. completely detached from reality). Diversity isn’t productive if we are expected to value dangerous delusions. Valuing off-beat or contrarian ideas, sure. But: I like milk and sugar with my tea, you want to smash capitalism violently for the rise of the proletariat; I think that Education should be free but speech should be censored, you believe in concentration camps, QAnon and pizzagate. This can get silly.

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

#324
post #238

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…

The point is that the CEO was open minded (he took a phone call from a janitor... and actually listened to him and then gave him a chance). He saw past this mans lack of education and experience and focused on his dedication and enthusiasm. There's value in everyone, everywhere (even the lowest employees). We need leaders who can put ego aside and see that. IMO, that was the point of the story. The subsequent success…

>He saw past this mans lack of education and experience

Did he lack education and experience or formal education and business experience? Being able to manage people requires skills that no formal education I've seen can teach you. It can help, but it doesn't impart the required basics. Things like being able to read a person, know who is being honest, know what is the appropriate level of joking around for a superior/subordinate relationship.

Did he have the skills from non-recognized sources or did he pick these up on the go? Or was some other characteristic enough to make up for a deficit in these?

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

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes that is quite the anachronism these days.

Too bad. Perhaps there is an opportunity cost argument for a better alternative.

I imagine it's super hard to quantify the profit of "ideas from janitor", but super easy to quantify the savings of "no longer paying for a janitor".

Plus, if every company has a gentleman's agreement to ignore the help then there's no lost opportunity that the competition can jump on.

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

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Working in the fields in sweltering heat for less than minimum wage means you're not trying hard enough, all you have to do (in addition to dying of heat exhaustion) is to work hard and pursue your dreams! - guy with a website with a bunch of enterprise software gibberish

Working in the fields in sweltering heat for less than minimum wage means you're not trying hard enough

You do realize that nobody said that, or anything even remotely close to that, right?

Also... I've actually "been there and done that" as far as doing manual labor, outside, in the NC heat in July and August. So you can think what you want about what I have to say, but at least I'm actually speaking based on a lifetime of experience that includes growing up dirt poor, and managing to make it to a level where I can have "a website full of enterprise software gibberish".

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

#327
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. What a thoroughly disingenuous strawman.

No it isn't. You see that attitude around here every single day. It's become just short of prevalent from what I can see. Everybody wants to push this agenda that "all of success is luck" and frankly it's absurd.

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

#328

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…

Good questions. Even if he really did drop out of school in elementary school, he would not be illiterate at that point. That aspect of the story seems reasonably questionable and is probably exaggerated for drama.

If one left school in elementary school, one could very well be functionally illiterate.

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

#329
post #238

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…

The point is that the CEO was open minded (he took a phone call from a janitor... and actually listened to him and then gave him a chance). He saw past this mans lack of education and experience and focused on his dedication and enthusiasm. There's value in everyone, everywhere (even the lowest employees). We need leaders who can put ego aside and see that. IMO, that was the point of the story. The subsequent success…

That was my take on this story as well...that the CEO was humble enough to listen to his employees. That's hard to do at a large company and we don't see enough of it.

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

#330
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get a kick out of people asking me what I am. Umm, American? But what is you’re ancestry, they will persist. “From America”. Honestly my parents have told me X generations ago where someone immigrated from, but I can never remember? For some reason the factoid just won’t stay in my brain, and it has zero relevance to me. For some people the roots of their identity is intensely personal. For others mostly irrelevant…

23andme will you about ancestors if you want to know.

Not always with country-level granularity. It'll tell you "Britain or Ireland", but not "England", for example.
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