WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO • Hacker News Board

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#131

Post by anm89 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #21

Jaygles wrote: post #11

You've got to wonder what kind of a person is it that can get so far in building a successful behemoth like this but at the same time is able to seriously put forward ideas like becoming President of the world or asking management to cut 20% of the workforce yearly

I wonder if there is some lingering idea inside their own head that what they're doing is nonsense ... so more nonsense seems pretty logical.

The ultimate lesson is that very few people, even those who seem wildly successful have any idea what they are doing.

This is why narcissist and people who are overconfident to the point of absurdity often excel and business at life. No body else has any idea what they are doing, their competitors mostly have no idea what they are doing, and they are willing to project that they know what they are doing unconditionally which is attractive to many people.

So people follow them.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#132

Post by compiler-guy » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

nickstinemates wrote: post #65

jiveturkey wrote: post #57

> recruiter working very hard to convince me I'd be rich when they IPO recruiters still do that? so unethical.

bad ones do. they'll be selected out of the industry over time.

Recruiters get paid by the companies seeking employees. If these tactics do indeed provide employees, then the company pays them and they stay in the business.

Recruiters are selected for recruiting talent. As long as the talent stays for some length of time that the recruiter isn't blamed for poor retention, then the recruiter wins. This time is months, not years.

That's why recruiters who work these angles still exist. It's not like this is a new phenomenon. It has been going on as long as there have been tech-recruiters.

If they did get selected out, they would all be gone already.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#133

Post by RandallBrown » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #101

metalliqaz wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

How else would they be able to determine that people like to drink coffee in the morning? https://twitter.com/modestproposal1/status/10855834347880202...

I mean, that's not what the writing said at all. The data said that the line for coffee was too long, so they hired a barista to help out with the line.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#134

Post by eropple » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

fizx wrote: post #127

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disgusting. It should be illegal to mislead people like this. Employees aren't like A16z, they're not getting preferred shares and their primary source of income isn't likely to be investing in corps. Stuff like this can ruin people's lives.

It is illegal, which is why you'll never see them do it in writing.

It is? I'd believe it, but I'm naive on these matters. Can you explain?

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#135

Post by scottlegrand2 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

cgearhart wrote: post #56

I had concerns earlier this year when I interviewed at WeWork—which was the worst interview experience I’ve ever had. I applied for a data science role. The first two hours of the on-site were painful—they seemed to be asking questions tailored to be outside my experience. The third interviewer came into the room and said, “I, uh, just looked at your resume and I have to ask, why do you want to be a backend engineer?…

A friend interviewed there and they dismissed him as overqualified for DS.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#136

Post by chooseaname » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

Jaygles wrote: post #11

You've got to wonder what kind of a person is it that can get so far in building a successful behemoth like this but at the same time is able to seriously put forward ideas like becoming President of the world or asking management to cut 20% of the workforce yearly

> You've got to wonder what kind of a person is it that can get so far in building a successful behemoth like this...

Makes you wonder if being a CEO is really worth 400X the average salary of the plebs or if it's all just luck and smooth talking.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#137

Post by hef19898 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

tudelo wrote: post #68

jiveturkey wrote: post #57

> recruiter working very hard to convince me I'd be rich when they IPO recruiters still do that? so unethical.

Even FANG companies try to play this game (our stock will appreciate more, our company is more volatile the upside is way higher, etc...)

At least the A-part or FAANG, the one that sounds like a river and not a fruit, was pretty surprised by the stock development after 2013/2014. This resulted in them over-paying a lot of the people they recruited in that period. Not that I would complain, so. But they didn't over sell the potential of RSUs during recruiting. My trick was to settle for sufficient base salary and take the RSUs as bonus I never really planned with.

Regardless, they put quite some emphasis on the RSUs being part of the salary as base salaries, while not bad per-se, were mere average for the region. And kind of sub-par considering the size of the company.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#138

Post by chrshawkes » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

DebtDeflation wrote: post #18

I'm guessing the "Non-Executive Chairman" position will just be a temporary one until they can come to agreement on how much money they need to pay him to go away. Professor Galloway called this the other day. His next prediction is that We will sell off all the bullshit vanity projects like WeLive and WeGrow along with the other nonsense Adam bought (like the wave pool company so he can practice surfing at work). Th…

Is this true or an exaggeration? I couldn't find anything on it.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#139

Post by mandeepj » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #92

cgearhart wrote: post #56

I had concerns earlier this year when I interviewed at WeWork—which was the worst interview experience I’ve ever had. I applied for a data science role. The first two hours of the on-site were painful—they seemed to be asking questions tailored to be outside my experience. The third interviewer came into the room and said, “I, uh, just looked at your resume and I have to ask, why do you want to be a backend engineer?…

WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

> WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

data science is a tech agnostic role. Wework might want to play with various data models for predictive modeling.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#140

Post by dragontamer » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

_edo wrote: post #73

hinkley wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a theory that there is no way to become a billionaire without fucking over a lot of people. To become a trillionaire you'd have to fuck over 1000 times as many people. Without getting lynched.

Or you could serve a lot of people, it's probably easier. Sell something for $10 that's worth $12 to the buyer and costs you $8 to make. Repeat a billion times. The people you did business with got an extra $2 billion, you got $2 billion, everybody's better off.

The main issue is that all of these companies these days are selling things for $7 that cost $8 to make. Repeated a billion times.

The people you did business with got an extra $5 Billion, you lose $1 Billion. All the companies trying to offer the service for $10 (or some other fair price) will be eradicated by your company, because a company cannot compete selling things at a fair ($10) price when you are selling it at $7.