Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without knowing the cause of death, I think it's premature to say that he worked himself to death. It was probably some kind of cancer that probably would have happened anyway. The bigger question I think is, if he could do it over again, would he have tried to spend more of his short time on earth with his family and relaxing/enjoying life rather than working? And even that is not so clear cut-- it may well be that…
Last year I was diagnosed with neck/mouth cancer. I did three months of radiation and chemo and it cleared it up. Then two months later I went in for a PET scan and the cancer had spread to my liver. So more ration for that. Then six months later another PET scan and the cancer popped up in a new place on my liver. I'm currently on Pembrolizumab and my oncologist wants to give that a few months and see how the lesion…
Mark Hurd Has Died
111–120 of 209 posts
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#112I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…
The scuttlebutt has been that Hurd has been suffering from a serious illness for quite some time -- at least a year and a half. Some have claimed it was a blood-related illness. (Leukemia?) Oracle has been keeping a clamp down on the subject though to try to maintain confidence in its leadership.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-11/oracle-gr...
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#113Obviously this is very sad news and I wish all the best & my condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. I'm not very familiar with how Oracle is run, but it surprised me to see "co-CEO". I always assumed this wasn't a great way to run a company, and yet here is a major exception. Can someone enlighten me as to why Oracle chooses to have co-CEOs? Is it something specific to their business?
Salesforce did it recently. It's about division of labor. https://fortune.com/2018/08/07/salesforce-keith-block-co-ceo...
“I am going to be focusing on, No. 1, the products, the technology—as well as the culture,” says Benioff, “and Keith is very much focused on the operations and distribution functions of the company. We feel it’s going to naturally align with both of our strengths.”
Product, Marketing, Vision, Culture -- vs -- Sales, Support, Services (Business)
It basically reverts back to what start-ups would segment out as Business v. Technical co-founders.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#114I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…
Not to mention they are just hoarding wealth instead of letting other people earn.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#115Obviously this is very sad news and I wish all the best & my condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. I'm not very familiar with how Oracle is run, but it surprised me to see "co-CEO". I always assumed this wasn't a great way to run a company, and yet here is a major exception. Can someone enlighten me as to why Oracle chooses to have co-CEOs? Is it something specific to their business?
Titles can be worth a lot to employees, but employers get to provide them for free. I think helps answer many questions:
1. Why do most of the programmers at my job have a title of Senior Engineer or better?
2. Why does Goldman Sachs have thousands of Vice Presidents?
3. Why does Oracle have two CEOs?
The only thing that the employer has to worry about is a perception of title inflation, but there’s a tragedy of the commons problem. This can be combated by creating higher-end titles. I wonder when we’ll see a company with a CCEOO.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#116I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…
Who are you to criticise someone else’s choices and what they enjoy? You do what you enjoy. Let them do what they enjoy.
I feel like this line of thinking cannot be applied to all things people enjoy.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without knowing the cause of death, I think it's premature to say that he worked himself to death. It was probably some kind of cancer that probably would have happened anyway. The bigger question I think is, if he could do it over again, would he have tried to spend more of his short time on earth with his family and relaxing/enjoying life rather than working? And even that is not so clear cut-- it may well be that…
Last year I was diagnosed with neck/mouth cancer. I did three months of radiation and chemo and it cleared it up. Then two months later I went in for a PET scan and the cancer had spread to my liver. So more ration for that. Then six months later another PET scan and the cancer popped up in a new place on my liver. I'm currently on Pembrolizumab and my oncologist wants to give that a few months and see how the lesion…
Thanks for sharing. I had also suffered through this sort of ailment and thankfully got through it. I'm glad you are trying to live life as much as you can.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#118Obviously this is very sad news and I wish all the best & my condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. I'm not very familiar with how Oracle is run, but it surprised me to see "co-CEO". I always assumed this wasn't a great way to run a company, and yet here is a major exception. Can someone enlighten me as to why Oracle chooses to have co-CEOs? Is it something specific to their business?
Salesforce did it recently. It's about division of labor. https://fortune.com/2018/08/07/salesforce-keith-block-co-ceo... “I am going to be focusing on, No. 1, the products, the technology—as well as the culture,” says Benioff, “and Keith is very much focused on the operations and distribution functions of the company. We feel it’s going to naturally align with both of our strengths.” Product, Marketing, Vision, Cult…
Aren't VP's supposed to satisfy that division of labor?
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people just really enjoy what they're doing. Friend of mine's dad is pushing 80 and he still puts in 90 hour weeks (he's a company owner, not a regular employee putting in that kind of time). Sounds like hell to me, but he'd be dead in a week if he quit. It's what he lives for. Hasn't been great for his relationship with his kids and ex-wife, but ... I guess it's what makes him tick.
80 years old, 90 hours a week, ok.
I know, to each their own, right? It's earned him a net worth north of a billion dollars, but for him it clearly has nothing to do with the money. He does not really spend much of it at all, he just works. It's like OCD.
Re: Mark Hurd Has Died
#120This was the type of dude who would implement a wage freeze on his employees while taking home the biggest bonus ever recorded in history. Good riddance. The world needs less people like him. Yeah he pulled off some impressive shit at HP, but the means in which that victory was achieved are more important than the victory itself.
EDIT: lol people who think they are the next Mark Hurd downvoting me, I'm amazed at how little some people care about employees on HN