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Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

nav.al

11–20 of 91 posts

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#12
I really wouldn't want to work for someone who's so full of themselves that they can't even do their own laundry. Worse yet, someone who'd make their employees do their laundry for them.

I personally find Naval and his platitudes to be overly simplistic, and his "get rich quick" advice is mostly impractical (and often bad) for normal people.

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#13
I feel like this is promoting wantrepeneur lifestyle and taking low paid long hour start up jobs to get on the ladder.

Whilst innovation is important, and earning your stripes too, I get sick of this unspoken attitude that anyone who doesn't work for a "cool" startup must be unambitious and lack talent.

Big tech are dominating most of the interesting problems. Startups likely can not compete with google - if they choose to let you exist it is because they have decided the problem isn't profitable enough.

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but please don't post shallow dismissals to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

This isn’t a shallow dismissal. I’m literally quoting a part of the piece that is absurdly bad. Would it be edifying for you and others if I explained why I think suggesting that a smart startup employee should not be doing the CEO’s laundry?

Please explain, i think the idea make sense. The menial job id done to show that no job is beneath you and to open up greater opportunity.

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#15
post #3

Founders want employees to have the founder mentality without giving them founder equity. AngelList (which this author is shilling) salaries and equity grants are pathetically low. So they write fluff pieces about how you’ll learn so much doing a founders laundry. I learned a lot more, faster, as an employee at big tech than at early stage startups. Startup VCs and company need to get out of the business of writing f…

It's similar to getting an artist to do commissions for free because of the all 'exposure' they will get.

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#16
post #3

Founders want employees to have the founder mentality without giving them founder equity. AngelList (which this author is shilling) salaries and equity grants are pathetically low. So they write fluff pieces about how you’ll learn so much doing a founders laundry. I learned a lot more, faster, as an employee at big tech than at early stage startups. Startup VCs and company need to get out of the business of writing f…

I've been wondering about this for a long time. On average, what equity level would you say counts as "pathetically low" and what range would you say counts as fair?

It seems to me that early employees are underpriced these days, the way that founders used to be, so a correction is probably inevitable. At the same time, there's no way seed-stage startups can match FB levels of compensation—the math just doesn't work. So what would a correction look like?

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#17
post #9

The first example is basically find a successful person and take a menial job sucking up to them and doing their laundry. Welcome to America 2020

That’s the VC mentality. Use your purse strings as a way to get people to stroke your ego and make you feel powerful. When in reality most founders just want to take your money and have you GTFO

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#18
post #3

Founders want employees to have the founder mentality without giving them founder equity. AngelList (which this author is shilling) salaries and equity grants are pathetically low. So they write fluff pieces about how you’ll learn so much doing a founders laundry. I learned a lot more, faster, as an employee at big tech than at early stage startups. Startup VCs and company need to get out of the business of writing f…

The whole @DHH vs VC's debate on work was so silly. If you have founder/ownership stake in a business, working crazy hours is worth it. If you don't, it's not.

Simple.

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#19
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but please don't post shallow dismissals to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

This isn’t a shallow dismissal. I’m literally quoting a part of the piece that is absurdly bad. Would it be edifying for you and others if I explained why I think suggesting that a smart startup employee should not be doing the CEO’s laundry?

It's not edifying to cherry-pick the most sensational detail in an article in order to hammer it. What you wrote is shallow because you haven't engaged with the core idea of the post at all. That's exactly what that guideline is supposed to discourage.

You seized on "CEO's laundry" because it sounds absurd; no doubt the fact that it sounds absurd is exactly why he included it. If you reduce his argument to that, you're breaking another site guideline too: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

What would be more edifying is if you delivered on the claim your comment makes for yourself, that you know how someone got rich better than they themselves do. How?

Re: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself

#20
post #16
post #3

Founders want employees to have the founder mentality without giving them founder equity. AngelList (which this author is shilling) salaries and equity grants are pathetically low. So they write fluff pieces about how you’ll learn so much doing a founders laundry. I learned a lot more, faster, as an employee at big tech than at early stage startups. Startup VCs and company need to get out of the business of writing f…

I've been wondering about this for a long time. On average, what equity level would you say counts as "pathetically low" and what range would you say counts as fair? It seems to me that early employees are underpriced these days, the way that founders used to be, so a correction is probably inevitable. At the same time, there's no way seed-stage startups can match FB levels of compensation—the math just doesn't work.…

I generally see At least, that's what it would take for me to join a startup as first engineer versus starting my own business.
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