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Not being an asshole will make you more money

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Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#221
As long as the fed is printing fake money, money is essentially free to those with good credit, and it makes sense to do all the things described by the OP. Someone will bite, and you may as well make the money.

One day, I hope for a society where money is a real measure of productivity and all the things the OP said will be 100% valid. This is not that day.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#222
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This point only pertains in places with a poisonous legal system, such as US or UK.

Could you perhaps explain how it works in your country or other countries, in such matters? I'm not necessarily knocking any non-US or non-UK judiciaries or jurisprudence(s); in fact if anything I find US or UK systems poisonous too - as you describe it - to a high degree in some cases. But how does a modern, complex and non-homogeneous society aribiter cases without turning "poisonous" or odious to some members? To…

> But how does a modern, complex and non-homogeneous society aribiter cases without turning "poisonous" or odious to some members?

There is no perfect society in this regard. Just because it's hard doesn't mean that such societies shouldn't strive to reduce the odiousness, and maximize the fairness in the administration of justice, regardless of the subgroup that the contending parties may belong to. Fair and equal treatment under the eyes of the law is a cornerstone of human rights.

> To my knowledge much of Europe, M.E., Asia and even S. America are composed of largely homogeneous populaces with a smattering of outsiders at best.

You've listed regions that contain some of the most heterogenous countries on earth in ethnicity, language, and culture, like the UK, France, China, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Indonesia, Brazil.

Some of these countries have multiple, sometimes contradictory legal systems, some sanctioned by the state, others by religious power structures.

The country that is often referred to as among the most homogeneous societies in the world, Japan, has a pretty well acknowledged dual justice system for citizens versus visitors. All societies fail at this, but if anything, the very homogeneous societies fail the most at offering equal justice.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible for you to name said investor such that people know to stay away from said investor?

As user volkk said, unfortunately it would be legally risky for me to disclose the identity of the investor. Which is pretty frustrating, because then you realize that when someone does something bad to you (legally/morally), there are very few (legal) ways to remedy it, especially if they have a lot more money than you. I can say that he's not based in the Bay Area, so if you are raising money there it is very unlik…

> even offered to buy out the other guy

Why didn't this happen? That seems like an obvious outcome of the situation, unless losing the big client is enough to effectively destroy the company.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#224

I have an example. In a previous role was in a position where we were negotiating a large-ish (>1M USD) multi-year contract when our client asked us to also do a proof of concept about some topic. It was just 1 week or 2 weeks so I said it would be free but because of various regulatory stuff we needed a contract in place. I was dealing with the same purchasing lawyer on both contracts. The process was super-standard…

I had a famous company redline many minor changes that we had discussed, but in amongst it, they redlined a major change we hadn't discussed. They said, *we redlined it, you saw it, what's the big deal?" But I wouldn't deal with them after that.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#225
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you perhaps explain how it works in your country or other countries, in such matters? I'm not necessarily knocking any non-US or non-UK judiciaries or jurisprudence(s); in fact if anything I find US or UK systems poisonous too - as you describe it - to a high degree in some cases. But how does a modern, complex and non-homogeneous society aribiter cases without turning "poisonous" or odious to some members? To…

> But how does a modern, complex and non-homogeneous society aribiter cases without turning "poisonous" or odious to some members? There is no perfect society in this regard. Just because it's hard doesn't mean that such societies shouldn't strive to reduce the odiousness, and maximize the fairness in the administration of justice, regardless of the subgroup that the contending parties may belong to. Fair and equal t…

I'm talking about diverse, complex and modern as in a jurisprudence that takes into account many ethnicities and still manages to produce a letter of the law that multinational corporations find agreeable to do business in and yet at the same time subjects those corps to tough penalties with an enforcement mechanism to back it up.

Countries with a steady inflow of new migrants of all networths.

Countries that make real attempts to be fair to native born people and outsiders alike.

A country could speak 2 or 3 different languages and still a very largely monocultural way of doing things. Not to cherry pick but do you really think the Yighurs in China get a fair shake in a court? I really want to hear if you've read differently.

A country could have on paper very impressive law frameworks and yet in action be essentially meaningless since most of the population doesnt have access to fair representation.

Not mere grandiose legal frameworks with not an ounce of real world enforcement to back it up or go after bad actors in a legitimate way, without extra legal acts of justice or worse mob justice.

Pretty much any and every country you mentioned fails to meet atleast one or - in most cases - all of the criteria.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#226
post #6

Most of the billionaires are assholes and/or criminals with a couple of noteworthy exceptions. So maybe not being an asshole will get you ahead in the middle but it won't get you all the way to the top of the foodchain. So this is solid advice, but unfortunately the role models are exactly those people that didn't follow this sort of advice. Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Apple, Google and Facebook all would not have bee…

Wait.. are you saying bill gates is an asshole?

Oh you sweet child

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#227
post #102

Kinda off topic but other side of the coin, befriending the asshole: At my first job there was this grizzly old engineer who was known for being pretty surly, but knew the code base almost as if by memory, and the behavior of the code. He was bothered by anything and everything and really just wanted to run out the clock and go home and work in his wood shop. I was in support and nobody wanted to go to him for help,…

You're confusing "asshole" with "brilliant jerk"[0]. The latter is high maintanance and finnicky, but worth it if you can keep them in their high-performance operating regime. The former are toxic parasites that are actively trying to screw you. TFA is talking about the "asshole" group specifically.

0: Or at least that's the terms I've seen used on HN for those archtypes; obviously Y[vocabulary]MV

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#228
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exactly. 9 out of 10 managers will give you more money. I don't know - man. I've worked at a lot of places and this doesn't seem to be a common thing. It could be I've just worked at a lot of bad places but still. Asking for more isn't enough. It has to be the threat of leaving in order to get them to give more. At which point - the advice now for managers is, if they're threatening to leave unless you pay more the…

Every manager I've ever had I've ask for a raise and everyone of them have given me the option to show up Monday or find a new job. This is fanciful thinking in a priviledged industry and doesn't represent most employment relationships.

Why didn't you find a new job?

The reason I ask this is because every time I've asked for a raise I've been underpaid relative to the market and known it, and been able to walk into a meeting with a list of numbers recruiters have sent me and credibly state that I'll have to consider other options soon. I would be surprised to find this hadn't worked for someone else, and even more surprised to find they hadn't left.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether it's exclusive. I never claimed that.

Your singling out of the country implies as much. If it's not exclusive to America, you should have said "It's standard bullshit"

How are you so butthurt about this that you exactly duplicated this entire conversation?

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#230
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But how does a modern, complex and non-homogeneous society aribiter cases without turning "poisonous" or odious to some members? There is no perfect society in this regard. Just because it's hard doesn't mean that such societies shouldn't strive to reduce the odiousness, and maximize the fairness in the administration of justice, regardless of the subgroup that the contending parties may belong to. Fair and equal t…

I'm talking about diverse, complex and modern as in a jurisprudence that takes into account many ethnicities and still manages to produce a letter of the law that multinational corporations find agreeable to do business in and yet at the same time subjects those corps to tough penalties with an enforcement mechanism to back it up. Countries with a steady inflow of new migrants of all networths. Countries that make re…

> Not to cherry pick but do you really think the Yighurs in China get a fair shake in a court? I really want to hear if you've read differently.

Definitely not. Multiethnicity is necessary, but insufficient condition

> Pretty much any and every country you mentioned fails to meet atleast one or - in most cases - all of the criteria.

That's obvious. I didn't say they were perfect, just far from homogeneous. And there's not much to learn from very homogeneous societies in this regard.

The question for the complex heterogeneous societies isn't whether they fail, but rather what direction they are moving in. Arguably both China and the US have moved backwards of late.

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