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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

#301

Post by rs23296008n1 »

jojo2000 wrote: post #291
rs23296008n1 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fair assumption that a lot of people on HN have SF viewpoint or views at least that partially align with them. Even those of us on the other side of the planet. As for your downvoters: plenty of people believe they should downvote when they simply disagree. Others believe that downvoting without a comment is fine. These two groups make HN less interesting. I actually want to know the reason why . Too many peop…

> It's a fair assumption that a lot of people on HN have SF viewpoint or views at least that partially align with them. Even those of us on the other side of the planet. Totally agree with you ! But maybe some people misunderstood what you wrote. I'd rather say that the crowd here is technically fit and policed enough to try to understand elaborate and forward-looking viewpoints, sometimes contrary to the doxa [0]. T…

I kind of like the approach on lobste.rs but ironically I'm too lazy to switch. But that is slowly changing.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#302

Post by yellowapple »

rs23296008n1 wrote: post #301
jojo2000 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a fair assumption that a lot of people on HN have SF viewpoint or views at least that partially align with them. Even those of us on the other side of the planet. Totally agree with you ! But maybe some people misunderstood what you wrote. I'd rather say that the crowd here is technically fit and policed enough to try to understand elaborate and forward-looking viewpoints, sometimes contrary to the doxa [0]. T…

I kind of like the approach on lobste.rs but ironically I'm too lazy to switch. But that is slowly changing.

I'd switch to lobste.rs in a heartbeat if someone would invite me.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#303

Post by RobertRoberts »

mikekchar wrote: post #257
RobertRoberts wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have dealt with some horrible people over the years. It's incredible what they will do to get away with stuff. Standing your ground while maintaining a logical and rational approach is the only way to deal with them. Most of them like a fight, so you simply can't pick one with them.

Assuming there is an external person arbitrating (which is usually the case when dealing with internal politics at least -- one or two levels up from you), it's so important in these cases to stay reasonable. Virtually every single time, the person that likes to fight will cross the line in the hopes of goading you into a fight. But it's exactly at that time that you win. You send a very reasonable email to the arbit…

You have a good point about CC'ing too many people. And that care should be taken when including others in a discussion that could affect their reputation.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#304

Post by reciprocity »

ta999999171 wrote: post #88
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't.

You both have different experiences, and the reality is somewhere in the middle........

Be careful with this line of reasoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_to_moderation

I'm often curious about the relationship between this concept to solipsism.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#305

Post by audiometry »

papito wrote: post #19

The most common difference between us peasants and the people of means is that those other people ASK more often. Ask for more money, ask for a bonus, ask for lower rent. And then it adds up. The one thing that holds most of us back is shame. But shame is a good thing in general. It's the glue that keeps societies together, preventing them from spiraling down to the lowest common denominator. Questionable if this sti…

Your remark is probably underappreciated....

I worked at Goldman Sachs for many years. There was a particular, successful, sales md there. I realized that one of his 'skills' was to ask everyone for something. Not some kind of exchange, or quid-pro-quo, just "can you do X for me", "can you give me Y". If you were gullible enough to do it for him, good for him. You could expect no consideration in return. It's one of those behaviors that worked out well for him, but I found it incredibly unctuous and couldn't bring myself to do it.

In a related way, I remember reading that "hustlers/fraudsters' strategy is to make the situation such that it's impolite for you to say 'no'" Similar idea to the above.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#306

Post by jacobush »

HenryBemis wrote: post #260
nmfisher wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4) Contract gets unknowingly signed and shelved, OP moves jobs and his/her replacement assumes the signed contract is legitimate. Rare, but I've seen it happen. FWIW I completely agree with both you and OP - it's a totally boneheaded move, but you should never underestimate how boneheaded some people (lawyers in particular) can be.

Anecdote/Sample of 1: lawyer friend skipped paying the fine for picking up his kid from the kindergarten 30mins after the closing time. His excuse was "come on what is 30mins?". Kindergarten warned "strike 1" and promised that he either paid the $10 'penalty' (textbook Freakonomics case) or be so much closer to expulsion (Edit: added the Or to conclude the Either). He didn't pay and promised to sue. His wife was then…

In a twisted way, he “won”. The world adapts to his ways.

Don’t think about in terms of money, but protection of his fragile ego. In this case, he was enabled by his wife.

I can imagine similar things could have happened in his childhood, people raking for him behind the scenes. (Incredibly entitled behaviour, “rules don’t apply to me”)

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#307

Post by jacobush »

snovv_crash wrote: post #262
rs23296008n1 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually cut them slack unless they're jerks about it. A lot haven't even got a passport. That's usually fine as well: The USA is a big place. Not even talking just actual size. There are a lot of people with diverse ways of living and circumstances. But the place is so physically huge you could spend your entire life exploring it and still not run out of places to find new things and people to see and meet. If it h…

It really isn't so diverse though. Same language, same retail and restaurant chains, same cars, same TV channels, same currency, same political system, same sides in war back to 1800s (and even that is a large portion of remembered history). Compare it to Europe, where a 3 hour drive gives you different food, language, holidays, religion, festivals, type of beer, different political system, different history going ba…

But still, I think it’s easy to cut murricans some slack. Their country IS one of the most interesting ones. If I weren’t living in my dream country I think I’d want to live in California.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#308

Post by throwaway55554 »

filoleg wrote: post #189
throwaway55554 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And 9 out of the top 10 American billionaires are self-made. Is there really such a thing as self-made? I honestly don't believe so. Otherwise, I think more people would do it.

Disagreed. Simply said, not everyone has the chops to do it, not even mentioning luck. If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't have a demand/supply graph for software engineers in the US so screwed up, given how much pay one can get and how few credentials are required for it, especially compared to other similarly paying jobs. Not saying that those situations are perfectly comparable at all, just trying to make a point…

Well, to be fair, I said "more" not "everyone".

Also, if it were true that people could be "self-made", we'd see a more diverse selection of "self-made" people. Instead, we see races and genders that aren't doing anywhere near as well as other races and genders.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#309

Post by potta_coffee »

dumbfoundded wrote: post #193
potta_coffee wrote: post #82

This is a decent article. I generally agree with the sentiments presented, but I disagree with the font-choice, which I found difficult to read.

I appreciate the feedback. Any recommendations for something legible?

The font is really thin, even when I zoom it's difficult to read. A thicker sans font would be easier to read. The one you're using looks nice visually, it's just hard to see.

Re: Not being an asshole will make you more money

#310

Post by fred_is_fred »

chrisbennet wrote: post #282
fred_is_fred wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are replying to clients like that then I am glad you have a lawyer.

Lawyers are good tool in our business. If someone gives me a one page "mutual NDA" I can handle it myself. If I get 9 pages of "our standard contract" and I read it through, ask if I can make changes and if they say yes, I give it to my lawyer. For that contract I actually wrote back this: Who signs these “standard contracts”?

I was thinking of the legal ambiguity of reply with "but yeah, no". Perhaps you were paraphrasing.
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