Evan Williams on leaving Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#51

Post by peter78 » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 4:40 AM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #31

far33d wrote: post #21

I'm likely to be on the wrong side of this argument, but part of my gets upset every time I hear about a founder leaving their fast-growing company. Great companies are built by the kinds of founders who don't just want to start something, they want to build and scale it into something world-changing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving FB to "start something new". Imagine Bill Gates leaving MSFT early on to "experiment…

Why does this make you upset? I've noticed that few people can be both a "starter" and a "maintainer". And even fewer actually enjoy it. There's a reason why only the really big names stay on for so long. The people who start the company usually get bored when it comes time to go into stabilization mode. The people who maintain the company once it has stabilized usually don't like the uncertainty that comes with buil…

Actually I think it's usually the case where a company is founded by 2 or 3 really passionate people. Typically, there's one who's passion stays with the company for the test of times. With Microsoft, it was Bill Gates with Paul Allen leaving. With Apple, it was Steve Jobs with Wozniak no longer there. With Twitter, it Dorsey staying (after having been pushed out) with Evan leaving.

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#52

Post by peter78 » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 4:42 AM UTC

far33d wrote: post #21

I'm likely to be on the wrong side of this argument, but part of my gets upset every time I hear about a founder leaving their fast-growing company. Great companies are built by the kinds of founders who don't just want to start something, they want to build and scale it into something world-changing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving FB to "start something new". Imagine Bill Gates leaving MSFT early on to "experiment…

Because ~99% of internet companies seem to either fail or be acquired, it's the nature of the beast. Only a handful of companies (like you mentioned Oracle, Google, Apple, Amazon) live long enough for a founder to even stay there.

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#53

Post by PakG1 » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 5:16 AM UTC

subbu wrote: post #47

billmcneale wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As did Apple.

But it slumped. It had to call back Jobs to become successful.

It didn't call back Jobs to get Jobs. It bought NeXT to be the foundation for their next OS. They chose NeXT over BeOS, and Jobs was NeXT's founder. Jobs didn't become active in Apple until later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#54

Post by rudiger » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 5:18 AM UTC

far33d wrote: post #21

I'm likely to be on the wrong side of this argument, but part of my gets upset every time I hear about a founder leaving their fast-growing company. Great companies are built by the kinds of founders who don't just want to start something, they want to build and scale it into something world-changing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving FB to "start something new". Imagine Bill Gates leaving MSFT early on to "experiment…

The person who starts a company may not be the best person to lead it when it's worth billions. I admire people like Craig Newmark of Craigslist for stepping out of the way, and people like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook for continuing to lead.

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#55

Post by akamaka » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 5:26 AM UTC

qq66 wrote: post #24

far33d wrote: post #21

I'm likely to be on the wrong side of this argument, but part of my gets upset every time I hear about a founder leaving their fast-growing company. Great companies are built by the kinds of founders who don't just want to start something, they want to build and scale it into something world-changing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving FB to "start something new". Imagine Bill Gates leaving MSFT early on to "experiment…

It's clear that there have been a lot of power struggles at Twitter. It's not clear how much of this departure is voluntary (i.e., the departure itself may be voluntary, but the conditions leading to it might have been a loss of control). Finally, great companies have been built without their founders. Cisco and Intel lost/forced out their founders relatively early.

Intel lost or forced out its founders early?! Where did you get this from?

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#56

Post by vitohe » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 5:31 AM UTC

PakG1 wrote: post #53

subbu wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it slumped. It had to call back Jobs to become successful.

It didn't call back Jobs to get Jobs. It bought NeXT to be the foundation for their next OS. They chose NeXT over BeOS, and Jobs was NeXT's founder. Jobs didn't become active in Apple until later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

test

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#57

Post by 441069567 » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 6:22 AM UTC

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#58

Post by demallien » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 7:16 AM UTC

far33d wrote: post #21

I'm likely to be on the wrong side of this argument, but part of my gets upset every time I hear about a founder leaving their fast-growing company. Great companies are built by the kinds of founders who don't just want to start something, they want to build and scale it into something world-changing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving FB to "start something new". Imagine Bill Gates leaving MSFT early on to "experiment…

Actually, no, Jobs didn't stay with Apple. I suspect that episode could teach us a lot about what happened at Twitter.

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#59

Post by ashwinl » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 7:51 AM UTC

Herwig wrote: post #33

marcamillion wrote: post #2

This is why I love this industry. This guy has created two groundbreaking/historic companies in a decade and now he is stepping up to bat for #3. I don't know if he will succeed on the next one, or even on the one after that - but I do know that I wouldn't bet against him. Love/Hate Twitter, have to respect @ev for his contribution to communication, the development of Rails and the evolution of the industry. Look for…

I hate to see EV continue to use the word luck because it makes me think that he just happened to be there and didn't really do anything. He needs to step up and take credit. Hopefully in #3 he can do that. "Once your lucky, twice your good" (Book title of Sarah Lacy's book about silicon valley's rise)

It seems humility, at least in the press, is a quality he consistently exudes ... see Nytimes article from '09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/jobs/08bosses.html

"My life has been a series of well-orchestrated accidents; I’ve always suffered from hallucinogenic optimism.

Re: Evan Williams on leaving Twitter

#60

Post by cake » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 8:45 AM UTC

mrduncan wrote: post #16

marcamillion wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well...Twitter was at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of Rails in it's early days. Testing it's stability and scalability. Sure, it might not have been @ev specifically, but Twitter sure did. Hence @ev did.

While Ev certainly deserves plenty of credit for Twitter's success, I think you're giving him a little too much in this case. Twitter actually started out as a Rails project because Florian Weber (who worked at Odeo with Jack on the initial implementation) was a member of the Rails Core team. Jack was originally going to develop it in Python, C, and Ocaml. I don't believe that Ev ever had anything to do with the deci…

How much Rails is left in the Twitter project today ?