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The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

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Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#131

Post by enraged_camel »

throwaway2016lv wrote: post #12

I visited Zappos HQ with a university group in 2016. As part of the tour, we visited the executive area, where they all sat in cubicles/rows like anyone else's. They even pointed out Tony's desk, though he wasn't around at the time. I came away from that tour with two distinct impressions: 1 - Zappos had an amazing company culture; everyone seemed to get along and really enjoy their work. 2 - Tony Hsieh had a surpris…

>>Tony Hsieh had a surprisingly large collection of half-empty liquor bottles at his desk.

Not just Tony.

My best friend used to work at Zappos. He used to brag to me that every employee/team gets their own mini-fridge, which is stocked with booze and liquor. He said that a common "bonding" experience for different teams in the company is to exchange different types of liquor. This was in early 2010s.

He said drinking on the job is common, but going overboard is discouraged (for obvious reasons). But even he admitted that Zappos clearly understood that in order to attract customer service people to the company (headquartered in Las Vegas), being able to drink on the job, i.e. during the day, would be a great recruitment tool.

I thought it was very cynical, although it obviously worked out well for them. Too bad about Tony though, I hear he was a great guy.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#132

Post by cghendrix »

Scoundreller wrote: post #91
mylons wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thousands of generations of humans existed without it before you.

A lot of that boredom lead to exploratory missions, wiping out 80%+ of the local populations with the disease and war they brought...

That’s an interesting take...

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#133

Post by dang »

Alex3917 wrote: post #129
dang wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users flagged it. We can only guess why users flag things. It was flagkilled for a while and then we unkilled it but left [flagged] on. It also got a lot of upvotes, so the signals were actually mixed. I don't have any special insight, but FWIW: situations like this are inevitably messy. People want different things (e.g. the social standard about not speaking ill of the dead vs. curiosity to know the truth or share…

> In my experience, that sort of throwaway account (but there are many sorts—let's not overgeneralize) is usually reporting something true, though perhaps biased. If you look at the academic research on rumors, most rumors are apparently fairly accurate. That's why they spread so quickly. E.g.: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009102609001900...

I suppose the key word is "fairly". The higher that number goes, the more incentive there is for impostors, and that brings the number back down—so fairly accurate is about as accurate as they can get.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#134

Post by redisman »

okareaman wrote: post #79
seibelj wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done nitrous before - what about it makes you more likely to be set on fire? Just risk of passing out while smoking a cigarette maybe?

I used to crack a bunch of cartridges into a large plastic bag such as an outdoor trash bag. I didn't realize N2O was an accelerant so I was smoking. The tip of the cig fell on the bag and it went up in a flash. Fortunately it burned quickly and only singed me.

Interesting. I guess I always assumed most gases are flammable

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#135

Post by m3kw9 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #131
throwaway2016lv wrote: post #12

I visited Zappos HQ with a university group in 2016. As part of the tour, we visited the executive area, where they all sat in cubicles/rows like anyone else's. They even pointed out Tony's desk, though he wasn't around at the time. I came away from that tour with two distinct impressions: 1 - Zappos had an amazing company culture; everyone seemed to get along and really enjoy their work. 2 - Tony Hsieh had a surpris…

>>Tony Hsieh had a surprisingly large collection of half-empty liquor bottles at his desk. Not just Tony. My best friend used to work at Zappos. He used to brag to me that every employee/team gets their own mini-fridge, which is stocked with booze and liquor. He said that a common "bonding" experience for different teams in the company is to exchange different types of liquor. This was in early 2010s. He said drinkin…

Startups usually have fridge full of booze. We usually use it on fridays or during certain major milestones. Not a big deal

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#136

Post by fblp »

grugagag wrote: post #6

Someone mentioned this here on HN and possibly setting the house on fire but was dismissed as unfounded. I actually realise that they knew something... It is sad that Tony Hsieh didn’t get the help that he needed and instead tried to self medicate in order to get away from all that. This recurrent story where extremely intelligent people are battling mental health issues and cannot speak out because the stigma behind…

I agree with the sentiment of your comment, but in this case it did appear that he was seeing a therapist so he was getting some professional help.

I think the help that may be missing is friends who are "lovingly firm" with him sooner. But it's easy to assume a billionaire is going to be fine and "tony is just being tony".

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#137

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

tempsy wrote: post #26

As an aside: I hadn't bought anything off Zappos for years, and checked it out when the news hit and surprised that it still basically looks the same as I remember it maybe 10+ years ago. Certainly looks and feels like an eCommerce website from the late 2000s/early 2010s. I'm curious if this was an intentional choice or a sign the website has been on cruise control since the acquisition. It certainly makes me wonder…

I got a notice from Zappos some years ago about a security breach they suffered where customer information was exposed. In compensation, they offered a discount on next purchase. This offer of course had a relatively short time limit, not the same as a gift certficate or store credit. I never remember reading about this security breach publicly. Maybe I just missed it.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#138

Post by kube-system »

tashoecraft wrote: post #92
okareaman wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how fast it makes things burn. They sell nitrous at auto stores for super charged engines but I never did that because it's very dirty

Nitrous in cars cools the chamber allowing you to add more fuel/oxygen. It’s also not for “super charged” engines specifically.

The nitrous itself also has more oxygen in it than air does.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#139

Post by abootstrapper »

nxmnxm99 wrote: post #11
grugagag wrote: post #6

Someone mentioned this here on HN and possibly setting the house on fire but was dismissed as unfounded. I actually realise that they knew something... It is sad that Tony Hsieh didn’t get the help that he needed and instead tried to self medicate in order to get away from all that. This recurrent story where extremely intelligent people are battling mental health issues and cannot speak out because the stigma behind…

> This recurrent story where extremely intelligent people are battling mental health issues and cannot speak out because the stigma behind this issue is too damaging is why we need to normalize the discourse around mental health if we want to avoid this type of tragedies. Where exactly is the "stigma" of mental health in tech nowadays? We're blasted day and night to the point where apparently every other person is "b…

I mean, given the demands of modern society, I wouldn’t be surprised if every other person was honestly battling some kind of mental health issues at some point.

I mean hell, it’s tough enough being sentient and dealing with mortality, throw in social issues, politics, propaganda, conspiracies, lack of health care, lack of social safety nets, caring for dependents, dating, paying bills, social media, “Instagram culture,” and a god damn pandemic. It’s rough out there.

Re: The Death of Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

#140

Post by loraa »

whyenot wrote: post #110
hodgesrm wrote: post #55

It's the saddest article I have read in a while. Tony Hsieh was an amazing human being. The manner of his passing from the world does not take away from the good he did while alive.

Maybe sharing the circumstances of his death will also do some good if it encourages others with friends or loved ones who have mental illness to do something before it is too late. One of my friends has been spiraling out of control for the past few months. I have tried and tried to help them. I'm going to keep trying.

We enjoy the spiral as it's one of the only interesting things left.
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