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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

#191

Post by bilbopotter »

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…

Wait what are you kidding!? Drinking DURING the day was encouraged? So the famed company culture is to let everyone get drunk as long as they're all hitting targets? Recipe for disaster for anyone who stays a significant amount of time. It seems cool when you're young then after 10 years people start getting serious problems like alcoholic neuropathy. Very sad situation all round.

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

#192

Post by ibejoeb »

jacobolus wrote: post #175
shadowprofile77 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, just for starters, millions of people haven't died of the virus. At last count, the death toll so far is just over 1.5 million. A terrible number, to be sure, but if you claim to not be engaging in hyperbole or misstatement of facts, it would be good to back that by not making your very first statement completely non-factual.

There have been 1.5 million confirmed Covid deaths, but the total number of people who have died from Covid is far higher than that, I would guess at least 1 million more, but possibly higher. Even wealthy countries with developed healthcare/government infrastructure are missing a significant fraction of deaths (in the USA alone, we have probably missed about 100k Covid deaths from the confirmed count). In many less…

> There have been 1.5 million confirmed Covid deaths

It'd really be halpful to frame with some kind of context. TB kills that many annually. To make matters worse, it's a curable disease, so these deaths are entirely unnecessary, but when was the last time you heard a peep about that? It's been raging for decades, and WHO is targeting 2030 as the end of it.

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

#193

Post by goldenchrome »

zarkov99 wrote: post #115
QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no stigma in the pretty words from HR and massive stigma in the actions of HR

What does HR have to do with anything/?

HR is the conservative arm of execs. They're responsible for setting company policies that reduce the risk of employee disputes and increase the chance of employees staying productive. That's why they say "HR isn't your friend". They have an outsized impact in large, chaotic companies and as a result they end up shaping the culture. HR is the lackey serving the demands of the capitalist machine.

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

#194

Post by bilbopotter »

QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #109
nxmnxm99 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

There is no stigma in the pretty words from HR and massive stigma in the actions of HR

Exactly this. It's all we care then if it impacts your work - boom you're out.

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

#195

Post by aerostable_slug »

okareaman wrote: post #102
okareaman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dangers of nitrous are hypoxia, B vitamin depletion, nerve damage, dissociative effects and extreme compulsion to use. I was in treatment with a dentist's wife, who really screwed herself in a bad way with all of these effects and could hardly walk because of nerve damage to her feet.

I forgot to mention, it's a rich man's drug, another way it's similar to cocaine. I probably spent $150,000 on cases of whippets (25 boxes x 24 whippets to a box.) My first reaction to Tony Hsieh and nitrous was "He had too much money for his own good." I ran out of money before I could kill myself with it.

Matt Dike famously said the worst thing for an addict is unlimited resources.

Glad you're still with us.

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

#197

Post by abootstrapper »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #185
abootstrapper wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cultu…

Look a few generations back and reset your worldview. Been drafted into combat lately?

I agree. The good old days were terrible. No doubt many suffered through considerable mental anguish. Unfortunately, this knowledge does not usually help people currently living with depression or similar mental illness.

It’s like, “I can’t pay my mortgage and I don’t where my family will live, but Grandpa was a POW in Nam, so no worries!”

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

#198

Post by timeeater »

jacobolus wrote: post #162
overgard wrote: post #125

I think something that gets lost in the concern about COVID is how many addicts and people struggling with mental health are being killed indirectly by these quarantines. I don't have an easy answer of course, it's a serious virus, but while for a normal person these shutdowns are depressing, for addicts these shutdowns can be indirect death sentences. I really think that needs to get factored into these decisions.

The virus itself is doing far more to damage mental health than stay-at-home orders ever will. Around the world, we’re talking about millions of grieving people who have lost parents, siblings, spouses, children, friends, coworkers, .... Millions more people who struggled to stay breathing and may now suffer severe long-term (or maybe permanent) symptoms. Health care workers around the world who will have PTSD from h…

Children don't generally die from Covid19. Your numbers are exaggerated, Covid is not the only cause of death around the world.

The load of sick people is also not exceptionally high, at least not in the intensive wards (don't have data for normal hospitalizations).

Here in Germany we have daily updates on the number of ICUs in use. It shows Covid is only a fraction of the patients, even now only 10% despite of soaring infection numbers.

https://www.intensivregister.de/#/aktuelle-lage/zeitreihen

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

#199

Post by sn41 »

It seems that Jewel wrote this in a letter warning him about his addiction.

“When you look around and realize that every single person around you is on your payroll, then you are in trouble." [1]

Not only in this particular tragedy, these are words to live by in general. We all need some neutral people around to provide an unbiased perspective so that we can make informed decisions.

[1] https://people.com/music/jewel-wrote-to-tony-hsieh-before-hi...

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

#200

Post by timeeater »

jacobolus wrote: post #175
shadowprofile77 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, just for starters, millions of people haven't died of the virus. At last count, the death toll so far is just over 1.5 million. A terrible number, to be sure, but if you claim to not be engaging in hyperbole or misstatement of facts, it would be good to back that by not making your very first statement completely non-factual.

There have been 1.5 million confirmed Covid deaths, but the total number of people who have died from Covid is far higher than that, I would guess at least 1 million more, but possibly higher. Even wealthy countries with developed healthcare/government infrastructure are missing a significant fraction of deaths (in the USA alone, we have probably missed about 100k Covid deaths from the confirmed count). In many less…

If you want to play number games like that, then you should also acknowledge that many who died were on the brink of dead already without Covid. You should only count excess deaths, not who was tested or not.

Show me the 3 million excess deaths, before you continue with the alarmism.

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