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How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

thehustle.co

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Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#161

Post by dang »

naikrovek wrote: post #48
bserge wrote: post #16

This is a really nice story, but you know who the other hero is? The CEO who gave him the time and the opportunity. He could've easily told him to fuck off, as many would do. Who was he, what's his name? More often than not, we get nowhere without people in better positions helping us, it would be great if more people would keep an open mind like that. That CEO deserves recognition. And if you manage to climb higher…

Yeah CEOs never get enough respect. Also they're paid FAR too little for having an insight a child would have... Good leadership is rare, you're right, and I don't think CEOs deserve credit for demonstrating good leadership. Good leadership should be table stakes for that position; the bare minimum. What needs to change are the astonishingly weak disincentives (and sometimes, actual incentives) aimed at bad CEOs. If…

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#162

Post by Rebelgecko »

bsagdiyev wrote: post #156
Rebelgecko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually came to post this. After noticing some weird terminology in the Twitter thread (I've never heard the term "Cucamonga Valley" used to refer to the neighborhood by Ontario International Airport) I found that hustle.co article which has very similar wording. I think the Twitter thread is just a paraphrasing with some jazzed up details

It’s weird but not wrong, the area he lived in is still there. Guasti, CA: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guasti,_California

Definitely not incorrect, it was just odd enough to make me suspect that there was some copy-paste action going on

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#163

Post by dang »

shmageggy wrote: post #63
Rebelgecko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually came to post this. After noticing some weird terminology in the Twitter thread (I've never heard the term "Cucamonga Valley" used to refer to the neighborhood by Ontario International Airport) I found that hustle.co article which has very similar wording. I think the Twitter thread is just a paraphrasing with some jazzed up details

> paraphrasing That’s a generous way to say plagiarism IMO. Link should probably be updated to this (@dang?). Plus it avoids the abomination that is long form text mutilated into a thousand tweets.

Ok, we've updated the URL from https://twitter.com/ankithharathi/status/1341193051184611331.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#164

Post by jkestner »

NDizzle wrote: post #62
Someone wrote: post #7

Great story, but it can’t happen today. No janitor works for the company whose floors he’s mopping anymore, so janitors wouldn’t get that company-wide email.

Are you implying that companies outsource all of the janitorial duties now? I'm in Arkansas, so crack all the jokes you want, but the big places that produce a lot of food (McKee comes to mind - Little Debbie) staff their own positions. https://mckee.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/mckee/jobs So, in other words, yeah, you could be a janitor and potentially propose a new Little Debbie snack right now. That particular dream is s…

That particular dream, but parent is pointing to a bigger trend, of course. This is a snapshot of the death of upward mobility, the American promise and all that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/upshot/to-understand-risi...

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#165

Post by Talanes »

cperciva wrote: post #157
throw0101a wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As for CEO being well paid, it is simply because their decisions can make the company lose or earn a lot of money. CEO pay has risen over 900% over the last forty years: * https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ceos-are-paid-278-times-mo... Somehow I don't see the value that they bring to have increased by the same amount. From a Harvard study entitled "Are CEOs Rewarded for Luck? The Ones Without Principals Are": > CEO…

CEO pay has risen over 900% over the last forty years: No, pay for the CEOs of the 350 largest companies has risen over 900%. Said 350 largest companies have also grown dramatically; "CEO of the 50th largest company in 2020" (Procter & Gamble, $67B revenue) is a much bigger job than "CEO of the 100th largest company in 1980" (General Foods, $5.4B revenue).

Why did you compare the smaller company in 1980 to the larger company in 2020? Surely if you wanted to really drive your point home, you'd do it the other way around.

The way it is, you've just made it much harder to actually compare numbers. Just accounting for inflation brings that gap down to 67B vs 17B. Still sizable, but also comparing the 50th largest company to the 100th, so...

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#166

Post by Keverw »

cvhashim wrote: post #38

He only made 20mil in earnings? I feel like he got robbed. Should have started his own company and eventually sold to Frito Lay for 10x the amount he made.

Not sure if he was in a position for that. It's not like tech where you can just start coding in your bedroom after work. Psychical products are header and then health permits and stuff. Unless maybe he did it at events and trade shows small scale, but by time he could scale up to be in retail he'd probably be copied anyways if trying to bootstrap. Unless he could seek investments but I guess that depends on who you know. So many business ideas die in the parking lot of a bank.

I watch Shark Tank from time to time and it seems like retail and food is one of the hardest things to get into. slotting fees and can be really low margin too.

So maybe he could of went off on his own and done it, but part of me feels like that's a all or nothing bet. I know personally starting a food brand all by myself is not something I'd even try since it seems like a losing game to me and other businesses would be more suited for me to go after.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#167

Post by dcolkitt »

mempko wrote: post #158
dcolkitt wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For the one person who has "made it" economically, there are countless others that haven't, that still live in one-room houses. What about them? I think you're overlooking the miracle of capitalism. If it was just about one guy striking it rich, this would be no different than the story of someone winning the lottery or getting a big inheritance from a distant relative. Instead this is the story of a man who worked…

Before capitalism you had Cinderella stories. It's no miracle that inequality is as bad now as then.

The percent of the world's population living in absolute poverty has fallen from 94% in 1820 to less than 10% today.[1] That's the greatest miracle in human history.

[1] https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1086662632587907072

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#168

Post by [deleted] »

BoorishBears wrote: post #122
ardy42 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (Do you get why some people are pushing back on your comment above? You can come up with this kind of stuff for anything. You can't eat an apple today without possibly furthering child labor, our world is too complex to try and turn every feel good story into a dig for downsides, because they will always exist. It is in no way "important" to do suss them out. And it's fine to discuss them, but you don't need to mak…

If you look at half the top comments, they're actually productively talking about how this story exposes flaws in our economic systems (like how outsourcing has affected the odds someone would care enough about an employer to do this) I'm not saying you can't look at the negatives of stories, far from it, but trying to bring a story to an extremely open-ended negative point is so easy, but adds nothing of value. You…

[deleted]

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#170

Post by chrisseaton »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #71
alistairSH wrote: post #26

$18/hr adjusted for inflation. Almost a living wage back then. And unlikely to be paid today.

Janitors are able to demand $18+/hour in SoCal, plus benefits in some companies.

You're able to demand anything you want anywhere... but you're not likely to get it.
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