1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company • Hacker News Board

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#271

Post by staysafeanon » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

sagichmal wrote: post #154

sergiotapia wrote: post #4

"We have a much more aligned company now, where we can focus on getting work done toward our mission. And it has allowed us to hire some of the best talent from organizations where employees are fed up with politics, infighting, and distraction." BIG takeaway. The people on your team attract similar kinds of people to your team. Good for Coinbase. Lots of good lessons here.

They lost almost half of their engineering team. Product development has almost stalled. I dunno, man.

You're thinking of Basecamp, not Coinbase.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#272

Post by fancifulfiend » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

refenestrator wrote: post #102

jrockway wrote: post #67

What mission did they focus on and how did it go? All I see here is "I wrote a controversial screed and many people tolerated it and kept showing up to work." That's great and all, but what sort of new things did it unlock? How do you compare it to the world where you didn't write the screed? It all feels like a heap of bullshit to me -- if you're in the right industry, you can be the worst manager on the planet and…

Noisy echo chambers are uninclusive to anyone who doesn't hold that precise political viewpoint. We both know that the program goes way beyond "black people shouldn't be indiscriminately shot", its driven by people who are addicted to social media and perpetually pushing for another rush of outrage. I'd prefer not to be around that, personally.

It seems like Brian Armstrong is the only person using social media to push for fabricated outrage. Anyone complaining about “wokeness” is talking about an issue that only exists in the minds of true bigots. It’s a boogeyman that they use to punch down. No one is forcing Armstrong to say stupid shit constantly.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#273

Post by StanislavPetrov » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:09 PM UTC

mrRandomGuy wrote: post #259

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I never once saw an example cited of these so-called distractions from being mission-focused that wasn't just affirming the basic dignity of a group of people. You are free to affirm whatever you want, and have all sort of discussions about society at large when your aren't being paid for your time by someone else to do a job that has nothing to do with affirming groups of people. >I simply cannot imagine working at…

This just in, people who also happen to work are not mindless automatons. People like working at places that seem to align with their own personal views. It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

>It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

You should choose a place of employment that lets you behave as you feel you need to behave, not expect that you as the employee are the one who decides on the standards of behavior.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#274

Post by fancifulfiend » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:10 PM UTC

poszlem wrote: post #265

mrRandomGuy wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just in, people who also happen to work are not mindless automatons. People like working at places that seem to align with their own personal views. It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

If you cannot work without doing social activism then perhaps a non-profit foundation is a better place to be?

[flagged]

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#275

Post by staysafeanon » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:10 PM UTC

sagichmal wrote: post #199

mikeklaas wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for that?

Friends in engineering at Coinbase?

Not a source.

I have friends in engineering at Coinbase. They've doubled their engineering team and development has skyrocketed.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#276

Post by beaned » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

notafraudster wrote: post #247

emsy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they would be rowing, but political activism is not work. Imagine going to the barber and instead of cutting your hair he would lecture you on the hardship of Guatemalan shepherds.

Barbers famously talk about politics while cutting your hair. This is like a quintessential part of barber shop culture. Barbers that don't talk about partisan politics normally talk about some parapolitical thing, like cultural gripes, or sports, or other things that have a pretty similar valence. I've had my hair cut in like 5 different countries by dozens of different barbers who speak different languages, come fr…

Dunno what barbers you go to, I've been to a lot across many states and talking partisan politics has never been a common theme among them. I can't remember the last haircut that did involve political talking, it seems mostly avoided. Maybe it's more common outside the US?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#277

Post by gwelson » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

poszlem wrote: post #265

mrRandomGuy wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just in, people who also happen to work are not mindless automatons. People like working at places that seem to align with their own personal views. It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

If you cannot work without doing social activism then perhaps a non-profit foundation is a better place to be?

but that's thing...what is "social activism" here? I don't think having a single tweet or post from your company's account saying "happy Pride month, we love our LGBTQ+ Coinbasers" is activism really....it's just like, a nice thing to do. No one is saying Coinbase or any company should pay their employees to go make phone calls for Bernie Sanders' campaign on the clock. It seems like people are inventing some kind of strawman of "paid activism" that no one is asking for.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#278

Post by philosopher1234 » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #273

mrRandomGuy wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just in, people who also happen to work are not mindless automatons. People like working at places that seem to align with their own personal views. It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

>It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work. You should choose a place of employment that lets you behave as you feel you need to behave, not expect that you as the employee are the one who decides on the standards of behavior.

Why? Why not make life hell for assholes like Brian Armstrong?

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#279

Post by Jensson » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

mrRandomGuy wrote: post #259

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I never once saw an example cited of these so-called distractions from being mission-focused that wasn't just affirming the basic dignity of a group of people. You are free to affirm whatever you want, and have all sort of discussions about society at large when your aren't being paid for your time by someone else to do a job that has nothing to do with affirming groups of people. >I simply cannot imagine working at…

This just in, people who also happen to work are not mindless automatons. People like working at places that seem to align with their own personal views. It's baffling to me that people believe I should turn off my brain when I'm at work.

You are free to work at companies where you can impose your political views on those arounds you. However people who don't want to work with you are free to go work for companies that doesn't let people like you do that, like Coinbase.

Re: 1 Year of Coinbase as a mission focused company

#280

Post by throw_m239339 » Fri, Oct 08, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

greenie_beans wrote: post #8

it's so ironic to me that he prides himself over the "no politics" policy, yet calls his company "mission-focused". the mission is cryptocurrency, which is very political.

> it's so ironic to me that he prides himself over the "no politics" policy, yet calls his company "mission-focused". the mission is cryptocurrency, which is very political.

"Political" is a meaningless buzzword at that point.

What you really mean is "partisan". Should Coinbase just be an extension of the democratic party? No according to its CEO, but that's what a lot of people here wants it to be.