Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant • Hacker News Board

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#51

Post by ovi256 » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:08 AM UTC

knowtheory wrote: post #19

My apologies for straying near politics but i think Yegge's just defined the best characterization of the 1% :P > In some sense you wouldn’t even be human anymore. People like Jeff are better regarded as hyper-intelligent aliens with a tangential interest in human affairs. The difference between this description and Yegge's later description of Bezos as being like the Dread Pirate Roberts of Princess Bride fame, is t…

Sorry, but you're way over-optimistic if you think the 1% has the kind of intelligence (and I'm not talking pure IQ) and focus Bezos has. Bezos is more like 0.01%.

And I'd venture to say that the OWS movement wouldn't have much against Bezos. They're more against fratboys that rose to prominence and wealth through connections. And finance. Yeah, definitely finance. It's there that they sense some kind of unwarranted self-worth and wealth.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#52

Post by lini » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:12 AM UTC

josscrowcroft wrote: post #28

Any copy of the original anywhere? As an aside: did he just say Franz Liszt was "famous-ish"?!

The Liszt comparison is very timely - tomorrow is 200 years from his birthday :)

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#53

Post by jonah » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:16 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #12

simondlr wrote: post #3

Well written! Is Jeff Bezos really like he paints him to be?

I've presented to Bezos once. It went about the same as Yegge's experience, except I didn't have his balls to laugh in my CEO's face ;) The whole thing felt like I was meeting the President - layer after layer of aides and executive assistants, tons of security, and briefings on where to sit, where to not sit, where to stand, where to not stand, look him in the eye when you shake his hand, etc etc. It was kind of sur…

That's a good illustration of no matter how brilliant the leader is, a bad team under them and/or poor execution can lead to failure.

Even with this infighting and whatnot going on Amazon is still doing amazing things. I'd be interesting to see what it'd look like if they were able to execute everything well.

It seems that's also a crucial role of the exec - if they see something that needs to be happening and it's not, they need to get in there make the necessary changes.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#54

Post by david927 » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:20 AM UTC

jxi wrote: post #47

david927 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that was just polite talk. This isn't new -- this has been a glaring issue for a while. And if they were serious about it, Brin wouldn't have replied so flippantly. Google is just a one product company (with Gmail being the exception that proves the rule) lacking the humility and gravitas to be more.

And you are jumping to this conclusion based on your interpretation of one remark by Sergey? It was clearly a joke you know. And Google is not a company where Sergey dictates everyone. Engineers are empowered to just get things done as well as follow the general direction the company has decided to pursue.

I'm sure Sergey doesn't dictate, but he does set direction, and that's what is called for here.

Also, I don't care if he was joking, it was inappropriate considering it was such valid criticism. Nothing is intimating that they get this at a high level and his joke just underscored that.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#55

Post by gaius » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:26 AM UTC

jonah wrote: post #53

potatolicious wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've presented to Bezos once. It went about the same as Yegge's experience, except I didn't have his balls to laugh in my CEO's face ;) The whole thing felt like I was meeting the President - layer after layer of aides and executive assistants, tons of security, and briefings on where to sit, where to not sit, where to stand, where to not stand, look him in the eye when you shake his hand, etc etc. It was kind of sur…

That's a good illustration of no matter how brilliant the leader is, a bad team under them and/or poor execution can lead to failure. Even with this infighting and whatnot going on Amazon is still doing amazing things. I'd be interesting to see what it'd look like if they were able to execute everything well. It seems that's also a crucial role of the exec - if they see something that needs to be happening and it's n…

How does a good leader end up with a bad team? That's worth understanding.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#56

Post by gaius » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:27 AM UTC

zerostar07 wrote: post #31

Liszt was "famous-ish"? No wonder nobody knows him today.

Franz Lisp is named after him.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#57

Post by moomin » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:28 AM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #49

The last step before you’re ready to present to him is this: Delete every third paragraph. This must have been excruciatingly difficult for Yegge :-)

Harder for the the guy with only two paragraphs, though...

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#58

Post by throwawaysnipe » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:33 AM UTC

chad_oliver wrote: post #46

[deleted] wrote: post #42

[deleted]

Steve accidentally made an internal memo public. Oops, but luckily he was just the butt of jokes all week. To make up for telling everyone how bad amazon was, steve talks about Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos is super-smart, and giving a presentation to him will either go really well (unlikely) or really terribly (much more likely). Therefore, when presenting: assume Jeff knows the subject really well (because he does) and th…

Don't encourage the laziness of those who ask for tldrs. While your intentions are good, ultimately you're still an enabler.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#59

Post by gjm11 » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:33 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #7

cavalcade wrote: post #6

Is it me or does this read like a big ass-kissing of Bezos after he tore him apart in the accidentally leaked memo? Not saying it isnt true but...

He said it himself "I’ve always skirted any perceived shortcomings and focused on what they do well." Now he's doing that again, in a big way. He's saying "Bezos is a genius" and not saying "Bezos is a micromanaging asshole"

And yet everyone reading it seems to have worked out that Bezos is a micromanaging asshole as well as a genius. Interesting, that.

Re: Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant

#60

Post by sajid » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 10:37 AM UTC

Steve left out data mining and machine learning from his presentation and Bezos spotted it. Is that an example of Bezos' smarts or just a silly omission on Steve's part? Steve keeps emphasizing how smart Bezos is but I see no evidence of it in this post. It just seems like Bezos is good at spotting obvious mistakes people make.