191–200 of 301 posts
If I were Sam, I'd wonder why he's decided to dick me about without apology, explanation or reward, then spend the next three paragraphs apologising to Lee and promising to "do something cool" for him.
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I really dislike seeing comments like this on HN. I've clawed my way from poverty to lower middle class, helped out as many people along the way as I could, done some amazing things, written a lot of brilliant code that's running the guts of a couple businesses and maybe even an East Bay school district still. But, I've never written about any of it, I don't talk about it much, and honestly, I'd rather do just about…
You've just written about it. And so has this Sebastian, in fact, if anything, volume is certainly not the problem when it comes to his writing. I'm similar to you. As in I don't write blogs or do much formal "PR" or online networking with my real name. I don't have a linkedin account, I don't use google+ and I don't have a website with my real name. I however write comments on reddit, hn and a ton of other lists and…
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A couple points - They're partners, not employees. Yes, I'll suffer at the printshop when I promised it. My colleague offered to do it, but he just had a baby and it would be ridiculous to keep him all night. No one else was available on Sunday night. > they tend to be neither very good businessmen nor good employers. My staff like me, I pay top of market (sometimes 10x market pay, if the person is worth it but short…
If you have to pay people 10X just to put up with you, maybe it would be more cost effective to hire a different CEO. You could pay the CEO 2X, the engineer 1X, and that would save you 7X!
Howard Schultz's autobiography "Pour Your Heart Into It" is a good read if you want to learn more.
"Dear Sebastian, we quit, piss off. Best, Sam, Lee, and Jon." Seriously, this is just ridiculous. Is there anyone here that would actually put up with this ridiculous public shaming at all, let alone from a CEO that's off in Asia staying up "20 hours" to print flyers for one of his other companies, while he bitches that you're not reneging on your teaching commitments (which I would presume he knew about when he took…
First and foremost he seems to be suffering from severe reality distortion with the "we are amongst the 1% and should be multi-millionaires".
Second, this is an outrageous whining and bitching very alike to what little kids do: "but _I_ did all my work on the project, it is allll YOUR fault and none of it is mine!". This is business, if you really put your money where your mouth is on the "make a way" part then you need to STFU and reflect on what YOU did wrong. Obviously a lot, otherwise things wouldn't be so frakked up.
Don't compare yourself to Hannibal ever again or aspire to him unless you put your money where your mouth is. He did not lead his people from half across the world away, he was right there. He knew it is frakking impossible to lead his men unless he was RIGHT THERE.
> All of this shit was supposed to be done weeks ago.
It sounds like he is in some leading position for this project, so it should have never gotten to this point where he is NOW complaining things weren't done weeks ago. It is his fault for letting things slip and not managing it properly so it could finish on time. It is not enough to tell people now "here is my credit card, shut up and use it. but hey I am there for you, come ask me anytime" if you want to manage them - and then blow them out for asking you stuff or talking to you about stuff.
On top of that, I understand he is not with his partners/employees but frakking around in Asia somewhere and sending them emails like that? Well guess which critical human side of a project absolutely severely suffers from not-being-with-your-team? It is communication. Email and skype are great but extremely narrow communication channels; nothing can replace being there and seeing each other every day, having a chat over coffee or sharing lunch and working together. I have made this experience first-handedly when our startup boss frakked off to some other country and barely popped in. Do not under-estimate just how much information and communication is completely lost just because you are not physically there working with those guys every day.
> Look. I love you guys. All 3 of you are dear friends of mine, close friends of mine.
That's why you called them jokers and shifted all the blame on them and made sure to emphasis how awesome work YOU have done and how clearly everything is THEIR fault. Again, no conception or understanding of how to be a LEADER.
> You and I both live in a world where most people we interact with are fucking jokers.
Oh you precious little snowflake... don't fool yourself, you are no better than the majority and so far you haven't done anything remotely close to what your role model(s) have done so back to trenches with you, precious little snowflake and earn your stripes.
At first I thought this was posted by one of the email's recipients as a form of revenge on its douchebag author. Then, I realized it was posted by the author on his own blog... how embarrassing. The whole letter/blog simultaneously reeks of desperation, egotism, conceit and condescension. He clearly craves validation and doesn't hesitate to dole it out to himself. "I picked you guys because you're the best! Now quit…
I think, this is in part a consequence of the deification of Steve Jobs, who might have adopted a similar stance towards his partners/employees. Such behavior is now automatically assumed to be acceptable by some subset of people. The No Asshole principle is passé. The author may have written such an email irrespective of Steve Jobs influence. But the audacity to post it on his own blog for everyone to "admire" certa…
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If you have to pay people 10X just to put up with you, maybe it would be more cost effective to hire a different CEO. You could pay the CEO 2X, the engineer 1X, and that would save you 7X!
You don't like compensating people well? It's my goal. It's not always possible, but I'd like everyone working with me to be paid extremely well, have great resources, and produce rates of work that only happen in a culture of inspired well-equipped well-trained autonomy. I want top paid people, comprehensive benefits, complete healthcare, and serious investments in quality training. Howard Schultz's autobiography "P…
"Dear Sebastian, we quit, piss off. Best, Sam, Lee, and Jon." Seriously, this is just ridiculous. Is there anyone here that would actually put up with this ridiculous public shaming at all, let alone from a CEO that's off in Asia staying up "20 hours" to print flyers for one of his other companies, while he bitches that you're not reneging on your teaching commitments (which I would presume he knew about when he took…
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written a lot of brilliant code that's running the guts of a couple businesses and maybe even an East Bay school district still. Even without revealing your identity or violating your privacy, this is more substantive information about your career accomplishments than I can find about Sebastian. Maybe it's there and I'm just too stupid to figure it out. In which case there is a simple solution: You (or anyone else) c…
Er, I'm not looking to fight any kind of fight or make anyone look like a fool. I just wanted to point out that dismissing someone because you don't know about their accomplishments (or lack of) is probably going to mean that you're going to miss out on some pretty great people. (For clarity: generic "you" in this case, not specifically you; and I'm not lumping myself in with "great" people.)
"Dear Sebastian, we quit, piss off. Best, Sam, Lee, and Jon." Seriously, this is just ridiculous. Is there anyone here that would actually put up with this ridiculous public shaming at all, let alone from a CEO that's off in Asia staying up "20 hours" to print flyers for one of his other companies, while he bitches that you're not reneging on your teaching commitments (which I would presume he knew about when he took…
One one is being publicly shamed. From the article:
Names and details changed, for obvious reasons.