Earlier quoted context omitted.
what's incredible about this is that Activision remains an industry leader whereas I'm not entirely sure if Atari even still exists.
Ironically however modern day Activision has the exact same attitude of Atari that caused their founding.
Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
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Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#52Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#53Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#54Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if it's less work , but certainly the assembly worker definitely delivers more value. Only one of the two killed the company.
That kind of demonstrates the importance and value of a good CEO though. A couple dumb decisions by an assembly worker won't kill a company. A few bad decisions by a CEO can.
Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
what's incredible about this is that Activision remains an industry leader whereas I'm not entirely sure if Atari even still exists.
Ironically however modern day Activision has the exact same attitude of Atari that caused their founding.
Many game devs are fungible cogs, implementing a well-defined blueprint. Especially Activision games like Call of Duty. It doesn’t help that there’s just so many devs these days that they can seemingly abuse them for decades and nothing has collapsed.
Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
what's incredible about this is that Activision remains an industry leader whereas I'm not entirely sure if Atari even still exists.
Ironically however modern day Activision has the exact same attitude of Atari that caused their founding.
Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#58Atari in 1983 went from the leader in video game production to completely imploding. In 1979, four of their best programmers left after demanding equity in the sales and were refused. Their CEO Ray Kassar famously said, "You’re no more important to those projects than the person on the assembly line who put them together. You’re a dime a dozen. You’re not unique. Anybody can do a cartridge.". They left and formed A…
the irony is that the CEO probably does less work than the assembly line worker
Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#59Borland. I worked there up until the mid 90s and then was recruited by Microsoft. They picked off all the great talent leaving barely any competent engineers left. I alongside a ton of other engineers were wined and dined and given a hell of an offer we couldn't refuse. It was insane, I should write a book honestly. I miss those days, it was the wild west of tech.
I wonder what makes a company poach like this vs do an aquihire
The majority of Borland products completed directly with Microsoft products at the time. If Microsoft had done an acquisition then they would have sunsetted most Borland products anyway so it would have been a pointless waste of money.
Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically however modern day Activision has the exact same attitude of Atari that caused their founding.
But they might be right this time. Many game devs are fungible cogs, implementing a well-defined blueprint. Especially Activision games like Call of Duty. It doesn’t help that there’s just so many devs these days that they can seemingly abuse them for decades and nothing has collapsed.