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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?

#131

Post by muzani »

xwdv wrote: post #74
denkmoon wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically however modern day Activision has the exact same attitude of Atari that caused their founding.

It’s justified though. Games are basically a solved problem these days, and the developers of today are most of the time just building on abstractions and best practices that didn’t exist during Atari’s time. Once a particular domain of software becomes sufficiently mature, there is no real opportunity for heroic programmers to emerge who become too valuable to replace. Eventually more people emerge who are just as g…

There's plenty of unsolved problems in gaming and that's usually where indies make their money. Games like Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Rimworld.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#132

Post by ars »

ec109685 wrote: post #83
knob wrote: post #67

I have the inverse story; factory workers picketing outside. First day the owner of the company walks up to them and explains: this company is worth $X. The terrain (land) it occupies is worth $10X. Please get back to work.

So if the factory is in business, the owner has an $11x asset. Otherwise, a $10x asset. Seems like still in best interest to have employees for factory.

Yes, that's why he told them this - he prefers to be in business with employees. He's just telling them their negotiating position is very very weak, and their strike has no value.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#133

Post by pryelluw »

robinsoh wrote: post #48
hollywood_court wrote: post #2

The wedding photographer/videographer business I discussed in another thread last week. All his employees quit and he went under. I've personally been involved with more than one general contractor going under. When I was a young carpenter, I followed my best friend from job to job and contractor to contractor. When he walked off a job, the rest of us followed. He and I and a group of Dominicans (from Dominica not th…

> It's incredibly difficult to find skilled tradesman in the Caribbean that will show up sober each day and perform quality work. There's a lot to unpack in that sentence. Care to elaborate?

Eh, it’s not exclusive to the Caribbean. Construction is hard work and my experience is people who work it tend to drink (more).

Im from the Caribbean.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#134

Post by CamperBob2 »

ars wrote: post #121
pc86 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insane to me that this got downvoted. Medical exemptions are a thing. If you truly can't receive a certain vaccine, you should still be allowed to get whatever job you want. But I'm sorry, if you "don't believe in" vaccines in general, or certain specific vaccines that have - for reasons passing all comprehension - become extremely political, you should not be a healthcare provider.

It would be one thing if the covid vaccine actually worked well, but it doesn't. It kind of works, but not especially well. Even worse is people who actually got covid, yet they want them to get a vaccine, which is rather pointless for them. Places with that particular policy demonstrate they don't care about science, they care about obedience to authority.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#135

Post by muzani »

readme wrote: post #33
zomgbbq wrote: post #25

Atari 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

The effects of a CEO is often lagging. If an assembly line worker stops working, you see the results immediately. If a CEO stops working or does something very negative, you might see the effects years later.

You'd think that losing key staff would kill the company overnight, but even in this situation, it took 4 years between being doomed and actually dying.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#136

Post by metadat »

smeagull wrote: post #129
metadat wrote: post #62

Not too long ago, I worked for a pre-IPO "startup" with ~2,000 total employees. Over the course of a few months, the core of engineering (based in Bay Area) was gutted by a FAANG, out of retribution, because said startup had poached some key employees from the FAANG. After I left as part of the exodus wave, I learned there was an "unlimited" $30+ million dollar extra budget for hiring employees from the startup, lol.…

This sounds like a vulnerability in that company. So a group of their employees can leave to form a "start-up" and get more money by coming back?

Interesting interpretation, but very far from and not relevant to reality. The startup company brought in execs from BigCo who then recruited other key employees from BigCo, angering the dragon.

The dragon doesn't really give a shit about $30 mill, in the grand scheme of things it's less than nothing, especially when an "important" person's ego is in play.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#137

Post by LoveMortuus »

muzani wrote: post #131
xwdv wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s justified though. Games are basically a solved problem these days, and the developers of today are most of the time just building on abstractions and best practices that didn’t exist during Atari’s time. Once a particular domain of software becomes sufficiently mature, there is no real opportunity for heroic programmers to emerge who become too valuable to replace. Eventually more people emerge who are just as g…

There's plenty of unsolved problems in gaming and that's usually where indies make their money. Games like Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Rimworld.

I'm genuinely curious, what money did Dwarf Fortress make? The game is very cool, but I think it's a bit unapproachable to the majority for it to make any amount of serious money like Minecraft, Stardew Valley and RinWorld did.

I could be out of loop, but the last time I played Dwarf Fortress, it still used terminal graphics and white I believe in gameplay > graphics, my brother and the majority don't and probably won't even touch the game. (Not to mention the _menues_)

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#138

Post by LoveMortuus »

danieltanfh95 wrote: post #80
xwdv wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s justified though. Games are basically a solved problem these days, and the developers of today are most of the time just building on abstractions and best practices that didn’t exist during Atari’s time. Once a particular domain of software becomes sufficiently mature, there is no real opportunity for heroic programmers to emerge who become too valuable to replace. Eventually more people emerge who are just as g…

I very much doubt that. There's a reason why innovation in games often happen, entertainment is not an easy problem to solve, with no set quantity to achieve

Not to mention that entertainment isn't a constant. Meaning people will get bored of X after some time, no matter how good the X is.

As they say: All good things must come to an end.

And: You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#139

Post by smileysteve »

ethbr0 wrote: post #118
pc86 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The COVID vaccine decreases the severity of the disease's symptoms. Regardless of the other benefits, isn't that enough reason to get it? Firing some nurse who gets their opinions from Dr. Oz and has crystals in their bedroom is a net positive for the healthcare system in my opinion. I want my healthcare practitioners to be people of science, who practice evidence-based medicine, and are willing to change their opini…

Would you rather have a nurse who was a vaccine skeptic or no nurse? Honestly asking.

a 75 year old family member was prescribed Ivermectin for light Covid. I would rather no doctor. And family member has decided to seek a different doctor. Literally added a symptom.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#140

Post by pryelluw »

I once worked for a small but very profitable tech company. The owner pretty much had to sit back and rake in the money.

He was, however, a huge asshole and alcoholic. Wasn’t able to let it function without him. Went from a couple of million dollars profit to closed when I quit. He couldn’t find other devs. Tried to outsource it but just failed.

I quit because he tried to treat me like shit. Like he treated his other employees behind the scenes (the guy was very sneaky). So I left.

Then tried to offer me a cut but I wasn’t gonna partner with such asshole. There isn’t enough money in this world.

Last I heard he was trying to launch a similar product but failing horribly.

The product wasn’t complex but required specific knowledge of different things. So it was rare to find people with that knowledge who were also effective.

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