Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Shallowest Generation

ritholtz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 54 posts

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#11

Post by blackguardx »

jd wrote: post #5

Is it just me, or does the author use a lot of unintentionally funny analogies? Anyway, I'm going to chip in on the issue of CEO pay. Many, including the author, are outraged that they're paid 500 times the wage of the average worker. But the CEO job is generally given to somebody who a) has proven himself (5mm b) is willing to work 80 hours per week c) is willing to pick work over family/friends, no matter the circu…

I hate to go off-topic, but when did mm come to mean million?

When I first look at it, my brain says, "millimeters."

I know it is one thousand thousand in roman numerals, but being an engineer I find it hard to recognize mm as such. If anything, you should use capital M for million because that is the accepted prefix.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#12

Post by anamax »

ojbyrne wrote: post #6
time_management wrote: post #3

The problem's not that they're a shallow generation. Actually, I think the Baby Boomers were a very idealistic generation, and this (paradoxically) has led to the corrupt leadership. The civil rights activists, hippies, and leftists (with a few exceptions) didn't swing around to become the yuppies, sellouts, and corrupt political figures. Different people did. My father's pretty similar to me in worldview, ethics, an…

I think this is orthodox Neoconism. The baby boomers were hippies who did drugs, attacked the Vietnam war, questioned authority, promoted "free love", and so on. Most importantly, their independence of thought is what makes them "selfish." Contrasting them with the "Greatest Generation," whose lives were basically dictated to them when WW2 started, and supported the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. Can we ca…

How'd that work out?

> Contrasting them with the "Greatest Generation," whose lives were basically dictated to them when WW2 started, and supported the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities.

And the Soviets later revealed that there were Communists in the US govt and that they were trying to "influence" Hollywood.

> Can we call them the "Pleasantville Generation?" instead.

Whenever it comes down to "squares" vs "cool", you can be pretty sure that the "cool" will screw things up more.

In other news, truth is not beauty and you have to be pretty stoned to think otherwise.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#13

Post by blackguardx »

jd wrote: post #5

Is it just me, or does the author use a lot of unintentionally funny analogies? Anyway, I'm going to chip in on the issue of CEO pay. Many, including the author, are outraged that they're paid 500 times the wage of the average worker. But the CEO job is generally given to somebody who a) has proven himself (5mm b) is willing to work 80 hours per week c) is willing to pick work over family/friends, no matter the circu…

I think many people enjoy being CEO for the same reasons people enjoy founding startups or going into politics. You say, "aside from the prestige, power, and money, it's not fun." If someone's job provides all three, I would say that they are doing pretty well!

Also, CEOs that focus on quarterly numbers do so only to enrich themselves (via stock options) to the detriment of the company. At my own company (a large test and measurement company), our leadership constantly makes big changes based on the stock price. Since my company pays no dividends, there is no "shareholder return" to maximize. My company will never do an additional offering so steering by the stock price doesn't make sense for the company in the long term. We are constantly delaying capital purchases to make the numbers look good. In reality, these delays cost our project's schedules to suffer. That hurts the company.

By focusing on quarterly numbers, who benefits? It may help somebody make a buck that quarter, but why should the company want to help traders? True investors think long term. It is the management team that is benefiting. Shareholder value is a myth. The only shareholders that matter are the management team.

I usually don't get too worked up about CEO compensation. The only things that don't make sense are massive golden parachutes like the former CEO of Home Depot had and paying executives in stock if they meet quarterly numbers. A company's vision should be long term. Making executives excessively interested in the stock price is dangerous.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#14

Post by [deleted] »

blackguardx wrote: post #11
jd wrote: post #5

Is it just me, or does the author use a lot of unintentionally funny analogies? Anyway, I'm going to chip in on the issue of CEO pay. Many, including the author, are outraged that they're paid 500 times the wage of the average worker. But the CEO job is generally given to somebody who a) has proven himself (5mm b) is willing to work 80 hours per week c) is willing to pick work over family/friends, no matter the circu…

I hate to go off-topic, but when did mm come to mean million? When I first look at it, my brain says, "millimeters." I know it is one thousand thousand in roman numerals, but being an engineer I find it hard to recognize mm as such. If anything, you should use capital M for million because that is the accepted prefix.

[deleted]

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#15

Post by ajkirwin »

anamax wrote: post #12
ojbyrne wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is orthodox Neoconism. The baby boomers were hippies who did drugs, attacked the Vietnam war, questioned authority, promoted "free love", and so on. Most importantly, their independence of thought is what makes them "selfish." Contrasting them with the "Greatest Generation," whose lives were basically dictated to them when WW2 started, and supported the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. Can we ca…

How'd that work out? > Contrasting them with the "Greatest Generation," whose lives were basically dictated to them when WW2 started, and supported the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. And the Soviets later revealed that there were Communists in the US govt and that they were trying to "influence" Hollywood. > Can we call them the "Pleasantville Generation?" instead. Whenever it comes down to "squares" vs "c…

> Whenever it comes down to "squares" vs "cool", you can be pretty sure that the "cool" will screw things up more.

How can you be so sure? They've never really had the chance.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#16

Post by gaius »

jd wrote: post #5

Is it just me, or does the author use a lot of unintentionally funny analogies? Anyway, I'm going to chip in on the issue of CEO pay. Many, including the author, are outraged that they're paid 500 times the wage of the average worker. But the CEO job is generally given to somebody who a) has proven himself (5mm b) is willing to work 80 hours per week c) is willing to pick work over family/friends, no matter the circu…

500x is a figure I'm deeply suspicious of. Average worker in the entire economy vs CEO of a Fortune 100, maybe. The "average" CEO is just the owner of a small company and probably makes <5x more than even their lowest paid worker.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#17

Post by palish »

ken wrote: post #8
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #4

Interesting article, but the author's selective memory and faulty logic continually undermines the point he's trying to make. My favorite was this gem: "Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system. The Baby Boom generation has invented credit default swaps; mortgage backed securities; the fast food drive thru window; discovered t…

Also, half his examples weren't done by any "U.S. generation". The automobile was invented by a German, and Penicillin was discovered by a Scot.

The automobile was invented by a German, but it was popularized by Henry Ford. Also, consider that if that German hadn't invented the automobile, Ford still would have. i.e. Ford wasn't inspired by that German, because he was already working on an automobile. His autobiography is very good: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/hnfrd10.txt

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#18

Post by palish »

blackguardx wrote: post #13
jd wrote: post #5

Is it just me, or does the author use a lot of unintentionally funny analogies? Anyway, I'm going to chip in on the issue of CEO pay. Many, including the author, are outraged that they're paid 500 times the wage of the average worker. But the CEO job is generally given to somebody who a) has proven himself (5mm b) is willing to work 80 hours per week c) is willing to pick work over family/friends, no matter the circu…

I think many people enjoy being CEO for the same reasons people enjoy founding startups or going into politics. You say, "aside from the prestige, power, and money, it's not fun." If someone's job provides all three, I would say that they are doing pretty well! Also, CEOs that focus on quarterly numbers do so only to enrich themselves (via stock options) to the detriment of the company. At my own company (a large tes…

I wish Hacker News allowed us to upvote or downvote individual paragraphs. I upvoted you because of your first paragraph, but would have downvoted otherwise. (Shareholders besides the management team still matter. :P)

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#19

Post by palish »

[deleted] wrote: post #14
blackguardx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to go off-topic, but when did mm come to mean million? When I first look at it, my brain says, "millimeters." I know it is one thousand thousand in roman numerals, but being an engineer I find it hard to recognize mm as such. If anything, you should use capital M for million because that is the accepted prefix.

[deleted]

I'm going to start referring to American soccer players as "Adrenaline Bunnies" since the word "soccer" doesn't refer to the same thing in all languages.

Re: The Shallowest Generation

#20

Post by yummyfajitas »

palish wrote: post #17
ken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, half his examples weren't done by any "U.S. generation". The automobile was invented by a German, and Penicillin was discovered by a Scot.

The automobile was invented by a German, but it was popularized by Henry Ford. Also, consider that if that German hadn't invented the automobile, Ford still would have. i.e. Ford wasn't inspired by that German, because he was already working on an automobile. His autobiography is very good: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/hnfrd10.txt

Lesson for startup founders: your competition built the prototype first. Maybe you should still keep going forward, if you expect to have a solid competitive advantage?
Post reply on HN