OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team" • Hacker News Board

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#111

Post by Macsenour » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 4:53 PM UTC

wmeredith wrote: post #75

hipsterelitist wrote: post #53

I'm glad this happened in such a public way. I once heard him speak at a VC event about his firing practices with the same sort of attitude. I won't get into the details, but I was shocked that such an individual could be so championed, but he's quite business savvy and very personable... I guess as long as you're on his good side. Very good fit for Zynga.

>Very good fit for Zynga. This was the first thing I thought when I read the headline.

I had the same thought. His "explanation" read like spin to me. Which fits well with the Zynga style.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#112

Post by vshade » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 4:54 PM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #50

scott_w wrote: post #31

What a fool. Shay Pierce's article was incredibly polite and graceful, so there's no way OMGPOP can come off looking like anything but pathetic and vindictive. I think the worst thing I've heard our CEO say about a former employee is "it was time for the company and X to part ways" after X took a job elsewhere, and this was an internal meeting. We don't take to tweeting the inner workings of our company.

Out of all the ways I can think of to describe Pierce's article, "incredibly polite and graceful" is probably at the bottom of the list. Pierce branded a potential employer "evil" because of a minor detail in his contract (granted, a minor detail he had every right to turn the contract down for). Zynga isn't exactly well known for having the most integrity as a company, but it's certainly neither polite nor graceful…

From his article, Zynga isn't evil because of the minor detail in the contract. He gives a reason why he thinks zynga is evil and so not worth negotiating this minor detail.

"When an entity exists in an ecosystem, and acts within that ecosystem in a way that is short-sighted, behaving in a way that is actively destructive to the healthy functioning of that ecosystem and the other entities in it (including, in the long term, themselves) -- yes, I believe that that is evil. And I believe that Zynga does exactly that."

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#113

Post by steventruong » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 4:55 PM UTC

loso wrote: post #95

While I don't agree with how Dan Porter came across on Twitter I think I can understand the frustration. You are having one of the best days of your life and then out of left field someone you know does an article that sideswipes it. I read the Shay Pierce article when it was published and it was very respectful of his former employers...but it didn't have to happen now. Why did he write that article NOW? There is al…

Understanding his frustration doesn't excuse his actions.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#114

Post by wpietri » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 4:57 PM UTC

jaylevitt wrote: post #83

remi wrote: post #79

Looks like he just apologized: https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186460580201238529

And actually apologized : "sorry for what I said", not "sorry if anyone was offended by what I said". I still don't think it looks good for him - apologies only mitigate, not erase - but that's the right response. If he follows up with a "it was a stressful transition and I was afraid that Pierce's understandable legal concerns would sour the whole deal and frankly I drank way too much", all the better.

I dunno. Reading his longer explanation in VentureBeat, I'm not sure that's an actual apology. Being sorry for what you said's a little vague. I'd rather see something like:

"I apologize unreservedly to Shay Pierce. What I said about him was untrue and unkind. I regret that we X", where X is the mistake he feels he made in handling Pierce's situation.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#115

Post by jfoutz » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:00 PM UTC

pud wrote: post #96

moe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they just got lucky Can't stress this enough. I liked OMGPOP from the start, when they were still that obscure flash-site for 6-12yr olds. But that was before the CEO announced that he's an asshole... "DrawSomething" most likely got popular mainly because the implementation is much better than the other Pictionary clones (which have been around forever). And that's an aspect that Mr. CEO probably wasn't involved with…

they just got lucky That's what unsuccessful people say when someone becomes successful. I think there are two reasons for the typical "he just got lucky" insult. 1) When you tear down a successful person, you get to transfer a little of their success to you. (aka "player hatin'") 2) Level playing field. It's nice to imagine that everyone has the same amount of "luck," and therefore the same chance of being successfu…

I agree with you. Hard work drastically improves your chances. But there are indeed times when people hit the silicon valley lottery. I suspect marc andreessen's secretary's peers were just as hard working as she was.

Maybe he is indeed an exceptional CEO. If you rank CEO's by quality, I suspect the top half of the list has better things to do than fumble around on twitter Saturday afternoon.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#116

Post by ssp » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:00 PM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #50

scott_w wrote: post #31

What a fool. Shay Pierce's article was incredibly polite and graceful, so there's no way OMGPOP can come off looking like anything but pathetic and vindictive. I think the worst thing I've heard our CEO say about a former employee is "it was time for the company and X to part ways" after X took a job elsewhere, and this was an internal meeting. We don't take to tweeting the inner workings of our company.

Out of all the ways I can think of to describe Pierce's article, "incredibly polite and graceful" is probably at the bottom of the list. Pierce branded a potential employer "evil" because of a minor detail in his contract (granted, a minor detail he had every right to turn the contract down for). Zynga isn't exactly well known for having the most integrity as a company, but it's certainly neither polite nor graceful…

Pierce branded a potential employer "evil" because of a minor detail in his contract

That's not true. This is the reason he gave:

An evil company is trying to get rich quick, and has no regard for the harm they're doing along the way. It's not making things of value, it's chasing a gold rush. An evil game company isn't really interested in making games, it's too busy playing a game -- a game with the stock market, usually. It views players as weak-minded cash cows; and it views its developers as expendable, replaceable tools to create the machines that milk those cows.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#117

Post by samstave » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

You know, this guy just sold his company for ~$200MM -- I'm going to believe that he took several thousand and bought a shitload of coke and was high as a kite when he tweeted this - while saying to himself "There it is, my tweet. There is NO WAY this was a bad idea!"

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#118

Post by unimpressive » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:18 PM UTC

There's a lot of words in the comments; for me it boils down to:

Dan Porter has gone from startup to upstart. With all the negative implications that word brings.

And with all the brevity a tweet requires.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#119

Post by anigbrowl » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:27 PM UTC

pud wrote: post #96

moe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they just got lucky Can't stress this enough. I liked OMGPOP from the start, when they were still that obscure flash-site for 6-12yr olds. But that was before the CEO announced that he's an asshole... "DrawSomething" most likely got popular mainly because the implementation is much better than the other Pictionary clones (which have been around forever). And that's an aspect that Mr. CEO probably wasn't involved with…

they just got lucky That's what unsuccessful people say when someone becomes successful. I think there are two reasons for the typical "he just got lucky" insult. 1) When you tear down a successful person, you get to transfer a little of their success to you. (aka "player hatin'") 2) Level playing field. It's nice to imagine that everyone has the same amount of "luck," and therefore the same chance of being successfu…

Why don't you address the specifics of his argument instead of just the headline?

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#120

Post by jkolko » Sun, Apr 01, 2012, 5:27 PM UTC

huggyface wrote: post #64

blankenship wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Very green" is a bit of a misnomer here—Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "Moment of weakness" maybe, but not from an inexperienced guy.

Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "SVP" of "Virgin USA", which was an absolutely minuscule offshoot. He has been a CEO of a tiny company for two years, prior to that acting essentially as a glorified salesperson. That is absolutely green.

He has 20 years of executive leadership. Irrespective of what you think of the actual job activities or of a particular title, how can you possible color that "green"?