Motivating posters for your startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#31

Post by Evbn » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 3:58 PM UTC

samspot wrote: post #28

Thieum22 wrote: post #2

When I see those, I always remember the quote from Peopleware - DeMarco / Lister : "These motivational accessories, as they are called (including slogan coffee mugs, plaques, pins, key chains, and awards), are a triumph of form over substance. They seem to extol the importance of Quality, Leadership, Creativity, Teamwork, Loyalty, and a host of other organizational virtues. But they do so in such simplistic terms as…

I doubt that many people see these posters as a substitute for hard work and managerial talent. Why not put your core values on the walls? It is a reminder of what the company thinks is important, which is a step above what we often have at my job.

Yes, but my core values are not outsourced to StartupPosters.com

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#32

Post by tferris » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:09 PM UTC

As nice as they are these posters won't motivate anybody.

I best advice I got years ago (from HN): burn the boats, put pressure on yourself and you don't need motivational poster anymore.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#33

Post by malaporte » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:12 PM UTC

So I'm going to buy a "Don't compromise" and put it right in front of a "Done is better than perfect".

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#34

Post by FuzzyDunlop » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:12 PM UTC

I think your company should form its own culture, not try to synthesise one by propping up posters of vacuous bullshit that basically tries to tell you how to do your job.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#35

Post by famousactress » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:51 PM UTC

I like some of these, but for some reason they all remind me of the Portal 2 propaganda and I hear them in my head read in the Cave Johnson voice.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#36

Post by famousactress » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:55 PM UTC

FuzzyDunlop wrote: post #34

I think your company should form its own culture, not try to synthesise one by propping up posters of vacuous bullshit that basically tries to tell you how to do your job.

I think I agree.. but your own culture can be useful in this form. I dig the "Go fast and break things" posters hanging around the facebook office (dunno if they're still there). It makes sense to me that if your team finds some core values it might be good to commit them to paper and toss them up and a way to remind everyone, especially new folks that it's a hard-won tenant the team believes in.

But I think the idea of importing those values in the form of posters picked off of a website somewhere makes it easy to skip the important part of doing the hard work to figure out what your team collectively believes in.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#37

Post by joesb » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

malaporte wrote: post #33

So I'm going to buy a "Don't compromise" and put it right in front of a "Done is better than perfect".

The poster attributes "Don't compromise" to Steve Jobs. Jobs probably demanded only Done and Perfect.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#38

Post by edw519 » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 5:04 PM UTC

Don't mean to rain on your parade, OP. Just having a little fun...

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |             |  |             |  |             |
  |   No room   |  |  Tear down  |  |   Posters   |
  |     for     |  | this poster |  |  & Posers   |
  |   posters   |  | and put up  |  |  differ by  |
  |   in your   |  |   another   |  |  only one   |
  |     MVP     |  | white board |  |   letter.   |
  |             |  |             |  |             |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |             |  |    If you   |  |   Objects   |
  | MOTIVATING. |  |  need to be |  | on posters  |
  |             |  |  motivated, |  |  are less   |
  |  POSTERS.   |  | you should  |  |  oriented   |
  |             |  | be working  |  |    than     |
  |   DON'T.    |  |  somewhere  |  |    they     |
  |             |  |    else.    |  |   appear.   |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |   00110010  |  |    Stop     |  |  The less   |
  |   11001011  |  |   reading   |  |  you read   |
  |   10010110  |  |   this &    |  | Hacker News |
  |   10001001  |  |    get      |  |  the more   |
  |   10010011  |  |    back     |  | likely you  |
  |   01011001  |  |     to      |  | will be on  |
  |   01011001  |  |    work.    |  | Hacker News |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#39

Post by damienkatz » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 5:11 PM UTC

malaporte wrote: post #33

So I'm going to buy a "Don't compromise" and put it right in front of a "Done is better than perfect".

Yeah, that's why motivational posters are usually a dumb idea. The words are almost always true, but very context dependent. Stuck on a wall like that they lose context and start to seem absurd, things start to feel like a Dilbert cartoon.

Re: Motivating posters for your startup

#40

Post by tptacek » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 5:12 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #38

Don't mean to rain on your parade, OP. Just having a little fun... +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ | | | | | | | No room | | Tear down | | Posters | | for | | this poster | | & Posers | | posters | | and put up | | differ by | | in your | | another | | only one | | MVP | | white board | | letter. | | | | | | | +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ 18x24"-$26.00 18x24"-$26.00 18x24"-$26.00 +-…

\o/