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Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

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Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#101

Post by lawnchair_larry »

jacquesc wrote: post #80
octatone2 wrote: post #3

Chrome throws a security error up for this site: The site's security certificate is not trusted! You attempted to reach www.jottit.com, but the server presented a certificate issued by an entity that is not trusted by your computer's operating system. This may mean that the server has generated its own security credentials, which Google Chrome cannot rely on for identity information, or an attacker may be trying to i…

I don't understand this error (I get it too). Why doesn't Chrome allow you as a user to understand the security risk and bypass it? Firefox and Safari let me at least continue. http://cl.ly/image/2c1I0U2o3t0I

Because most users will make a bad decision and continue to condition themselves to ignore security warnings. If, instead, a critical mass of users can't use a website at all, the site owner actually has to fix the problem.

I noticed that you said you "don't understand the error" yet you wanted to bypass it. This line of thinking is exactly the problem. I don't mean that in a condescending way. Disabling the last line of defense as a matter of routine is resulting in more and more attacks, so Google wants to move the problem to where it should be - the misconfigured website.

The short version is that during a previous visit to that site, it sent an HSTS HTTP header, which is really the only protection there is against SSL stripping attacks. Basically, it tells your browser, "My site will ALWAYS be SSL (and valid SSL) - if I ever tell you otherwise, it's not me, so do not communicate."

HSTS is relatively new, so browsers are handling it a bit differently and you don't see it often. A broken SSL chain on a site that did not give you HSTS would still allow you to ignore it.

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#102

Post by jdlshore »

larrys wrote: post #9
sethbannon wrote: post #4

Full text of his statement: (This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway) People of Groupon, After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness…

"My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers." Otoh Meg Whitman has said something like "if you can't measure it you can't manage it".

"If you can't measure it you can't manage it" is a classic management platitude. I doubt Meg Whitman was the first person to say it.

Furthermore, it's completely untrue. Many things that must be managed are incompletely measurable, and almost everything in knowledge work falls into that category. See Robert Austin's excellent "Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations" for a scientific exploration of the topic. (It's a more accessible version of his Ph.D. thesis.) His insights are applicable to more than just performance measurement.

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#103

Post by [deleted] »

juan_juarez wrote: post #83
hyperbovine wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting fired from something you poured your heart and soul into for close to five years, sacrificed relationships, health (+40 lbs), etc., must feel awful. I suspect he really does feel love for many of the people who were in the trenches with him during this time, as he avers in the closing line. Staring at your bulging bank account can only do so much to lessen that pain, at least in the short term.

Staring at an empty bank account, a pile of bills & wondering how you're paying rent next month does a remarkable job at distracting you from the emotional aspect of getting fired as well.

[deleted]

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#104

Post by brianpan »

phillco wrote: post #17
sethbannon wrote: post #4

Full text of his statement: (This is for Groupon employees, but I’m posting it publicly since it will leak anyway) People of Groupon, After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness…

This has to be one of the most honest dismissal statements I've ever read. Major props to him.

I'm surprised I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but it strikes me as very similar to Conan O'Brien's "dismissal" statement, especially the "People of Groupon" greeting. It's effectiveness is in the plain, straightforward truthfulness and a dash of self-deprecating humor. Refreshing, but also a great PR move.

"People of Earth:

In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky. That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/conan-obrien-statem...

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#105

Post by dglassan »

wpietri wrote: post #84
sillysaurus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you back up your claims? This is interesting.

A good place to look is Rocky Agrawal's articles on Groupon. Here's his author feed: http://venturebeat.com/author/rockya/ just scroll back a bit.

Rocky Agarwal is far from credible. He made a name for himself by making it his personal goal to bash Groupon as much as possible. Probably because a number of his co-workers at TellMe left to join Groupon and he supposedly wasn't offered a job to join Groupon.

His so called reporting wreaks of jealousy as he watched his former co-worker's equity skyrocket with Groupon's growth while he was left out.

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#107

Post by batiudrami »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #73
calhoun137 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is totally unnecessary given all the caveats downandout made, and as someone who has lived through hard times it upset me to read your comment, although I do appreciate the edit that was made.

Your hard times are only hard relative to that of others, and even then, only in some aspects.

But we know the human brain doesn't work like that anyway. My life is, in almost all aspects, better than the vast majority of the people in the world, but that doesn't stop my brain from making me feel completely awful when something bad (relatively) happens. Your brain doesn't say 'well, you've been fired from the company you worked for for 5 years, but hey, at least you have fresh drinking water'.

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#109

Post by mattmaroon »

rayiner wrote: post #8

As a fellow Northwestern grad it disappointing to see him go, but as a lover of Chicago its probably for the best. I'd really love to see GroupOn succeed and help anchor a diversified tech presence in the city. We have some great startups, but you need big public companies in the same way a mall needs a Macys, Nordstrom, etc.

Why do I routinely see people on the net capitalize the second o? (You're not the first I've seen even today.) Is it like Microsoft, where it used to actually be MicroSoft and people like Mark Cuban still spell it that way out of hipsterish I-was-there-in-the-old-days sentiment? Or do a lot of people just think thats how it's supposed to be?

Re: Andrew Mason's statement about being fired as Groupon CEO

#110

Post by salemh »

batiudrami wrote: post #107
TallGuyShort wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your hard times are only hard relative to that of others, and even then, only in some aspects.

But we know the human brain doesn't work like that anyway. My life is, in almost all aspects, better than the vast majority of the people in the world, but that doesn't stop my brain from making me feel completely awful when something bad (relatively) happens. Your brain doesn't say 'well, you've been fired from the company you worked for for 5 years, but hey, at least you have fresh drinking water'.

Locus of perception. Even just being "cold" relative to someone else (temperature).

Locus of perception isn't really a "phrase" that is accepted, though it would merit some Cog Psych research to quantify the phenomena above.

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