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

“Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

moz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 86 posts

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#31

Post by walshemj »

VLM wrote: post #8
pekk wrote: post #2

A culture where everyone has to be in the perfect 1%, or where everyone is informing on everyone, or where people are very actively competing for status and territory, is also one where nobody will show vulnerability or speak up or tell the truth, except as it seems strategic to do so.

Which shows the perfect meaninglessness of the netflix slide, the cognitive dissonance of it. "We fire all B performers regardless of effort". Think about that. Pretend you don't know what netflix does. I hope nuclear reactors are run by people like that. Oh that sounds like a good slogan for an open heart surgeon. Secret service agents? No, you say? Hmm how about space shuttle tile installation specialist? I've got…

And I could go into any company in the world and make an A performer a B just by using their procedures.

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#32

Post by jonwingfield »

VLM wrote: post #8
pekk wrote: post #2

A culture where everyone has to be in the perfect 1%, or where everyone is informing on everyone, or where people are very actively competing for status and territory, is also one where nobody will show vulnerability or speak up or tell the truth, except as it seems strategic to do so.

Which shows the perfect meaninglessness of the netflix slide, the cognitive dissonance of it. "We fire all B performers regardless of effort". Think about that. Pretend you don't know what netflix does. I hope nuclear reactors are run by people like that. Oh that sounds like a good slogan for an open heart surgeon. Secret service agents? No, you say? Hmm how about space shuttle tile installation specialist? I've got…

Aren't you attacking the wrong thing here? The expectation is performance, not necessarily brilliance. I'm personally tired of the perception that performance is even correlated with hours worked, let alone causative.

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#33

Post by btilly »

VLM wrote: post #29
snickell wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to work in [some forms of] a society with 99% unemployment rate, owing to advances in automation. It may be realistic in such a society to expect that the 1% still 'working' are going to be very good at their jobs, and doing it primarily for self-satisfaction.... such as Nobel Laureates. I suspect that people who aren't really good at their job don't want to do the job at all. They want the income, but probabl…

I think HR would have a huge headache separating the self-satisfaction people who coincidentally have huge talent from pathological control freaks, and fame seekers, and pathological types who just want to see the world burn, and probably other weirdos. If HR fails then the nuts might wreak havoc on the normal workers and the rest of the world. I don't think NFLX will make it to that historical era. And appearing som…

It is worth noting that that presentation was from a few years ago. According to someone I knew that worked there at the time but doesn't now, the culture went downhill after.

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#34

Post by walshemj »

iSnow wrote: post #30

>understand how little faith and trust people have in us when we stand up at a meeting and say “we believe in our culture” Because time and again employees have to read bs that makes their eyes bleed and keep a straight face. The netflix "we are the A++ team" slide is another example. No doubt they are a great team, but all of their workforce deliver a perfect A score over all the worklife, no matter if they get ill,…

Reminds me of "are we an effective team" from Oblivion :-;

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#35

Post by walshemj »

comrade_ogilvy wrote: post #16
VLM wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, they might need a minority of "A" level players for a couple of the really tough jobs. Whoever runs netflix routing and NAS gets a total tip of my hat to them and at least some of them must be "A" level. I bet they've got some guys who know a few things about video codecs too. On the other hand, the dude who files expense reports in the correct filing cabinet most of the time, well, lets be polite and claim its h…

>Describing the entire corporate culture as "A" level is just laughable. And it is an excellent means to cover up bad management. When expectations are unrealistic, then everyone is probably failing. It just boils down to office politics about who avoids blame. It is a nice idea to always be A-level or work towards there -- that requires a significant investment in recruiting and training that few companies are actua…

Yep its like making all the bug fixes priority 1

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#36

Post by comrade_ogilvy »

walshemj wrote: post #35
comrade_ogilvy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Describing the entire corporate culture as "A" level is just laughable. And it is an excellent means to cover up bad management. When expectations are unrealistic, then everyone is probably failing. It just boils down to office politics about who avoids blame. It is a nice idea to always be A-level or work towards there -- that requires a significant investment in recruiting and training that few companies are actua…

Yep its like making all the bug fixes priority 1

You speak as if we worked together in a previous life.

"Hey, you guys never fix the P2 or P3 bugs!" Remember him?

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#37

Post by bcoates »

VLM wrote: post #8
pekk wrote: post #2

A culture where everyone has to be in the perfect 1%, or where everyone is informing on everyone, or where people are very actively competing for status and territory, is also one where nobody will show vulnerability or speak up or tell the truth, except as it seems strategic to do so.

Which shows the perfect meaninglessness of the netflix slide, the cognitive dissonance of it. "We fire all B performers regardless of effort". Think about that. Pretend you don't know what netflix does. I hope nuclear reactors are run by people like that. Oh that sounds like a good slogan for an open heart surgeon. Secret service agents? No, you say? Hmm how about space shuttle tile installation specialist? I've got…

I think you might be reading a little much into the slide. I think it's obvious that the point is you get no credit for effort expended: you either deliver what is expected of you or you don't.

Also, I'm not sure what hellish grading system you're used to where "A" means "1% elite". In most contexts, it means "competent": A student at most educational institutions in the US can expect an A if they grasped the class material and didn't flub the tests and assignments.

There are places where consistent, well intentioned sub-competence is sufficient, a high-availability, technically complicated, ultra high volume paid service running on retail margins is not one of them.

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#38

Post by mjewkes »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #13
VLM wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being treated with respect as a human being is a strange way to describe being treated as a second class citizen (Been there done that, on both sides of the argument BTW, and hourly was much more professional, much more humane) The answer to your questions BTW are yes, yes, yes if optional no if not, and depends solely on how paranoid the boss is and has nothing whatsoever to do with how finance pays you. The first t…

It would seem that we've had different experiences.

Ya - this sort of thing only makes sense if its part of a general worker-focused culture. We're also not paying wages, but hourly credits towards profit sharing. The whole context is important.

Re: “Well, He’s Not Going to Get Very Far”

#40

Post by tekromancr »

eykanal wrote: post #3

What a perfect example of the benefits of open communication. Sarah was a skilled enough boss to make Zach feel comfortable challenging her. Zach was an engaged enough employee to actually discuss something that was bothering him. There are so many ways that this could not have happened. This makes me really want to work with that team.

Me as well. The post just gave me the warm fuzzies.
Post reply on HN