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Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

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Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#81

Post by djKianoosh »

taeric wrote: post #38
gregd wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue quite the opposite is true, that being an asshole requires the same amount of work as being nice. Poor social skills are just that, poor social skills. Being an asshole is simply learned behaviour, it doesn't have anything to do with how easy it is..

I think the catch is that empathy is a large part of good social skills. And is something a lot of "socially awkward" folks are lacking. When you have a massive inability to understand the person on the other end of the conversation, it is not surprising when you learn to ignore them. That is, be an asshole.

Definitely! empathy is such an underrated skill for consultants (use the term broadly, anyone who provides a service to another). If you can't understand, via basic communication, the other person, how can you hope to serve them?

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#83

Post by absconditus »

onion2k wrote: post #34
UK-AL wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of entrepreneurs, are the engineering equivalent of cowboys. Entrepreneurs who are professional software developers, are quite rare.

Throwing something together and putting it in front of people aims to answer the question of "what does the customer actually want?" Until you've answered that question you can't build a professional product - otherwise you're building without a defined set of requirements. Many entrepreneurs I've met hate the fact they're writing utter crap code, but without the budget to make mistakes (e.g. building the wrong thing…

Many of us who have had jobs for a long period of time know exactly what problems need solving and how to solve them. What the market wants is not always a mystery.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#84

Post by Kurtz79 »

UK-AL wrote: post #72
Kurtz79 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great story, thanks for sharing. In a way, it was for the best, isn't it ? It is clear that you weren't a good fit for their development team and their interpretation of "agile" software ...

Yes but it can quite easily end up disaster. When you get a new job, what is the first thing they ask for? References.

I agree that there is a stigma attached to being "fired", but in the real world it's something that can happen, for reasons completely unrelated to one's worth.

For someone with a solid portfolio and demostrable previous experience, something like that should be nothing more than an unfortunate aside.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#85

Post by mattgreenrocks »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76

" Everyone has the potential to be productive or unproductive. There aren’t people who are A players and C players. Just people who are performing at an A level and at a C level. " But some people will go from 0 to A faster and with less assistance than others within the scope of a specific set of tasks for which they have innate talent or relateable experience. Further, if the skill set demanded is fungible it is ch…

Unfortunately, it's difficult to evaluate the quality of the work that you will undertake as a developer from the outside. This leads to tons of employers with C-quality work clamoring for A-quality individuals when they could find a B-quality candidate much easier.

How much of 'business' is predicated on this zero-sum mentality? It's all very tiring. You don't need the best; you just need good enough.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#86

Post by speg »

We just got a bunch of "startup vitamins" at our new office. My "favourite" is "Fuck it. Ship it."

Hmm, this doesn't pass tests? You didn't run the tests? It breaks something else? Fuck it, ship it. So now when support comes and asks why everything is broken, I just point to the sign.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#87

Post by AsymetricCom »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #71
jaegerpicker wrote: post #6

Dear God this was my life at a past employer. The biggest issue is that Get Shit Done usually turns to Get Shit Done exactly how I want even though I won't tell you what it is because I'm "Getting Shit Done!". I know better now. If I see that at an interview now, I'll run, not walk, run away. People bitch about how hard it is to find good developers and yet hire talented developers but put them in shitty positions. T…

> People bitch about how hard it is to find good developers and yet hire talented developers but put them in shitty positions. Notwithstanding the fact that the GSD mentality is often nonsense that comes from folks who don't know what they're doing, I would make the point that a lot of software jobs are "shitty" in the context of what many expect to find when they decide to become a developer. And that's life. Even a…

"That's life" what a load... no, that's a corporate job which doesn't give a shit about you. It's not really life.

The only reason people put up with it is because they're told "that's life" or "that's just how it is." when that's meaningless bullshit.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#88

Post by davidspinks »

lectrick wrote: post #3

It's already down (it's the database... why does it always gotta be the database... sigh. Actually, it's probably a blog post so why is it even hitting the database to begin with instead of being served from cache?) I guess someone didn't prioritize "getting shit done" haha

Yea my bad. I'm but a wee blogger using FatCow hosting for my often minimal traffic.

Try refreshing.

Sigh.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#90

Post by davidspinks »

talmand wrote: post #16
300bps wrote: post #4

Another site reporting "Error establishing a database connection". For anyone posting blog entries telling people that they are doing things wrong, it really destroys your credibility when you can't set up a server that continues to function with a moderate amount of traffic. Mirror: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&s...

You are assuming that the person who wrote the article is in charge of the server.

Truth. I chose FatCow. Usually it's enough to get my job done but not today, it seems.
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