If your only goal is to get shit done, then too much of what you get done will be shit.
People who routinely work long hours usually wind up generating more shit than work.
Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
171–180 of 212 posts
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#172We 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.
See: healthcare.gov
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#173I think the author is missing one of the points of 'get shit done', which is instead of debating whether you should use Go/PHP/node, just fucking do it. Instead of agonizing over a design choice, just make the damn thing and tweak it later. Don't over-engineer things.
Exactly. "Get Shit Done" is basically Agile development. If developers were left to draw their own agendas most would get bogged down in refactoring code so that it's perfectly extensible and uses the latest prettiest and more efficient architecture.
Developers are often perfectionists, and perfectionism is something you often need to keep in check, b/c at the end of the day you need to deliver a product.
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#174What are you working on? / The shit.
How much longer? / Not much. Almost done.
Is it hot? / It IS shit.
Is it tight? / It's DONE.
Awesome. Can I blog about it? / Yeah... you're the CEO.
Later...
Hey - this is a pile of shit! / It IS done.
You're a cog in someone else's machine. You are a means to an end - which is some form of naive auto-fellating bullshit. Shut up and get the shit done. Someone wants to disrupt the treehouse club!
Treat me mean. I need the money.
Maybe they should A/B the color of their log in finding the A players.
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#175In my experience GSD is just an excuse to avoid the organization and planning work that's not particularly interesting compared to banging out some code. I've seen a lot of startups just failing utterly because their primary philosophy is this one, and it tells them that it's ok to skip the hard/boring parts of your duties. On the plus side those who are thinking through their experiments and still failing fast but i…
Last company I worked at, we were doing planning for 2 years and have yet to ship a product. There is something to be said for GSD, but only for startups in teams of under 10. Why? - because shipping a product gives you something to look forward to, live product is something you can brag about show and change the world with. It is better to ship than not to ship. If you can't do it in 2 months - cut features out, etc…
I'm not sure why so many teams go for the extremes - either zero planning, or planning out the wazoo! For most situations the best methodology is going to be somewhere more near the center.
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you expect a corporate job to give a shit about you? It's not a person (regardless of what the Supreme Court says...), it doesn't have feelings. Your parents love you unconditionally. If you want anyone else to care about you, you have to make it happen through your actions.
Why would you expect a corporate job to give a shit about you? Why would I expect the company to treat me decently? Why do I expect the company to treat me decently? It's because people do not only have rights, they have duties towards their fellow man, that's why! This is a long-standing idea in German political thought - it's called Sozialpflichtigkeit des Eigentums , and it made its way into both the Weimar and pr…
"Americans have a hard time understanding this."
Because most of us don't speak German!
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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.
You clearly glossed over my comment. I wrote: "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." It is easy to develop unrealistic expectations and romanticized notions about a lot of things. That is life. Tech companies aren't forcing employees to perform "mundane" tasks (fix bugs, refactor code, etc.)…
I agree with you but your conceptualization doesn't explain why people should put up with suffering just because they've seen suffering and are used to suffering. That's not logical. There's no reason to go in depth unless you can actually present an argument based on necessity or some kind of platform that would explain it other than "people put up with it".
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#178"Get Shit Done" is completely different than the other ideas lumped in here, ie "ship something", "fail often" etc. Many people may mistakenly apply these concepts in such a way, but it is not inherent.
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
You clearly glossed over my comment. I wrote: "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." It is easy to develop unrealistic expectations and romanticized notions about a lot of things. That is life. Tech companies aren't forcing employees to perform "mundane" tasks (fix bugs, refactor code, etc.)…
I agree with you but your conceptualization doesn't explain why people should put up with suffering just because they've seen suffering and are used to suffering. That's not logical. There's no reason to go in depth unless you can actually present an argument based on necessity or some kind of platform that would explain it other than "people put up with it".
How about "because you're being paid 6 figures to do it and you could be getting paid $25k for something a lot more shitty"
Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they have duties towards their fellow man, that's why! That's exactly what he's saying. It's a company, not a person. You are not its "fellow man"--because it's not a man. It's a legal structure that exists to generate profit.
Yeah. It's not unreasonable to expect your boss to treat you decently, at least if you treat her decently. She's a person, after all. But the corporation as a whole? The corporation is a system. It responds to the environment around it. If it doesn't make the right response (as in one that maximizes its chance of survival), it is replaced by other corporations that do. That right response may be at odds with your int…
The documentary "The Corporation" actually illustrates this point quite well. The psychological profile of a corporation is one of a sociopath, hell bent on making profit, at the disregard of all else.
Don't be loyal to a corporation, don't buy into propaganda about the well-being of the corporation == your well-being.