Ask HN: Is it me or ...?

> The point is that generally people in management can be assumed to be doing their best.

This is a very significant point. The best part about building systems with computers is that their reactions to your changes are deterministic. With people, it isn't so cut-and-dry, especially in the world of cutting big-money business deals. In my personal opinion, there's really no "right" way to run a business, but there are plenty of wrong ways.

Over time, I've learned that one major origin of respect for your co-workers as well as your superiors stems from a respect or appreciation of them as people. Personally, I feel as though many of my co-workers could have been friends of mine had we met outside of work (not that they can't be even though we met at work, but you get my point), and I'm confident that they both understand and respect my viewpoints, because I do the same for them. This means a lot to me. When I see something wrong, I say something. In a small team startup, I believe I have the power to make changes that could affect the outcome of the company. Not only that, but I believe the product that we're developing is useful and beneficial to mass amounts of people. It may not be a venue by which we can "change the world", but perhaps we can make a few people's lives a little easier and bring their costs down tremendously.

So coming back, a lot of what this may be is a disconnect between the developer and the authority figures that sit atop him in the hierarchy. It's always hard to bow down to authority, but one with power who you both trust and admire is not really considered an "authority" in your head, is it?

It could "just be you", but I happen to think there are far more people out there I wouldn't want to work for than people I do want to work for.

5

I once head a radio personality say,"There's nothing more useless to a company than a Harvard MBA." At first, I thought it was too harsh, but as I put on a few years, I knew what he was talking about. As a society, we are becoming more sophisticated; a lot of us know when we are being manipulated. When ever I see a company advertise incessantly--I now wonder who pays for this exposure. I then usually find a company with drastically lower prices, and by golly, holy hootenanny; This company doesn't advertise everywhere.

in the US, most states allow an LLC formation - this is usually cheaper and offers you some protection against losing your personal assets in a legal dispute. You need to be above board and document all your stuff (expenses, etc), don't mix personal and business use expenses, keep separate bank accounts, etc. To start with for most solo freelancers, this is fine. At some point - "incorporating" might make more sense, but the ceiling would be moderately high. Going for an actual 'incorporation' may make more sense if you have external shareholders and such, or are looking to take investment from outside. Until then, as a solo practitioner, an LLC is usually the simplest combination of protection and minimal legal record keeping.

I think it's a combination of 2 and 4. I've been in two startups that were working on things that aligned with my interests and things that I thought were pretty awesome. Then after the first year or two, due to the inability to acquire customers or the existing business model not working out, pivots happened, resources and people started getting moved into different teams and projects, and communication started breaking down between the execs, management, and engineers.

Then shit just hits the fan as people leave, sometimes taking others with them, as soon as they realise that things aren't going as well as the company would want them to believe. After all, a company isn't going to outright tell its employees that things are going to hell (until the very end at least). That'll just cause a bigger exodus of talent. So it's not uncommon in a failing startup that management starts BSing - it's all about retaining employees.

In the end I think when you join a startup you have to be realistic about its chances of succeeding. Not every startup's a rocketship. You're going to get bullshit, pivots, short sighted decisions (or indecisions) when things aren't going well.

My advice is to not be too emotionally attached to your job or go in with too high expectations. If you sense bullshit coming out from management, do some due diligence on the state of the company and leave if you must. After all, if you're not happy doing what you're doing, then it's not worth it. There's a ton of startups out there looking for talent, and I'm sure you'll be able to land another job.