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Mistakes You Should Never Make

sethbannon.com

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Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#201

Post by starkness »

ColinCera wrote: post #186
pjungwir wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also took a few Harvard Extension School classes (mostly Greek and Latin, but also Distributed Computing). I didn't earn a degree, just took a few things that interested me. It's on my resume as Harvard Extension School, and I have to actively correct people who think it's more than it is. My jokey way of putting it is that HES "takes anyone with a credit card." What's really embarrassing is when someone introduces…

> My jokey way of putting it is that HES "takes anyone with a credit card." That's nice & humble of you, but it's not precisely true. There are very few requirements for taking a random course or two (or 20) at HES, but to be admitted to a degree program at HES is not so easy. You have to take a certain number of HES courses and earn a high GPA in them to be admitted to a degree program. Then, of course, you have to…

As a grad student at Harvard I was involved in teaching several courses at Harvard Extension School. While the students were generally motivated and enthusiastic about the course material, it was a very different academic environment, one that was not as intellectually rigorous.

You are right about grade inflation, but the difference in the level of rigor between the two schools means that not all As are equal.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#202

Post by ameister14 »

Tactic wrote: post #176
ChuckMcM wrote: post #88

That had to be a tough article to write, thanks Seth. The thing that really stuck with me is the 'technically true' aspects. Growing up in various places around the world I encountered a number of people for whom their motto was 'its only illegal if you get caught!' The advantages of this motto were very apparent as a teen, you could run a stop light at 11:30pm, there was hardly anyone around, and you could be home b…

This brings up an excellent side point that I taught my children... that stealing is not taking something that belongs to someone else, it is taking something that does not belong to you. It is a subtle, but important, distiction that is often used as a rationalization. Edit: This really belongs on the child comment.

That's not really true, though.

If I'm walking in a forest and I pick up an apple, prior to my picking it up, it did not belong to me. Upon picking it up, it now belongs to me. You can claim things that did not belong to you prior to said claiming.

I get what you're saying but it only applies in situations where everything is already owned by someone.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#203

Post by larrys »

tptacek wrote: post #146
swombat wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not much of a problem in the UK. A great many of our clients (and ourselves) use the standard dividends + minimum wage method of paying themselves - that is, the ones who own their businesses, i.e. have not taken funding. HMRC accepts this method as a way for business owners to minimise their taxes. As I recall, the argument is something along the lines of "I am paying myself a salary for the basic director duti…

I've never had an unpleasant interaction with the IRS. Unlike virtually any other creditor I've ever dealt with, the people I've talked to who actually work for the IRS have been courteous and helpful. I'm not the only person who's said this. The IRS has acquired a personalized reputation for being jerks, not unlike that of Customs, but which totally doesn't square with how the agency actually acts. I say this as som…

I think I'm a bit older than you. They were "jerks" back when I started in business. But things have changed as you've pointed out.

I had a run in with the labor department at my first company. I wouldn't exactly call them jerks (or nice) but I was able to get them to cut in half a 5 figure amount they assessed me (a lawsuit was filed) by having a personal meeting with the local office head. Without an attorney. After I cut the deal I then said "oh one more thing can I have 5 years to pay this back?". And he agreed (I didn't need the 5 years, it wasn't a large amount, but I thought why not?)

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#204

Post by starkness »

slg wrote: post #191
ColinCera wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My jokey way of putting it is that HES "takes anyone with a credit card." That's nice & humble of you, but it's not precisely true. There are very few requirements for taking a random course or two (or 20) at HES, but to be admitted to a degree program at HES is not so easy. You have to take a certain number of HES courses and earn a high GPA in them to be admitted to a degree program. Then, of course, you have to…

This is part of what I referred to in my first post and is usually what I mention when someone is truly interested in the school. Harvard College does its credentialing when you apply. A very low percentage of people who apply to the College get in, but almost everyone who does will walk away with a degree. The Extension School moves that credentialing until after the student enrolls in classes. There are virtually n…

Sure, but a lot of the people taking classes at the Extension School don't want a degree. For example, I had students whose employers were paying for them to take a single course to give them some background knowledge or insight into their jobs. They're not looking to graduate; just to take a class or two that will help them with their careers.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#205

Post by mortenjorck »

rwallace wrote: post #190
xcubed wrote: post #158

This is just awful. There's owning up to mistakes, which is very "trendy" right now, and then there's being a straight up terrible, unethical, incompetent person. It's a bit gross to reference Ben Horowitz, to try to make this seem like a "classic" startup moment that every startup goes through. E.g., "most companies go through at least two, and sometimes over a dozen WFIOs in their lifetime." 1. "And so I learned th…

This kind of comment is remarkably shitty. Someone performs the extremely unpleasant and stressful task of publicly admitting to his mistakes so the rest of us can learn from them, and xcubed responds by spitting in his face. What's the result going to be if we tolerate this sort of behavior? Well we don't have to guess, it was documented in the original post: most founders are not willing to admit their mistakes in…

The way it's written, I agree with you completely. It's an example of the sort of wantonly confrontational language that seems to flow naturally from many people when alone behind a keyboard.

But the substance of it – suggesting that some apologies are perhaps somewhat orthogonal to the wrongs admitted, or that there may be a lack of thoughts expressed for those let down by the mistakes – isn't unworthy of consideration.

It's just a shame these had to be written from a perspective of confrontation rather than of compassion.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#206

Post by nyc_str8tsh00t »

rwallace wrote: post #190
xcubed wrote: post #158

This is just awful. There's owning up to mistakes, which is very "trendy" right now, and then there's being a straight up terrible, unethical, incompetent person. It's a bit gross to reference Ben Horowitz, to try to make this seem like a "classic" startup moment that every startup goes through. E.g., "most companies go through at least two, and sometimes over a dozen WFIOs in their lifetime." 1. "And so I learned th…

This kind of comment is remarkably shitty. Someone performs the extremely unpleasant and stressful task of publicly admitting to his mistakes so the rest of us can learn from them, and xcubed responds by spitting in his face. What's the result going to be if we tolerate this sort of behavior? Well we don't have to guess, it was documented in the original post: most founders are not willing to admit their mistakes in…

Whether you agree with it or not, Xcube makes thoughtful reasoned points; you are just name calling and trying to silence critics.

There are tons of supportive comments on this thread. Tons. Presumably these are all people who have exactly zero first-hand knowledge of the situation. They are taking Seth at his word that this is an honest description of what actually went down. I hardly think it's obvious that he did this all for the sake of educating the rest of us. He could just as easily be trying to control the narrative as his startup implodes - a very common trait of founders in his position.

This guy clearly made more than just a few "mistakes" - some of the things he outlines here persisted for months if not years... and most of this is just an artful description of what "in plain English" amounts to lying to the public, his team, his co-founders, and his investors for a very long time.

So personally, I have to ask: what makes YOU (and others on this thread) believe what he's saying here? How do we know there's not more to the story?

I agree with others that here that we should all hold our judgement, and our praise, unless we hear more than just one side of the story.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#207

Post by afro88 »

sethbannon wrote: post #198
xcubed wrote: post #158

This is just awful. There's owning up to mistakes, which is very "trendy" right now, and then there's being a straight up terrible, unethical, incompetent person. It's a bit gross to reference Ben Horowitz, to try to make this seem like a "classic" startup moment that every startup goes through. E.g., "most companies go through at least two, and sometimes over a dozen WFIOs in their lifetime." 1. "And so I learned th…

I see that you made this HN account only to comment on this post. I've learned that getting into a back-and-forth with anonymous posters on HN is never a good idea, but I'll respond just this once. 1. You're absolutely right. I majorly screwed up here. I say so as much in the post. 2. I think people can reasonably disagree here. An example: a potential customer asks a sales guy during a demo "...and will we be able t…

> 2. I think people can reasonably disagree here. An example: a potential customer asks a sales guy during a demo "...and will we be able to export a list of our users?" Answer: "yes, absolutely". The customer signs. The sales person then runs to dev team and says "we need to build this export functionality before they launch". Did the potential customer think that feature already existed? Probably. Is anyone being hurt? I don't think so, so long as the export functionality can actually be built before the customer launches.

I'm not OP, but you still don't get what's wrong here. You're still lying. Why not say "Not yet, but we have a great dev team and we would gladly add this feature in for you before launch." It's honest, and frankly sounds more impressive to the client.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#208

Post by slg »

starkness wrote: post #204
slg wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is part of what I referred to in my first post and is usually what I mention when someone is truly interested in the school. Harvard College does its credentialing when you apply. A very low percentage of people who apply to the College get in, but almost everyone who does will walk away with a degree. The Extension School moves that credentialing until after the student enrolls in classes. There are virtually n…

Sure, but a lot of the people taking classes at the Extension School don't want a degree. For example, I had students whose employers were paying for them to take a single course to give them some background knowledge or insight into their jobs. They're not looking to graduate; just to take a class or two that will help them with their careers.

That is a good point and the numbers aren't measuring the exact same thing (on the flip side of your example is the number of applicants to Harvard College who might not attend even if accepted). I didn't intend to reference them as some justification that the two schools are in any way equal. The only reason to really compare the two rates is because they have similar values and highlight the differences between the two schools. The toughest part of the College is getting in, the toughest part of the Extension School is getting out.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#209

Post by zohaibr »

larrys wrote: post #199
extesy wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is $1 salary justified to IRS? There are a bunch of executives who have $1 salary [0], including Mark Zuckerberg. I really doubt it's considered reasonable. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-dollar_salary

"How is $1 salary justified to IRS? " What they report to the IRS and what they show on financials could be 2 totally different things. Entirely possible that they are paying taxes on a higher salary.

Base Salary is just a tiny component of an executive's salary. It is a PR move. Executive salary is made up of Cash component (which includes Base Salary & Bonuses), & Equity.

Equity constitutes towards almost 99 percent of an exec's salary. There are short term equity plans and long term equity plans. The equity payouts are generally in millions.

Companies have to release a DEF14A (30-40 pages) each year to show Shareholder's how much the Top5 Execs were paid each year.

Re: Mistakes You Should Never Make

#210

Post by rwallace »

ovulator wrote: post #42
SheepSlapper wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer, I've been on the receiving end of "we promised the client we could do this, and they've already paid us, so get to it" more times than I can count... it's my least favorite salesman trait, by far.

And the salesman gets a nice commision from the sale while the developer gets to work an extra 20 hours that week at no extra pay.

While I'm not defending the practice of vaporware, it's not the root of the problem here. The root of the problem is that if you have a policy of working unpaid overtime, unless you are lucky in finding only wise or scrupulous employers, your life is going to be trashed.

To you, it is completely irrelevant whether the reason your employer ordered you to trash your life was because the salesman sold vaporware, or because of the phase of the moon; the outcome for you is the same regardless of the reason the order was given. You have to change your policy of obeying such orders.

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