in response to Notes: 1
why then always talk about evolution like its some mysterious magical force able to "design".
"I'm sure if I studied it more intensively it would all make sense"
You weren't meant to have a boss
101–110 of 312 posts
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#102Thanks for the article.
I found your articles professional quality and for free. :-)
My father worked for a chemical company(10000 workers in Asturias, Spain) as chemist . He realize that he could buy a conventional ceramic oven for doing the same that another specific one that costed 100 times more. He tried to convince management. They denied the permission.
He tried again with different ideas, it never worked.
PD: Well, it worked better in another (later) smaller(100) company. The trick if he had a good idea, was to say it was an american method (Seems they didn't trust in local intelligence, this was in Madrid, Spain)
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am also a 27 year old programmer working for a very large company well over 10K employees. Unfortunately, doing well career wise is more about politics than programming. I have never worked for a small company so I cannot comment on that, but I hope for sure that there is something better than what I have experienced so far! Just have to pull my finger out and get out of there, or start some sort of startup ...
if you're serious about getting out check out some of the jobs we have up at http://snaptalent.com/ads.html There are some YC companies on there, but also some other really cool startups.
I can't see any ad's at that URL ... maybe something is broken?
One thing thats kept me in my big company job is that I am in a part of the UK where there isn't a massive choice of places to work - there are other big companies, but few if any startups :(
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The prevalence of crap in the US diet comes from a deliberate government plan to pump out more cheap calories. It was deliberately done by the government? I probably shouldn't be surprised... I always assumed it was the corn farmers pushing for subsidies that did it. Do you have any more information on this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz#Career > Butz revolutionized federal agricultural policy and reengineered many New Deal era farm support programs. His mantra to farmers was "get big or get out," and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops like corn "from fencerow to fencerow."
I read the implication to be more along the lines of Butz being in the pockets of the agriculture corporations, not as a government method of feeding occupied countries.
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#105You really should read up on the work of Clare Graves.
Whether people work better independently or with a boss is dependant on their dominant 'values' system - this can change but does so slowly. As people grow through life we develop through psychological states that oscillate between 'we' centred and 'I' centred. There are four main values systems that a programmer is likely to be inhabiting. In the first(DQ) a boss is essential. The second(ER) will work very well as their own boss. The third(FS) craves peer support - but not a boss. The fourth(GT) can work in either way - as long as they don't get board because they are out of there if they do.
(in reality people are complicated and can be inhabiting multiple values systems - but most have a dominant one.)
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#106Paul
I couldn't agree more, although my background in advertising was inverse as well. From the world's largest agency (3 years at JWT), I spent 10 years at a mid-sized outfit, and then I finally put my name on the door when I was in my mid-thirties. What may make this different than programming, is that in agencies we all tend to be given as much room to create as possible (the exception being at JWT). However, to live is to create. Humans are in their soul creative, as that is part of the life force, the source. Let that atrophy and you become a waking/walking part of a whole. I love both your analogy to animals and food. Great Post! ieclectic.com
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#107Has anyone checked out the reddit comments for this same article? It's like night and day. http://reddit.com/info/6cu0t/comments/
There's something about anonymous commenters bashing PG and YC on reddit, of all forums, that makes me smile.
Well, here's one way to think about those commentators: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxxPLDZnqwA
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
One very serious problem with that idea. Team X isn't insulated from lawsuits that Team Y gets hit with (or contracts that have the potential for massive costs, for that matter). Suppose Team X isn't doing well. Probability of getting fired is 50%. They decide (independently) to do Z, with a 90% chance of increasing their team's profits (and not getting fired) as well as a 10% chance of major lawsuit that will crush…
You also just described the major problem with the government artificially allowing such a thing as a limited liability (I'm talking about legal, not debt) corporation.
This has little to do with limited liability. In fact, the problem here is that groups within the company do NOT have limited liability (from each other), thus necessitating some oversight.
The only role limited liability plays here is that investors in this company to lose only their investments (but not their house and car) should the company die.
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#109I agree with the assay, and I have personal experiences regarding workgroups (mostly hackathons) that match precisely the (1) small group requirement -7 to 10 people-; (2) the avoidance of any tree structure: horizontal and unguided development; and (3) the avoidance of mediocre people.
Yet I have a concern nagging my mind about the reduction of freedom in hierachies. Ender's Game book seem to argue the opposite: that giving general orders to a group while leaving the implementation details to each member is the best of both worlds.
[Remember the school master Graff describing to Ender the hierarchical army he had built with his toon leaders: moving in synchrony, yet each piece showing initiative and creativity -as opposed to the single-minded, single-track insector army lead by a single queen.]
Re: You weren't meant to have a boss
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 26 and just passed my fifth year at a very large company (18000+), with four years in IT and the past year in Software Engineering. I've been looking for an oppurtunity at a smaller company, since my current one is stifling my ability to learn and be productive. The issue I'm finding is that small companies are typically looking for someone with more experience than I could currently offer. Has anyone else come a…
One route you could take would be to look for a startup with young founders. They won't insist on experience, because they don't have it themselves. Another would be just to look for a good startup. All a good startup cares about is how good you are, not how many years it took you to get that way.
Its also possible I haven't been looking in the right places either. From what I've noticed, its hard to pinpoint jobs at small companies since they don't seem to advertise as much as the larger ones.
However, Jamie from snaptalent was nice enough to email me and pointed me to their job ads page. Unfortunately there's only one company on the east coast listed so far, but I'm hoping once they get rolling with more job ads that my chances for finding a small startup or company to work for will increase.