Hire people who give a shit • Hacker News Board

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#101

Post by throwaway213131 » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

The post just deleted all of its legitimate criticisms from other users...now comments aren't allowed. What a joke.

The funniest one I managed to see was:

"Jeff Bezos probably says the same stuff here: `Why don't my warehouse workers just give a shit? I even gave them free pee bottles!` Is Scale the next Amazon?"

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#102

Post by seba_dos1 » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

I give a shit and it's my weakness. I usually don't take days off until I really need them (and even then it usually takes others to actually force me to take them). I try to only work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, having a healthy balance of work and non-work etc., but I often fail and it then more often than not devolves into periods of ultra-focus and periods where it's hard for me to even do the simplest tasks - even though I really want to. I give a shit, so I need to take care of myself because when I'm unable to work, I feel really bad about it. Because I give a shit, you know - I currently work on stuff that I used to do in my spare time for years out of passion.

I went through way too many voluntary crunches (both for work and personal stuff, like game jams) to not see how they deteriorate my health. And occasionally I'm still putting myself into more, it's somewhat addicting. I need to finally get myself tested for ADHD.

In this light, I'm not sure if my answers to the posed questions would satisfy the recruiter looking for someone who "gives a shit". I used to think it was worth it, I'm not so sure anymore.

I completely understand the need for people who "give a shit". I don't really understand people who are able to work without "giving a shit". I can't. But remember that if you're looking for people who "give a shit", it's now your responsibility to not abuse them for it. They will often put their work over their health. You shouldn't let them, otherwise your company is not worth giving a shit for.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#103

Post by silentsea90 » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #20

Do people at google actually work 11-4 like it says in the article?

People who coast might. People who are vying for a promotion or good rating absolutely work much harder than that. Google keeps a high bar for talent, and such talent isn't the kind that is satisfied with chilling at work. Google is notorious for making it hard to get a promotion - you wouldn't hear that complaint from coasters :) Painting all Googlers in the same brush is one of the following: 1) Ignorant and immature, if coming from a place of ignorance 2) Malicious if intended to show big companies in a bad light to attract ambitious young people

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#104

Post by silentsea90 » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:21 PM UTC

Alexandr blocked all comments on the post. The tea leaves on working at Scale don't read too kindly.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#105

Post by silentsea90 » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #54

high_derivative wrote: post #8

Oh my, what drivel. Another startup CEO who thinks late-stage employees with essentially zero upside in the company need to put in founder hours.

For those reading this article who might be tempted to a company like this: stay away! You’ll not get any meaningful equity, what you have will be quickly diluted, and as the company either starts its death spiral or “March towards profitability” you’ll be asked to work inappropriate hours and your commitment to the company will be questioned. Go for an early stage startup with meaningful equity or just go for a more…

I would strongly recommend the latter. The former is playing the lottery. Even if you win, stock appreciation in big tech over 10 years beats the startup stock. Not to mention, you won't be at a no name startup for years to find out whether you won the lottery.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#106

Post by andrewstuart » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:50 PM UTC

This is how employers see the world:

- giving a shit doesn't matter

- creativity doesn't matter

- how hard you work doesn't matter

- self educating doesn't matter

- energy and enthusiasm don't matter

- having built stuff on your own doesn't matter

What matters:

- can you implement bubble sort?

- can you implement a red/black tree?

- can you do this coding test?

Look, employees don't need to be obsessed workaholics, but being really interested in your job and motivated and willing to do great work matters, and employers, for the most part, ignore these factors and focus on technical skills. And worse, in many cases their technical assessments are misguided anyway and don't really give insight into how good someone is as a software developer.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#107

Post by lxe » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

achenatx wrote: post #65

I strongly disagree with this post for my company. But that is great, it means there is a company for everyone. At my company one of our most important values is "live the life you love". For each person we try to understand how the company can help them achieve their personal goals. If someone wants to work a ton of hours to get promoted as fast as possible, we support that. But if they want a balanced life we suppo…

That's refreshingly honest and thoughtful. What company?

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#108

Post by chrisabrams » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #106

This is how employers see the world: - giving a shit doesn't matter - creativity doesn't matter - how hard you work doesn't matter - self educating doesn't matter - energy and enthusiasm don't matter - having built stuff on your own doesn't matter What matters: - can you implement bubble sort? - can you implement a red/black tree? - can you do this coding test? Look, employees don't need to be obsessed workaholics, b…

You forgot culture fit under “what matters” /s

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#109

Post by andrewstuart » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:55 PM UTC

chrisabrams wrote: post #108

andrewstuart wrote: post #106

This is how employers see the world: - giving a shit doesn't matter - creativity doesn't matter - how hard you work doesn't matter - self educating doesn't matter - energy and enthusiasm don't matter - having built stuff on your own doesn't matter What matters: - can you implement bubble sort? - can you implement a red/black tree? - can you do this coding test? Look, employees don't need to be obsessed workaholics, b…

You forgot culture fit under “what matters” /s

No, "culture fit" is the excuse used to reject people without reason, and it how companies ensure they don't employ people with different accents. "culture fit" is the synonym for "same as us".

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#110

Post by mistersquid » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

pgcj_poster wrote: post #76

hprotagonist wrote: post #16

And the inverse: have a business which is worthy of shit-giving. It’s extremely hard to give a shit about Yet Another Middleware CRUD CRM Layer Corp. There’s a fine balancing point between working a bullshit job ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs ) and recognizing that no, the B-Ark ( https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Golgafrinchan_Ark_Fleet_... ) is a bad idea, we really do need telephone handset saniti…

> And the inverse: have a business which is worthy of shit-giving. This is a corollary. The inverse would be "hire people who don't give a shit."

> The inverse would be "hire people who don't give a shit."

That’s the complement. The inverse would be “Fire (or don’t hire) people who give a shit”. Also what you identified as a corollary is more accurately identified as the converse.