What defines a great company culture? • Hacker News Board

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#111

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

alex_anglin wrote: post #89

BayAreaEscapee wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a video once, the goal of which was to sell to Microsoft execs how to market the first Xbox. The video explained that the target market wasn't fortysomething guys wearing suits in cubicles. It was skateboarders with tattoos on their neck. (And many other demographics that varied significantly from middle-aged IT people).

As a middle-aged IT person, that sounds like poor advice to me for two reasons: 1. Marketing to the 'cool kids' with the expectation that everyone else will follow-along... is probably not good advice in the absence some key differentiation. For Microsoft, this could have just been the massive amounts of capital they could deploy towards getting the Xbox to market. Even then, just spending money is not a strategy. 2.…

[deleted]

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#112

Post by spaetzleesser » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

To me a great company culture is trust and honesty. Being able to speak truth and people trusting each other.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#113

Post by isomorph » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

solosoyokaze wrote: post #81

numair wrote: post #49

Before you listen to any one connected to early Facebook discussing their “company culture,” I suggest you read the link below and understand what I am saying. There are deep, dark reasons why the word “consent” has never been part of Facebook’s culture. There are a lot of lottery winners in Silicon Valley who leave out the “turned a blind eye to the sexual predator” part of their success stories, whether it involves…

Are you planning to name this person? You should, to help protect others. I remember early FB employees talking to me about how they were spying on people's private activity (who was looking at who's page for instance). I have no doubt there were and are many unethical things going on there. It is indeed a joke to suggest they have a "good" culture.

It’s Sean Parker.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#114

Post by isomorph » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

carmen_sandiego wrote: post #88

numair wrote: post #49

Before you listen to any one connected to early Facebook discussing their “company culture,” I suggest you read the link below and understand what I am saying. There are deep, dark reasons why the word “consent” has never been part of Facebook’s culture. There are a lot of lottery winners in Silicon Valley who leave out the “turned a blind eye to the sexual predator” part of their success stories, whether it involves…

I read all of it against my better judgement and I still have no idea what you're really talking about. There was no substance, just vague allusions. But anyone can make those. I could tell you Zuck is a lizard person and make odd hand gestures as I whisper about dark secrets. So what? It comes off as being written by a crank.

See full discussion here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26724522

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#115

Post by isomorph » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

numair wrote: post #49

Before you listen to any one connected to early Facebook discussing their “company culture,” I suggest you read the link below and understand what I am saying. There are deep, dark reasons why the word “consent” has never been part of Facebook’s culture. There are a lot of lottery winners in Silicon Valley who leave out the “turned a blind eye to the sexual predator” part of their success stories, whether it involves…

I submitted this to HN - sorry if it was premature. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26724522 I also tried to contact The Guardian (UK) about it today - will try again tomorrow.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#116

Post by tolbish » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

challengly wrote: post #87

plank_time wrote: post #84

A great company culture is one where everyone is aligned to the mission of the company and everyone is aligned, empowered and incentivized in this exact same direction. I’ve worked at a couple of companies that had great culture and the best was Uber. Uber, post-shenanigans and pre-Susan Fowler memo, was hands down the best company I’ve ever been at. Everyone was aligned together which meant that everyone was working…

> People were no longer aligned or empowered, and the incentive system was changed to basically destroy engineering culture. Same with Google. The intentional misrepresentation and ousting of Damore was a turning point where engineering culture was run over by activist culture.

Would you argue that the outsing of Gebru and others is a turning point where engineering culture is running back over activist culture?

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#117

Post by ysavir » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

alex_anglin wrote: post #89

BayAreaEscapee wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a video once, the goal of which was to sell to Microsoft execs how to market the first Xbox. The video explained that the target market wasn't fortysomething guys wearing suits in cubicles. It was skateboarders with tattoos on their neck. (And many other demographics that varied significantly from middle-aged IT people).

As a middle-aged IT person, that sounds like poor advice to me for two reasons: 1. Marketing to the 'cool kids' with the expectation that everyone else will follow-along... is probably not good advice in the absence some key differentiation. For Microsoft, this could have just been the massive amounts of capital they could deploy towards getting the Xbox to market. Even then, just spending money is not a strategy. 2.…

This might be a valid perspective today, but the first X-Box came out in 2001. How many middle-aged people in 2001 were playing console video games? Some, I'm sure, but it's probably a much more significant demographic in 2021 than it was in 2001. Back then it was much more lucrative to market to teenagers and young adults who's parents had disposable incomes.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#118

Post by teachrdan » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:47 PM UTC

plank_time wrote: post #84

A great company culture is one where everyone is aligned to the mission of the company and everyone is aligned, empowered and incentivized in this exact same direction. I’ve worked at a couple of companies that had great culture and the best was Uber. Uber, post-shenanigans and pre-Susan Fowler memo, was hands down the best company I’ve ever been at. Everyone was aligned together which meant that everyone was working…

> TK, contrary to the popular narrative, was an extremely progressive person

Travis Kalanick illegally obtained and read the private medical records of an Indian worman who was raped by her Uber driver. He publicly claimed she was lying to frivolously sue the company, despite absolutely no evidence to support those allegations.

> Uber, post-shenanigans and pre-Susan Fowler memo

The "shenanigans"--I think you mean systemic discrimination against women via a culture of sexual harassment by high-ranking men with the complicity of HR--continued until Susan Fowler published her memo and the board belatedly fired TK.

> The Susan Fowler memo was an inflection point that lead to its culture being essentially destroyed.

> I don’t discount anything Susan Fowler wrote in her memo

This reads like you're trying to blame the fall of Uber's engineering culture on Susan Fowler without saying so. And sure, there's room for people to disagree: I personally think the board fired Travis Kalanick because he didn't IPO as quickly as they wanted. But this honestly reads like "Everything at Uber was great until this one woman complained and ruined it for all of us." And I don't think that's what you actually want to communicate.

https://www.vox.com/2017/6/7/15754316/uber-executive-india-a...

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#119

Post by ysavir » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:48 PM UTC

jiveturkey wrote: post #83

ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

As the post says, "the knife cuts both ways". You're missing the point! One can't say what are the cultural elements of "great". All you can do is tradeoff one element for another. What defines a great company culture is one that is held consistently, and that you , personally, as a person with your own particular outlook (let's call it red or blue), enjoy and are productive in. What's great for you is not what's gre…

True, but none of this changes that the author didn't answer their own opening question. If it was framed as "How can a company support great culture"?, then it would be a fantastic thread to read through for those curious. But leading with one question and then answering another is essentially click-bait.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#120

Post by bluefirebrand » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:50 PM UTC

carmen_sandiego wrote: post #106

bluGill wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find a different industry. There are plenty of companies doing boring everyday things and going home at 5 scattered around that would love to hire you. Sometimes you take a pay cut to work there - your willingness to do this reflects on you.

There are plenty of well-paying tech jobs that don't require you to work nights and weekends. No need to 'find a different industry'. You kinda sound like you buy in to the overwork and are trying to convince others of your own decision. I would say: the company never really appreciates or rewards it, and becoming a kool-aid salesman is often a path to ruin.

Mind blowing to me how a statement like "I don't want to work half-again as much per week as my contract requires" gets a response like "go find a different industry"

As if I'm the one who is wrong here. Decades of workers rights and unions trying to make work safer and better for people, to work less for the same pay, but I'm the one who is wrong for wanting that.

Why do software devs love to be exploited so much.