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The days are long but the decades are short

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#111

Post by hillis »

MichaelGG wrote: post #69
hillis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are Sam Altman, yes, I think you can give advice at 30. The man's experience may be short, but I'd imagine it is unbelievably dense.

What has he done? I haven't heard of him outside of YC. Wikipedia lists Loopt, then YCombinator. If Loopt had failed, would things be significantly different? (I don't mean this in a rude way, just curious. He's obviously exception in some way if YC selected him as president.)

I have no direct or personal knowledge of him, but he comes across as extremely smart, ambitious, and well-intentioned in his writing and in profiles of him. Here is one I read this week that I thought was an interesting portrayal: http://www.fastcompany.com/3044282/the-y-combinator-chronicl...

I didn't realize there was so much angst directed towards Sam Altman here. I think there is an unfortunate feeling that he was just ordained by PG, and doesn't deserve what he has. I sincerely doubt that's the case.

Regardless of his previous record, he's already been doing an impressive job growing YC. Sure, some of this is the result of pre-existing path dependency and network effects, but do you really think that Sam didn't have anything to do with it?

-The YC companies funded since he has taken over have gotten more ambitious.

-The 'How to Start a Startup' class was a huge success, and provided a fantastic knowledge base to the greater startup community.

-The number of applications to YC has increased dramatically, particularly from under-represented areas.

-He's personally funded interesting companies, including leading an innovative round for Reddit that set aside shares for the community itself.

...and he seems to be just getting started.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#112

Post by Lawtonfogle »

kungfooey wrote: post #6

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow. As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

Why not? As long as you have lived through some period of life and can see the consequences of the choices you and others have made during that time, you can give advice. If anything, a mid 20s to mid 30s individual giving advice on college would be more relevant than a 60 year old doing the same, because college has a whole has changed so much in the last ~40 years.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#113

Post by russgray »

magic_beans wrote: post #54
petercooper wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it just does not matter that much anymore. I don't want to slam your well put, positive point, but this was not true for me at least. Getting married and having kids has motivated me to work hard and aim high - I could have (and did) sat around on my ass playing video games for the rest of my life. Different strokes for different folks, but I'm a far more driven person after gaining responsibilities than before.

I think you misinterpreted OP's comment. He meant that having a child completely neutralizes the petty stress of the daily grind because you have something far more important.

For me, having kids amplified the daily grind. I hated leaving in the morning before they got up, and returning after they were in bed. Luckily this is a profession where at least some aspects of the grind are optional, and now I work remotely full-time.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#114

Post by waterlesscloud »

Lawtonfogle wrote: post #112
kungfooey wrote: post #6

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow. As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

Why not? As long as you have lived through some period of life and can see the consequences of the choices you and others have made during that time, you can give advice. If anything, a mid 20s to mid 30s individual giving advice on college would be more relevant than a 60 year old doing the same, because college has a whole has changed so much in the last ~40 years.

What are the major ways in which college in 2015 is different from college in 1975?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#115

Post by HarryHirsch »

kcovia wrote: post #110
spain wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By left, I assume you mean left the job completely? As interesting as a story this is, is it really the only reason you chose to leave? Did you enjoy the work and did you try and negotiate at all? I don't mean to criticize your prioritization but the decision seems a little impulsive given how you described it. As you mentioned you gave your priorities a lot of thought, but what about the decision itself?

Do you really want to work for someone who thinks getting to the office 5 minutes earlier is more important than your child?

It's not that they think work is more important than your private life. They want you to think that work is more important. This peculiar brand of totalitarianism is popular in startup-land, hence the beer outings every damn Friday.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#116

Post by jakejake »

simi_ wrote: post #94
georgemcbay wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you were effective at your job, said boss needs to examine what is important to him, slavish respect-mah-authortai-style following of rather arbitrary rules, or having a "bird-in-the-hand" competent employee who gets shit done (perhaps 5 minutes later than the boss-man would like). It is kind of sad how many boss/manager types still fail miserably on this point, and then complain about not being able to hire…

I'm the counterexample - I like letting capable people as loose as possible, and more often than I'd like this backfires. I'd appreciate some effective pointers on how to deal with this issue.

I have to deal with this too. Some people appreciate the freedom to come and go as they please and they will enjoy working. Others take advantage of the situation and don't accomplish their work. Dealing with the later can be frustrating if you are trying to create a comfortable, flexible workplace. If you warn somebody and they repeatedly can't get their work done, then you have to fire them, or risk losing your good employees. Good employees will justifiably grow resentful of always picking up the slack.

One idea that I use is - set your own hours. But then please adhere to your own schedule. If you want to start at noon, that's totally cool. But, actually start working reasonably close to noon. If your schedule changes, that's cool too. But let me know what that is and, again, adhere to your own schedule.

Getting uptight over being 5 minutes late is not really necessary in my opinion unless it's for an important client meeting or something.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#117

Post by lighthawk »

astrocat wrote: post #68

> On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this luxury, and 8/10 will b…

> I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged.

I think Sam is right to say this, though. There are plenty of people holding themselves back.

I hold myself back because I would be sacrificing my family's happiness for my own, and sometimes you have to do your job and get paid until you make and/or are blessed with an opportunity to do better.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#118

Post by aeontech »

spain wrote: post #106
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

I was 5 minutes late to work every morning, because of taking my son to school in the neighborhood where our new house was being built. I didn't want him to have to move schools in the middle of the year. Boss said "This won't do. You'll have to examine your priorities." I thought about it all day, that night. Next morning I got to work (5 minutes late), went in his office, said "I examined my priorities. Work is #12…

By left, I assume you mean left the job completely? As interesting as a story this is, is it really the only reason you chose to leave? Did you enjoy the work and did you try and negotiate at all? I don't mean to criticize your prioritization but the decision seems a little impulsive given how you described it. As you mentioned you gave your priorities a lot of thought, but what about the decision itself?

I worked at a small startup like this once. The boss/founder came from a non-software background, so he was used to expecting everyone in the office by 8 am. The way I explained it to him was "You pay me to think about the software, and solve the problems. I do this not only in the office, I do this in the shower, I do this on the way home, I do this on the way to work. Now, is it more important for me to be thinking about the performance issues we are having while I am drinking my coffee and walking to work, or do you want me to be preoccupied and stressing about being 5 minutes late so you do not yell at me?"

That made him think for a bit.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#119

Post by spain »

kcovia wrote: post #110
spain wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By left, I assume you mean left the job completely? As interesting as a story this is, is it really the only reason you chose to leave? Did you enjoy the work and did you try and negotiate at all? I don't mean to criticize your prioritization but the decision seems a little impulsive given how you described it. As you mentioned you gave your priorities a lot of thought, but what about the decision itself?

Do you really want to work for someone who thinks getting to the office 5 minutes earlier is more important than your child?

Does he know that's why I'm coming in 5 minutes late? Maybe he just thinks I'm a slacker who doesn't want to get out of the bed in the morning. I think I'd rather try and explain to him the situation I'm in before walking out. He's probably doing it out of ignorance, not out of malign. You can talk to him about it and explain your side and maybe understand his.

Right now you're making the same kind of judgements of the boss as he is making of you.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#120

Post by AdeptusAquinas »

zan2434 wrote: post #74
astrocat wrote: post #68

> On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this luxury, and 8/10 will b…

Hmm I always default to not "do what you love" but "love what you do" in that most work has some interesting component, and what's really important to develop is the ability to isolate that aspect and motivate yourself with it. That's something I think everyone can use, regardless of their position in life

Totally agree. I love programming, and solution design. Working in service IT I get a lot of both; at the same time though, what we build doesn't interest me at all (corporate web services, government intranets etc). I like my job, and I do it well, but I consider that to be in spite of what it produces.
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