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Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

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Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#121

Post by api »

brown9-2 wrote: post #75
api wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case my part of the sprint probably would have run over by one day, since I had one more feature to implement around the new core I had written and I had to spend extra time refactoring code for existing features a little (not too badly) to make them work with said new core code. The logical thing would have been to punt that one feature, make everything else work (it was very close), then spend the rest of t…

Was there seriously no one there that appreciated the AWS cost savings?

Apparently the fact that I had "rewritten something for performance" was viewed as an inherently bad thing to do regardless of the rationale or benefit. That's because some smart guy once said it was "the root of all evil," and everyone believes smart guys who are quoted a lot.

I really have a pet peeve about cargo cult thinking in general. Concepts and ideas have context. To me it's a sure sign that I'm dealing with an impostor who does not actually understand their subject. Yet another reason losing that job was a blessing in disguise.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#122

Post by avenger123 »

api wrote: post #31
UK-AL wrote: post #12

The whole start-up culture encourages this behaviour. The current fire fast trend, rather than trying find the root cause for example. Firing someone can completely mess up someones career, but people are being told to fire someone on a whim, if they're not right fit(I mean that could be anything). Turn it around, and put yourself in their shoes.

I experienced "fire fast" on the receiving end once. It's the one and only time I've been let go for any cause from a job. It occurred at a shall remain unnamed big startup on the East Coast. I was hired on the merit of my portfolio and past positions (I do not have a high-snob-factor college degree), and dove in and got up to speed pretty quick. Job was to implement a lot of Java code and some .NET for a major web-b…

You may likely just have exposed the team for being incompetents or purposefully building a bad system for job security.

Either way you become enemy number 1 for the team.

Maybe your changes may have been accepted over time but no one likes someone to come in and tell them how crappy their stuff is.

I know that you didn't do this explicitly but that's the message that comes across.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#123

Post by tfinley »

It's not just a start-up culture mentality. I work in a mature business which couldn't be less mature as for a product and project development. "Just Get Shit Done" throws quality and customer focus out of the window. I fight this battle every day.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#124

Post by wil421 »

Glad I didnt take my first offer out of school. This was exactly what that company was about. I knew classmates who took the jobs but left before 6 months.

They were paying 15-20% more for some positions, now I know why. Their motto was hire and fire, most managers were with them for less than 1.5 years and promoted because they were most senior after about year.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#125

Post by mathattack »

jaegerpicker wrote: post #6

Dear God this was my life at a past employer. The biggest issue is that Get Shit Done usually turns to Get Shit Done exactly how I want even though I won't tell you what it is because I'm "Getting Shit Done!". I know better now. If I see that at an interview now, I'll run, not walk, run away. People bitch about how hard it is to find good developers and yet hire talented developers but put them in shitty positions. T…

There's a spectrum. On one end are the large organizations stuck in analysis paralysis. On the other end are firms too busy getting shit done to fix root causes. You can put Google and Facebook at spots somewhere in the middle - where they are relative to each other says a lot about their culture.

Neither extreme fits 100% of the solutions. When your company (or market) is on life support, you need to only worry about the present. When it becomes habit, you can't move from saving the company to rebuilding it. And as others say, too much GSD is terrible for morale. It's good for 6 months to save a company. It's bad for 2 years of floundering.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#126

Post by RyanZAG »

AsymetricCom wrote: post #87
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People bitch about how hard it is to find good developers and yet hire talented developers but put them in shitty positions. Notwithstanding the fact that the GSD mentality is often nonsense that comes from folks who don't know what they're doing, I would make the point that a lot of software jobs are "shitty" in the context of what many expect to find when they decide to become a developer. And that's life. Even a…

"That's life" what a load... no, that's a corporate job which doesn't give a shit about you. It's not really life. The only reason people put up with it is because they're told "that's life" or "that's just how it is." when that's meaningless bullshit.

Major upvotes to you - ignore these other comments, you're entirely correct.

A lot of these mundane jobs do need to be done, but a lot of people enjoy stable mundane jobs. Leave these kinds of jobs to them, they will actually thank you for it. If you're more interesting in accomplishing something, there are far more jobs that really need someone with some skill to come and do them - or, more realistically, find them.

I agree completely in the terribleness and lack of will in a statement like "That's life". No it most certainly is not. Life is entirely what you make of it and we are a long, long way from being forced to perform mundane tasks. If you can handle the stress of doing something new instead of doing something mundane - the door is always right over there. Walk through it and find your own path.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#128

Post by HarryHirsch »

nostrademons wrote: post #104
AsymetricCom wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That's life" what a load... no, that's a corporate job which doesn't give a shit about you. It's not really life. The only reason people put up with it is because they're told "that's life" or "that's just how it is." when that's meaningless bullshit.

Why would you expect a corporate job to give a shit about you? It's not a person (regardless of what the Supreme Court says...), it doesn't have feelings. Your parents love you unconditionally. If you want anyone else to care about you, you have to make it happen through your actions.

Why would you expect a corporate job to give a shit about you?

Why would I expect the company to treat me decently? Why do I expect the company to treat me decently? It's because people do not only have rights, they have duties towards their fellow man, that's why!

This is a long-standing idea in German political thought - it's called Sozialpflichtigkeit des Eigentums, and it made its way into both the Weimar and present constitution. "Eigentum verpflichtet", it says there. Americans have a hard time understanding this.

Re: Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture

#129

Post by RyanZAG »

api wrote: post #31
UK-AL wrote: post #12

The whole start-up culture encourages this behaviour. The current fire fast trend, rather than trying find the root cause for example. Firing someone can completely mess up someones career, but people are being told to fire someone on a whim, if they're not right fit(I mean that could be anything). Turn it around, and put yourself in their shoes.

I experienced "fire fast" on the receiving end once. It's the one and only time I've been let go for any cause from a job. It occurred at a shall remain unnamed big startup on the East Coast. I was hired on the merit of my portfolio and past positions (I do not have a high-snob-factor college degree), and dove in and got up to speed pretty quick. Job was to implement a lot of Java code and some .NET for a major web-b…

Going to go off the deep end here and say you really were at fault. You can't just rewrite whole systems as a new hire on your own decision with zero buy in from other colleagues or management. While the technology is important in a startup, you kind of tossed the team out of the window there and likely just replaced code that everyone else understood (however bad it was) with code that nobody except you understood.

Basically your approach was terrible and working in a company is more than just producing code. You should have had a chat with whoever had previously been involved in the system as well as whoever in management was in charge of it and explained the issues. They might have told you that the system you had just rewritten was being discontinued in 2 months for a different system someone was making, etc.

I get the desire to just fix any code you come across and it's a great desire to have - but take 15 minutes to communicate with your team - or hell, just send an email before rewriting a whole system.

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