There have been a bunch of HN threads about this over the years but I haven't found them. If anyone wants to look, we can make a list!
Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
131–140 of 398 posts
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I don’t understand Jobs’ logic here. Is he just a bully? If Google makes such a great offer that his employee will leave him, shouldn’t he try to make a better offer, or meet with the employee instead of calling Sergey? That could wind up in a bidding war that could end up affecting many employees and salaries going up a lot. That's a lot of lost money for Apple, which makes Steve Jobs mad. Additionally, some employ…
That's a long way of saying: yes, he's a bully.
Bullying google… I don’t think that’s a thing even if you’re Apple.
I think this is just shrewd business.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it’s simpler than that. He was an average person. Had a lot of business acumen, particularly well timed vision (after a bunch of poor timing), then he was a really successful guy who was just as flawed as the rest of us.
I think I understand your larger point, but whatever corrections or amendments need to be made to the myth of Jobs, the idea that he was in any way average shouldn’t be one.
The dude basically chose to die of treatable cancer in his 50s because he just didn't like the idea of getting medical treatment. That's one of the most odd behaviors I've ever heard of.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#134Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#135I have two cynical thoughts after reading this: - Imagine a world where the value add people got together and horse traded our managers around. - How realistic even is the “programmer celebrity” anymore? It seems like the “this is the guy” (e.g. one of the best browser guys) happens less anymore. Are there people out there now that are the crème de la crème of k8s configurators? Top class QUIC implementers? Number on…
Those celebrities only matter for big companies that develop a products that require deep specialisation. Your startup won't need the "crème de la crème of k8s configurator" but Kubernetes team might want to hire a specific developer with some second-to-none knowledge of internal workings of containers.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#136>”So a compromise would be to continue with the offer we have made (to [REDACTED]) but not to make offers to any of the others unless they get permission from Apple.”* This is just so absolutely shitty behavior. It’s bamazing they were willing to talk about it so openly in email format. You get to be so great at your job only to risk being blackballed by hush hush non compete handshake agreements? Unions don’t go nea…
I mean, you took it out of context the line before said: I don’t think we should change our hiring policy based on this. The line after said: let’s discuss before you make other offers.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#137I love how an absolute cunt Steve Jobs was! Mostly because there are so many publicly documented examples of his cuntness that I’m sure are not unique to him but that we seldom find out about other CEOs.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#138Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#139I don’t understand Jobs’ logic here. Is he just a bully? If Google makes such a great offer that his employee will leave him, shouldn’t he try to make a better offer, or meet with the employee instead of calling Sergey? Say he did get the offer canceled. How would this employee feel about working for a CEO that does this?
> Is he just a bully?
He spent his whole professional career bullying people and repurposing their ideas into pretty amazing products.
Re: Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs
#140> steve told me he was cool with us hiring anyone who came to us but was angry about systematic solicitation
At least not as unfair as I initially thought.