Does anyone have a sense of how bad things really are for the US economy and what the next 12/18 months are going to look like? Seems like every day all I see is doom and gloom, I've not seen a bright spot in quite some time... it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to get a sense of where things are. People keep saying things are going to get worse, I keep reading things are going to get worse, friends are literally committing suicide. Feels like twilight zone.
Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
131–140 of 531 posts
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#132I'll tell you a personal anecdote about Shopify and why I dislike the company. Back in 2019, I was contacted by Shopify for a job opportunity. After acing multiple remote interviews, their recruiter couldn't contain their excitement. They promised me an onsite interview to simply meet the team and potentially secure an offer. Imagine my surprise when, after enduring a 15-hour economy class flight with barely any time…
Shopify leadership drank their own kool aid and so did many of its employees. I’ve been a constructor to them before and it was not a good experience.
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a fundraising advertisement, not for you. The headline is to pitch possible future investors that Shopify will prioritize investor returns over anything else (as ordained by the Prophets of capitalism)
If Shopify can deliver its software with less people, that’s better for society. Put it this way - would you like to be paid to mow a lawn using scissors? I can pay hundreds of people to mow my lawn using scissors, and they will be employed as landscapers. Or I can pay one guy with a lawnmower.
>If Shopify can deliver its software with less people, that’s better for society.
What specific measures of society are better?
Please use whatever metrics you deem relevant however I'll propose a few options to choose from based on the Harvard Human Flourishing Program [1]:
1. Happiness and life satisfaction
2. Mental and physical health
3. Meaning and purpose
4. Character and virtue
5. Close social relationships
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#134I feel like people don't understand how similar these huge corporations are to seed stage startups, and I'm sure people would be fine with a seed stage startup doing layoffs at this point of time
Most of these companies have 1-2 areas generating 90%+ of the revenue. They are the rich VC giving unprofitable teams money to find PMF. When those teams can't find profitability faster in this environment, the VC rightfully stops the funding.
Some people will/have moved to the profitable teams, but you can't just double or triple their size and expect their income to grow accordingly
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#135They forgot to mention that the C-level exec still get their bonuses.
Of course they do. Layoffs are hard work!
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
They may exist for a while but when push comes to shove, they will be eliminated. The government is the one with the real problem - there are bureaucrats who gladly do nothing all day every day, or even actively harm industry, and they can never be fired and exist as barnacles.
> They may exist for a while I don't think we should be interested in the "asymptotic theoretical limit" of capitalism which is never reached. Let's discuss "capitalism in practice", not "capitalism in theory". If things self-correct in a time frame longer than your own lifespan, do you think it's an ideal scenario? I personally don't. I don't see the government forcing Google to pay thousands of highly qualified wor…
> If things self-correct in a time frame longer than your own lifespan, do you think it's an ideal scenario?
If there is not a better option, then yes.
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#137I'll tell you a personal anecdote about Shopify and why I dislike the company. Back in 2019, I was contacted by Shopify for a job opportunity. After acing multiple remote interviews, their recruiter couldn't contain their excitement. They promised me an onsite interview to simply meet the team and potentially secure an offer. Imagine my surprise when, after enduring a 15-hour economy class flight with barely any time…
Meanwhile, just play Starcraft 2 to get an internship: https://i.redd.it/amk31bewfxt31.jpg
[dead]
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a fundraising advertisement, not for you. The headline is to pitch possible future investors that Shopify will prioritize investor returns over anything else (as ordained by the Prophets of capitalism)
If Shopify can deliver its software with less people, that’s better for society. Put it this way - would you like to be paid to mow a lawn using scissors? I can pay hundreds of people to mow my lawn using scissors, and they will be employed as landscapers. Or I can pay one guy with a lawnmower.
Actually the good path, according to abovementioned prophets of capitalism, would be a new player undercutting the incumbent by being able to deliver comparably with less people. An incumbent so unchallenged that they can increase revenue while cutting staff is the economic equivalent of a bad code smell. Perhaps not that market outright failing, but clearly not working quite as advertised.
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
The CEO's job is to deliver results, not maintain full employment. Companies exist, and have always existed, to be temporary money-making enterprises. Acting like they are civil institutions tasked with upholding the social fabric is absurd.
It is not so simplistically true. This is what Reaganomics will want you to believe. Examples abound of companies that did not prioritise shareholder returns over everything. Companies are organisations that operate within a society and therefore have a role to play to keep that society together. There are (very limited) lawful structures that try to make this happen, but much more is down to culture. In many (most?)…
> I wonder if this is a model to apply to a capitalist society: Where you have a CEO doing their regular thing, but also a political officer making sure society is not disadvantaged. Hard to pull off without falling into totalitarianism I guess
Who is choosing the CEO and political officer?
Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics
#140> Shopify finds it useful to talk about the difference between main quests and side quests internally. The main quest of the company is its mission, the reason for the company to exist. Side quests are everything else. The main quest / side quest analogy works so so well!
When creating tasks for data analysts I like to specify when it's a "fetch quest" for some exec.