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Hire people who give a shit

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Re: Hire people who give a shit

#141

Post by dnautics »

beny23 wrote: post #131

I think the general idea of finding people who take pride in a job well done is a sound one and does often mean the difference between success and failure of a project/business. Where the article completely falls down in is how to measure “giving a shit”. There’s plenty of people that work long hours, get rewarded well but ultimately just create mess after mess that someone who cares about clean, simple code then cle…

retention is also a problem. Coming from a place where I gave a shit to a place where I only care about the product, but not in an way tied to my identity, it's so much more emotionally liberating. I check in, do my job, and leave caring to my side-projects. I was done in by management at the last place (half due to getting the short end of the stick in an necessary reorg, and half due to management incompetence of my new manager), and that is EXHAUSTING.

Now, I have competent and organized managers, and they help me push code with high efficiency, which is satisfying, but in a very different way than one that is more tied to my identity.

From a management point of view, you really do not want to hire a person who gives a shit if you are a shitty manager, let's say top quintile, (statisically, if you are if you are manager, you are), because when that person leaves, and they will, it's not going to be any fun for you.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#142

Post by Rafuino »

This is exactly the kind of company I wouldn't want to work for unless they highly, highly reward me for "giving a shit" (aka working like a dog for the exec team to have a better exit when they sell the company).

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#143

Post by xwdv »

wbronitsky wrote: post #121

This article is megalomaniacal. Insisting that your company with 200+ employees will only hire people who will work themselves to the bone without any mention of how those people will be properly compensated is wild corporate propaganda. I honestly don’t know why the tech industry continues to capitulate to leaders like this who obviously, and loudly, mistreat and dehumanize their employees by insisting that if you a…

I have been shitting all over people like this for a long time and trying to get people to see the light that a job is a job and nothing more, but then I get blamed for having a “mercenary mentality” and “not a team player”.

You are renting your skills to an entity that needs your skills for an agreed upon rate for a certain amount of time. If another employer offers you a better situation and your current employer doesn’t counter with a better offer you leave. The rules are simple and your employer knows how to keep you if they really want you.

Getting a job is not like joining a gang or a fraternity where you are first promised a community and good life and then the money is just a formality, but that’s what people seem to see it as. Rest assured, it should always be about the money first. Money is what I’m all about and my career isn’t any worse off for it nor have I ever had to work myself to the bone for no reason just to please the company gods.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#145

Post by sodapopcan »

justin_oaks wrote: post #140
sodapopcan wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We call working long hours “heroics” at my company, it’s possibly a common term? I’m unsure. In any event, Heroics are strongly discouraged. There are people who do it, of course, but they get no special accolades for it and in turn they don’t do any kind of boasting about it.

I've also heard of "heroes" as referring to software developers that are seen as great by management because they're always working hard to put out fires (usually that they caused). Meanwhile those who write stable software and work normal hours are not praised because stability is not noticed. Now that I think about it, I guess we're talking about the same thing.

Ha, yes! Same thing :)

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#146

Post by codenesium »

This sounds like a child wrote it. You should hire smart people who get shit done. Hire craftsmen. The whole thing about caring about the company is a joke without real equity. If you care about your work and do a good job then that is your contribution to the company. Engineers usually have 0 input into the direction a company takes so it's hard to care that much.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#148

Post by NewOrderNow »

wbronitsky wrote: post #121

This article is megalomaniacal. Insisting that your company with 200+ employees will only hire people who will work themselves to the bone without any mention of how those people will be properly compensated is wild corporate propaganda. I honestly don’t know why the tech industry continues to capitulate to leaders like this who obviously, and loudly, mistreat and dehumanize their employees by insisting that if you a…

Or perhaps you are weak-mind? It's funny, hard working individuals are typically the ones who don't have jobs, while people who perpetuate mediocrity, like you, most like have jobs. Mediocrity is what people hire for. Not skill.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#149

Post by codethief »

ditonal wrote: post #124
torgian wrote: post #111

Lol. You can’t work only five hours a day _and_ still “give a shit”, according to the article. Sounds like someone full of himself. I’m never going to work more than 8 hours a day for a company, preferably less even. I still get more stuff done in those hours that I do work. I care a lot about what I do, but I’m not going to destroy myself or my life for someone else’s company. Already did that for the military, neve…

Scale AI is an embarrassment to YC in general, as the founders embody every negative trope we’ve come to associate with the worst of the scene. The Youtuber Joma Tech has an excellent takedown on the sheer arrogance of their founder. https://youtu.be/HTXTVfBCeSY The fetishization of a youthful founder, the ridiculous interview questions, and as I personally made the mistake of doing a phone screen with them before le…

Love the video but I'm not sure I would consider this a takedown. His comment below the video reads:

> Guys I’m not salty, I’m sweet :3

> But for real, I think this company is super promising. Most FANG company have their own in-house system for hiring labelers, and I know that it’s extremely valuable for any ML team. Getting trusted, reliable and cost effective labeled data is not easy for smaller companies. I actually feel honored that I even got to interview for them in the super early stages.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#150

Post by codenesium »

sodapopcan wrote: post #114
achenatx wrote: post #65

I strongly disagree with this post for my company. But that is great, it means there is a company for everyone. At my company one of our most important values is "live the life you love". For each person we try to understand how the company can help them achieve their personal goals. If someone wants to work a ton of hours to get promoted as fast as possible, we support that. But if they want a balanced life we suppo…

We call working long hours “heroics” at my company, it’s possibly a common term? I’m unsure. In any event, Heroics are strongly discouraged. There are people who do it, of course, but they get no special accolades for it and in turn they don’t do any kind of boasting about it.

Heroes are like firefighters. In my experience the firefighters are often the arsonists.
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