141–150 of 345 posts
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This kind of snarky, low effort comment belongs on Reddit, not HN.
I don't feel like I need any more words to express my opinion. It's exactly like religion, if you weren't raised in it, you correctly see it at culty and weird.
In 2008 I was consuming as much entrepenuriship content I could (while building my first company). For obvious reasons I ended up watching a Tony's presentation. He was sharing a lot of stories about Zappos and in the end he talked about their Culture Book (a book entirely written by Zappos employees, with no editing). Immediately after watch it I sent an email directly for him (at the time a CEO of a company that wo…
> It's no more a cult than cheering for your school mascot To just react to this part: from the perspective of someone growing up in a country without school mascots or inter-school sports competitions, the whole US treatment of school sport teams and their mascots (or, at least, their depiction in media) is rather cultish behaviour.
European and South American obsession with football and footballers goes far, far beyond anything Americans do with sports. Unless you live in West Texas, it's fairly easy to avoid anything to do with it.
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As someone who had never heard of the practice before moving to the US as a teen, it seemed pretty culty to me. I understand most Americans aren't that bothered, but that makes it even more creepy to us foreigners. I'm sure North Koreans are used to the Kims' pictures in every room, but that doesn't make it less weird from an outsiders perspective.
Comparing the Pledge of Allegiance to North Korean indoctrination is exactly the sort of absurd nonsense that I'm talking about. It's a basic tradition that helps instill patriotism, which from a purely practical point of view, is almost a political necessity in a country as diverse as America. Criticizing one's own country, which is probably one of the most American things one can do, is absolutely not possible in N…
The idea that patriotism is a necessity makes me nauseous, particularly given the ghastly scars of full-on repression and brutality the US wears on its face for anyone with the temerity to speak the wrong opinion.
Frankly I struggle to comprehend any other interpretation of history. Unless, of course, one is some kind of revisionist shitbird with blind spots up the wazoo.
The infantile whinge about “Eurocentrism” is characteristic of the kind of petty-minded, reflexive, and ultimately inaccurate dismissal of outsiders I’ve come to expect from authoritarian demagogues and the wannabe bullies that defend them.
All of which is to say, the fact that in the US, it’s possible to criticise the government, occurs despite the ludicrous brainwash theatrics, not because of them; and until very recently, only for a few.
The Zappos website now has a Steve Jobs-like tribute on the first page (as well as a banner), which seems appropriate given how amazing Hsieh has been (not merely founding Zappos, but the renewal of DT Las Vegas, plus cool stuff he did back in SF before Zappos -- the 1000 Van Ness place was quirky and awesome.) A really amazing person.
We don’t need anymore developers ruining their lives and kidneys working shoulder to shoulder out of bars equipped with 300Mb WiFi making JS apps that create very little value for society beyond improving the real estate values around the bars themselves, even as they sink deeper into depression, bankruptcy and many times Hsiehicide. One would think after the first death, he would have formed a company that ran around hiring them all (even sending some that were too far gone upstairs back to their parents) to provide some sort of a safety net for his real estate activities, but that was never the priority. The old guard in Vegas that (once upon a time) gave Howard Hughes “the business” too was so thrilled to meet Tony Hsieh —-and his endless new supply of self-destructing laptop tourists. Just like Hughes, Hsieh started the ball rolling and I think last month Downtown Las Vegas opened the first of what will be many all-new resorts in that hell hole of lost souls in many decades.
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He had developed a severe drug addiction to ketamine and nitrous oxide. He completely lost touch with reality. Ended up killing himself in an explosion/fire that he caused himself. The reason he "retired" from Zappos was due to the aforementioned drug addiction and was not voluntary.
those are pretty wild claims. any way you can back it up?
I've would have a drink with his personal cleaning lady when she was done for theday, and drank more than one with Tony himself late into the night at Kareoke in his personal Airstream park. Many of my friends worked in all departments at Zappos, as well.
When the drinks were mostly finished, and the clock was past 3am, the #1 rumor would be of his drug use. At first I thought it was standard rumors due to his laid back nature and stature (and maybe confated with the fact that he smoked weed legally.)
However, after an interpersonal issue, one of the people with access to his private life pulled me aside and showed me a series of photos he had taken in Tony's place prior to anyone cleaning it up.
Let's just say Ketamine and Nitrous are weak comparitively to what I saw, and there was a reason he could be "on it" for 3/4 of a day and then immediatly sleep. I don't know how to say it without speaking too ill of the dead, but I think you get the idea.
PPS, Google the Downtown Vegas Suicides for a true, fun, short read.
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Comparing the Pledge of Allegiance to North Korean indoctrination is exactly the sort of absurd nonsense that I'm talking about. It's a basic tradition that helps instill patriotism, which from a purely practical point of view, is almost a political necessity in a country as diverse as America. Criticizing one's own country, which is probably one of the most American things one can do, is absolutely not possible in N…
Joe McCarthy says Hi. Did you forget about the horrifying legacy of both literal and figurative witch trials? How about the US only very recently abandoning the idea that one person could own another? The idea that patriotism is a necessity makes me nauseous, particularly given the ghastly scars of full-on repression and brutality the US wears on its face for anyone with the temerity to speak the wrong opinion. Frank…
Died from a house fire. Terrible way to go. Source: https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tony-hsieh-key-figure...
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Then post under your actual name instead of being a troll hours after the dude has died. I’m all about having conversations about addiction. This isn’t it. This is smarmy and petty and if you had any conviction, you wouldn’t create a new account just to talk about how someone you “had a lot of respect for” died. You would do it under your own name or at least your own pseudonym.
I'm hesitating about whether I agree or disagree with you. I also do not like distasteful / disrespectful comments; and I can understand that people prefer privacy. However, this was simple factual information. I'm not sure keeping facts secret is a good thing even if done out of respect. It is important that the public sees how many lives are destroyed by domestic abuse, suicides, addiction, and other social ills. A…
If it is factual, I agree, have the discussion about addiction. But is it too much to ask to either have the conversation openly (and not in an anonymous comment full of judgment and borderline glee that a person is dead), and not in gossip-laden comments hours after the guy is dead? It’s gross and people defending unnamed gossip from a green rando is infuriating.
Tony was an innovator not just in terms of product vision, as almost all successful founders have to be, but also in the very idea of what business should be.
It is striking to me that this happened the same day as pg's essay on thinking differently from your peers came out, as I can imagine no greater example. As founders we spend time thinking about how our product can change the way things are done, but the way that companies themselves are structured and run is largely formulaic and taken for granted. This makes Tony truly special, as someone who decided to rethink what a company should be and how it should impact people's lives.
Even before Zappos he was wildly successful: the first company he co-founded, LinkExchange, sold to Microsoft for $265MM in 1998. In spite of this, he lived in a trailer in Las Vegas. He just didn't think about things in the way most people do.
He is, and will continue to be, an example and inspiration to look to for any founder, especially those who have a nagging feeling that the way companies are run should be better. May he rest in peace.