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Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

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Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#141

Post by arethuza »

smoyer wrote: post #121
onion2k wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's been a CTO at times in the past, I wish I'd worked with a CEO like that. There are few things worse than having a leadership team who don't trust you to deliver the tech that drives the company's ideas.

Having your CEO change course every two months is definitely worse - just let me finish something! (it was a hardware company so there's not really such thing as a pivot)

I've had experiences like that both as CTO and Director of Engineering - I vividly remember one exchange when I'd been at a company for a month or so:

CEO: How are you fitting in?

Me: Good, I've got a good handle on where we want to take the product.

CEO: I know you don't.

Me: OK, care to explain?

CEO: I've just changed the vision for the product!

This was also a company with a significant hardware component.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#142

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

olliej wrote: post #42
jdrc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of agree it's time to depedestalize "tech"founders. Every company is a tech company and their bosses can be just as scumbags. The religion that worships infotech as inherently unevil and idealistic needs to die.

The fawning over Steve Jobs (and I don't mean apple coolaid folk) is always bizarre, and I think really drove a lot of the "super star ceo" nonsense these days. I'm not saying he didn't save apple or whatever, I'm just unconvinced that being that particular model of arrogance was necessary part of said "saving". Obviously we can't roll back time and replace him with an identical clone with the only difference being t…

Steve Jobs was, quite likely, one of the biggest jerks in Silicon Valley history. I've worked with two people, over the years, who worked closely with (or directly under) him, at one point or another, and they both loathed him. I mean serious hate. It was pretty shocking, as they were very calm, likable folks, otherwise.

He was, unquestionably, a true visionary, though, and his obsessive, brutal management style, allowed him to implement his visions, with little interference. It reminds me of the "bad guy" in Braveheart, Edward "Longshanks" the First. He was a complete bastard, but he also unified a lot of what is now Britain.

Steve Jobs was also an outstanding persuasive speaker. He could not only convince you that the world was flat, but sell you First Class tickets, on a boat to the edge. The "RDF" was real.

But so many people think that dressing, and acting, like Steve Jobs will somehow allow them to channel him (see: "Cargo Cult"). They get the "asshole" part down, but can't quite synthesize the "visionary" part.

It's a bit ironic that Tim Cook is sort of the polar opposite of Jobs. It seems to me, that he's actually a rather decent chap (as much as any CEO can be).

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#145

Post by scarface74 »

olliej wrote: post #42
jdrc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of agree it's time to depedestalize "tech"founders. Every company is a tech company and their bosses can be just as scumbags. The religion that worships infotech as inherently unevil and idealistic needs to die.

The fawning over Steve Jobs (and I don't mean apple coolaid folk) is always bizarre, and I think really drove a lot of the "super star ceo" nonsense these days. I'm not saying he didn't save apple or whatever, I'm just unconvinced that being that particular model of arrogance was necessary part of said "saving". Obviously we can't roll back time and replace him with an identical clone with the only difference being t…

You mean you shouldn’t admire a CEO who took a company from near bankruptcy in 1997 to the most valuable company in the US in 2011?

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#146

Post by nikanj »

ltfey wrote: post #138
nikanj wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your political affiliation change the size of your penis in any way? Why is it relevant here, aside from enforcing the age-old body shaming ideals that "big peepee good, bad peepee small, stupid man bad, bad man have small peepee"

To be technical, I never said anything about size. I said "inadequate". Also, one can be opposed to patriarchy while, at the same time, pointing out that the men who run capitalism fail on their own archaic and patriarchal terms. That these self-asserted "leaders" fail at being what they themselves want to be makes it all the more probable that they fail at being what we in society want or need them to be.

Sorry I misunderstood you. What did you mean by ”inadequate”?

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#147

Post by scarface74 »

kristopolous wrote: post #58
sksksk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of "tech" companies as companies where you've got large fixed costs to build out and maintain the product, but the marginal cost of your product is very close to zero. So Facebook and JCDecaux are both advertising companies, but only Facebook is a "tech" company. Lockheed Martin is a tech company, but Google is a "tech" company. I don't think it's a great term for that kind of company.

In spirit it's to take big bets on things that may not work; the transistor radio, the microprocessor. The eventual goal is to push forward something potentially for the social welfare such as say a logarithm table or star catalog in an earlier time. Companies like Uber or Netflix don't do this. They're platform for rent-seeking of services or durable goods (or perhaps call it "assisted living for people under 60") T…

How is Netflix “rent seeking?” They pay up front to either license or produce shows.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#148

Post by scarface74 »

dagw wrote: post #128
hvidgaard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is two sides to Netflix. One is the content side, which is much like HBO, and the other side is the infrastructure side, which without a doubt is a tech company. They could contract out their infrastructure and they would surely not be a tech company, but as long as they develop that, they are a tech company in my book.

Does HBO develop its own steaming infrastructure?

They use BAMTech, now owned by Disney.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#149

Post by iamricks »

I got downvoted the other day for calling Peloton a Ponzi scheme, look at the "TROUBLING INSIDER SELLING AND PLEDGING" slides and the quotes like "We have built a team that I believe is ready to run a $500 billion company. Pick a number. A FAANG-style leadership team" that the CEO was making.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#150

Post by TheRealWatson »

indigochill wrote: post #72
olliej wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fawning over Steve Jobs (and I don't mean apple coolaid folk) is always bizarre, and I think really drove a lot of the "super star ceo" nonsense these days. I'm not saying he didn't save apple or whatever, I'm just unconvinced that being that particular model of arrogance was necessary part of said "saving". Obviously we can't roll back time and replace him with an identical clone with the only difference being t…

> I don't recall similar stories about Bill Gates I don't know about yelling and vendettas, but he has a checkered relationship with the open source/hobbyist community because he imposed proprietary licensing on his BASIC implementation despite the computer hobbyists of the time working more on a FOSS model. When hobbyists copied his software despite the license, he wrote an open letter claiming they were stealing fr…

I think the point is more about people who worked with Gates not having that many bad things to say about him. I used to follow MSFT news very closely during the Gates era and invariably you'd hear stories how people at the company genuinely liked him.
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