How to be a leader when the vibes are off • Hacker News Board

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#161

Post by tomp » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 12:49 PM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #159

tomp wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dictatorships are far more efficient. That’s why military is a dictatorship. That’s why “design by committee” has such a bad rep. The only problem with dictatorships is that you can’t change them. Also countries shouldn’t fail, so an orderly “change of power” process is needed. But you can change companies, and companies can fail.

I've known quite a few people in the military and "efficient" is a word they never use to describe it.

Do you think it would be better to have a democracy during war? (I mean in individual military units, not in a country overall - note that military is controlled by a civilian democratically elected president)

"The enemy's forces are shelling us. Do we want to attack back? Who votes for/against?"

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#162

Post by philipallstar » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 12:49 PM UTC

Don't vote for anyone who thinks ZIRP is a good idea, and floods the world with overly-cheap cash that gets wasted on extravagences, that need to be over-corrected now

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#163

Post by gnomespaceship » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 12:52 PM UTC

Good essay!

Jason, if you read this - the form to subscribe doesn't work on Android (in Firefox or Chrome). I can't input my address or press the Subscribe button.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#164

Post by jus3sixty » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 12:59 PM UTC

None of these generalizations are new to people who have had to work in service industry or customer service.

I have no sympathy for tech workers griping about these changes. Before I transitioned to I.T. I worked in the some of the most demanding call centers in the BPO world.

There was no remote work, every single minute of your day was monitored and you felt like you were in a fish bowl where every word and kpi was being analyzed by management. If you didn’t meet all 10-15 metrics you basically had one foot on a banana peel.

Put your big boy pants on tech bro. Winter is coming!

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#165

Post by thfuran » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

tschellenbach wrote: post #60

There are literally subreddits about how to abuse the trust of remote work, but there have always been people doing that. I think the main thing that changed is that amazing revenue multiples that made it possible for companies to ignore these issues are no longer there. Meanwhile the costs of everything, including salaries has skyrocketed. So I think it's lower valuations + higher costs -> more pressure on efficienc…

>Meanwhile the costs of everything, including salaries has skyrocketed.

More like everything except salaries.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#166

Post by jordanb » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:11 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #161

jordanb wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known quite a few people in the military and "efficient" is a word they never use to describe it.

Do you think it would be better to have a democracy during war? (I mean in individual military units, not in a country overall - note that military is controlled by a civilian democratically elected president) "The enemy's forces are shelling us. Do we want to attack back? Who votes for/against?"

Interestingly I read a history of the French Army mutinies in WWI. One thing that came out of that is lower commanders had a duty to question orders from superiors if they didn't think the goals were achievable. Previously any hint at not following an order was considered "cowardice" and millions of men were led into insane situations with impossible objectives because nobody thought orders from the top could be challenged.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#167

Post by threetonesun » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:20 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #161

jordanb wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known quite a few people in the military and "efficient" is a word they never use to describe it.

Do you think it would be better to have a democracy during war? (I mean in individual military units, not in a country overall - note that military is controlled by a civilian democratically elected president) "The enemy's forces are shelling us. Do we want to attack back? Who votes for/against?"

If we're making odd analogies to politics I think most high performing teams tend to end up in the Marxist "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". Or instead of the military, think of a basketball team. How do five excellent athletes work together. The coach is not a "dictator", nor is anyone on the team, but they also don't vote on plays. They know what each other is good at and, based on the situation given to them, execute in a way that is most likely to succeed.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#168

Post by tomp » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

threetonesun wrote: post #167

tomp wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it would be better to have a democracy during war? (I mean in individual military units, not in a country overall - note that military is controlled by a civilian democratically elected president) "The enemy's forces are shelling us. Do we want to attack back? Who votes for/against?"

If we're making odd analogies to politics I think most high performing teams tend to end up in the Marxist "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". Or instead of the military, think of a basketball team. How do five excellent athletes work together. The coach is not a "dictator", nor is anyone on the team, but they also don't vote on plays. They know what each other is good at and, based…

Marxism is amazing as long as you get to freely choose who to share the spoils with.

In fact, this idea is so amazing, we should create a new political philosophy around it!

How should we call it? Share-ism? Freedom-ism? Or, maybe just Capital-ism?

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#169

Post by paulcole » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

> This too shall pass

Funny how most people only use this when they don't like how things are going.

Who ever saw a blog post about, "This too shall pass" during remote-ZIRP-brain era?

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#170

Post by Spivak » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

stevage wrote: post #105

> In public, you have to support the policies, but when you’re in private with your manager and your peers, that’s the time you can safely push for change. They are actually advocating being two-faced as a form of leadership.

1. You have to tow the company line as a line manager or else you'll be fired.

2. If you are a dead-eyed shill for the company your employees won't trust you and you'll be an ineffective manager.

Calling this work dynamic being two faced puts the wrong tone on the behavior. It's more akin to leading a resistance cell in under an authoritarian regime. When the people above you demand unwavering unquestioning loyalty it's the best you can do.

It becomes two-faced if you actually agree with the higher ups but pretend you don't to your employees. Everyone, including your employees, understands the need to "we love Great Leader, so intelligent and wise" in public and won't judge you for it.