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You weren't meant to have a boss

paulgraham.com

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Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#171

Post by qooiii »

The assumption seems to be that only smart programmers will read these essays. That's maybe 10% of programmers or less (maybe a hit count would help estimate?).

Big companies are all about efficiency through division of labor. They want guys who will write uninteresting Java applications for 10 years without complaining. But for a few thousand dollars a year more (especially if you're talking entry-level), they can hire a top-10% person overqualified for the position, just in case they need the talent.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#172

Post by ecr »

I don't think the evolutionary analysis works here. Small human groups on the savanna only directly competed for resources with other small local groups. Imagine if a single group, only 10% "better" than others, were able to catch all the antelopes worldwide. Everyone else would have to find another niche. Similarly, I might be confident I could be the best spreadsheet writer in Peoria. I could "own" that market. But the entire spreadsheet market, worldwide, is supplied by a few startups plus a few bigcorps plus a few open source projects.

Corporations arose to enable and respond to global markets made possible by industrialization. The Internet enables global marketing by small firms, but doesn't protect them from global competition. Yes, individuals should be encouraged to take a swing at forming a startup if they have some brilliant new idea. But don't fault them for rationally choosing safety in a larger group if they realize their ideas are not competitive on a global scale.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#173

Post by nostrademons »

Xichekolas wrote: post #129
fleaflicker wrote: post #63

Has anyone checked out the reddit comments for this same article? It's like night and day. http://reddit.com/info/6cu0t/comments/

Oddly the thing that stood out in those comments was the discussion of living expenses, and specifically health insurance. Everyone is quoting things like $700/mo and $1100/mo. Even the guy with the high deductible plan alluded to paying $116/mo for a $5k deductible. Am I the only one that pays $55/mo for a $1k deductible plan? I must be lucky or something. And that aside, seriously, you buy insurance for catastrophe…

It seems to vary a lot state-by-state. I remember reading posts about $55/month or $79/month health insurance before quitting my day job, but the cheapest I could find here in Massachusetts was that $116/month high-deductible plan. Most high-deductible plans were in the $120-130/month range, with some of the ones that didn't discriminate based on age ranging up to $230. COBRA would've been upwards of $400, and I think plain old independent HMOs would've been comparable.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#174

Post by nostrademons »

joshwa wrote: post #136
Xichekolas wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly the thing that stood out in those comments was the discussion of living expenses, and specifically health insurance. Everyone is quoting things like $700/mo and $1100/mo. Even the guy with the high deductible plan alluded to paying $116/mo for a $5k deductible. Am I the only one that pays $55/mo for a $1k deductible plan? I must be lucky or something. And that aside, seriously, you buy insurance for catastrophe…

A lot of people these days (myself included) have chronic conditions that require ongoing regular doctor visits and/or medication. Even at a high premium level, insurance is cheaper than paying out of pocket (my maintenance medication costs $48k annually!). I guess you could argue that that makes me not a good candidate for a startup... which is why I still work for BigCo, and work on my startup at night (N.B not the…

I've got a friend that remarked on that once...he has Marfan's syndrome, which means that he has pricey routine medical treatments and the possibility of some very expensive emergency operations. He's working at Microsoft (despite being a big Mac person), and he said that one of the reasons why he chose to work for "the evil empire" is they have great health benefits, and no small company would be able to cover his health insurance.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#175

Post by dcminter »

pg wrote: post #42
KB wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 26 and just passed my fifth year at a very large company (18000+), with four years in IT and the past year in Software Engineering. I've been looking for an oppurtunity at a smaller company, since my current one is stifling my ability to learn and be productive. The issue I'm finding is that small companies are typically looking for someone with more experience than I could currently offer. Has anyone else come a…

One route you could take would be to look for a startup with young founders. They won't insist on experience, because they don't have it themselves. Another would be just to look for a good startup. All a good startup cares about is how good you are, not how many years it took you to get that way.

Something that (stupidly) never occurred to me before I kicked of a startup - if you want to get a job with one, go along to networking meetups (e.g. opencoffee) and you'll soon find some opportunities.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#176

Post by astine »

scottgnet wrote: post #162
astine wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're thoroughly missing my point. PG's argument is that man was designed, via evolution, to live relatively autonomously. My point is that even a casual glance at history disproves that. The German and Swiss states, for all their autonomy, couldn't stand up to Napoleon's hierarchical tyranny. In fact, it took a far more tyrannical society, Russia, to put Napoleon in his place. Hierarchy is sometimes necessary for s…

Because German and Swiss states couldn't stand up to a larger force organized hierarchically is not proof that humans have _not_ evolved to work in small groups, it is only very poor empirical evidence that a larger force with better weapons can defeat a smaller, disorganized force. As for why people seek freedom, I doubt most consciously think about it in those terms. You seem to think that individuals ponder about…

The essential flaw in your logic is this: "evolved to" Evolution has neither purpose nor end. That which is more 'fit' (a very vague term to be sure) is what evolution favors. If a larger force with better weapons can defeat a smaller, disorganized force, then evolution clearly favors the former.

Napoleon is a case example. There are many, many more I could call upon, but I think a lesson in world history is beyond the scope of this debate.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#177

Post by adammichaelc »

This article really touches on something I've thought a lot about. People are supposed to be indepependent. The freedom-loving spark is in all of us, and when we work for a behemoth organization or spend all day long taking orders from some arbitrary boss, we lose something. We change somehow.

Not that following a great leader is a bad thing, because it's not. Following a great leader is actually one of the best ways to learn (think getting mentoring by a successful entrepreneur... or reading and trying to live by the great works of Aristotle, Ghandi, Christ, etc.)

But there is a big difference between voluntarily choosing to follow a great leader, and being told that you must follow a leader. And if you miss work for 3 days, "we'll find somebody else."

120 years ago, 90% of Americans owned their own land and their own companies (usually farms).

Today, the opposite is true. 10% of Americans own their own land (sorry, a $500,000 mortgage on a $501,000 house doesn't count. Try not paying your mortgage for 3 months and see who owns that land)... and 10% of Americans have their own companies.

Maybe Americans are mostly living below their potential today...

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#178

Post by nostrademons »

albertcardona wrote: post #109

I agree with the assay, and I have personal experiences regarding workgroups (mostly hackathons) that match precisely the (1) small group requirement -7 to 10 people-; (2) the avoidance of any tree structure: horizontal and unguided development; and (3) the avoidance of mediocre people. Yet I have a concern nagging my mind about the reduction of freedom in hierachies. Ender's Game book seem to argue the opposite: tha…

There was a book I read recently...I can't remember the title, but it was one of those generic "How to manage for innovation and creativity" books, by a famous author.

Anyway, one of the examples used was that most-hierarchical-of-hierarchies, the U.S. Army. It talked about how in Vietnam, the U.S. got its butt kicked because basically "no plan survives contact with the enemy." The army would have these detailed marching orders, but then Vietcong would come out of nowhere and blow the plans to shambles.

The army's solution was to include a "Commander's Intention" section at the top of every order, which was a one-sentence description of the overall objective that the military hoped to achieve. At high levels, it would be very general, like "Establish air superiority over the region between the XYZ and ABC parallels". At low levels, it might be very specific, like "Capture the hill overlooking the southernmost runway at XY Airbase, to allow the 3rd mechanized division to enter the base without fear of artillery attack."

The crucial point was that if conditions on the battlefield ever made it impossible to carry out their orders as written, officers were authorized to use whatever creativity and judgment necessary to achieve the Commander's Intention, including giving new orders to their own subordinates. So you had plans, but each subunit knew where they stood in relationship to the whole and could adapt on the fly to take into account changing battlefield realities.

Anyone here in the military that could confirm or deny this? Anyone know what book it's from?

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#179

Post by tonystubblebine »

Paul, I think you need to take the next step here which is getting out of the venture business. The whole venture industry is based on your startup founders becoming bosses or being acquired by companies with bosses. Even if they end up rich afterward, the availability of the money is directly tied to other programmers getting duped into working unnaturally (with bosses). Have you considered leading your startups toward a small business path? More here: http://www.stubbleblog.com/index.php/2008/03/take-the-next-s...
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