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The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

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Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#171

Post by iopq »

georgeecollins wrote: post #109
toomuchtodo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you have a clear exit plan outside scaling the so-called ladder Exit plan is FIRE. Everything else is circus and performance art. Others can play status games, I prefer wealth games: wealth is options and options are freedom. Pragmatic, smart, skilled people are extracted from unless lucky and in a position to see outsized returns from their effort. Better to know what enough is, collect enough freedom coins, an…

I think that is a great plan and good advice, but you may find as you continue in your career that you enjoy work more. When I was starting out I was always tired, anxious and frustrated. Now I would never even get hired for those kinds of jobs (or take them). You may get to a point where you have a lot more power and discretion at work and enjoy it. There's a lot to be said for working at jobs you enjoy.

Too late, FIRE'd at 30, never enjoyed work

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#172

Post by Seattle3503 »

rybosworld wrote: post #47
Seb-C wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who cares about his work, has strong professional ethics and wisely chooses his employers to not end-up in such environments, no I don't. The worst places for me are precisely those where you can get by with 1~2h of work a day because no one cares and the company's culture does not value the time and skills of his workers.

> wisely chooses his employers to not end-up in such environments This is a pretty common attitude. That is, "I'm able to pick better workplaces than you are". It implies you have control over the other people that work at the company. And unless you're the CEO, you don't. You cannot with any certainty tell what a work environment is like in the interview stage. You can job hop a half dozen times until you find a goo…

It seems like the truth though.

I have a friend who can only bear to work at places that provide meaningful work and aren't toxic environments. He finds "bullshit jobs" psychological corrosive and he will quicky become depressed if he finds himself at one. He will go six months to a year between jobs, and will leave a job quickly if it turns out it doesn't meet his criteria.

On the flip side when he finds something he likes he works 60+ weeks and never less than everything he can to the job. He burns bright and generally leaves after two years, repeating the process.

Most people aren't like this. They will work just enough at a job that is just good enough. It's not about being better, it's about taking a different approach to finding and retaining a job.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#173

Post by mulmen »

ghaff wrote: post #150
klabb3 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ll be you ten bucks they got rid of people who bring up bad news and kept the yes-men I’m pretty cynical and assumed this was how layoffs worked but at least in faang and even smaller (maybe 500 people) SV companies, I actually don’t think this is the case anymore. Most I’ve seen have been extremely random – it seems like they cut teams/orgs very differently but on an individual level it seems random. I got the i…

I wrote a comment on some other thread but there's just a lot of wrong place/wrong time at an individual level. If a company is doing a substantial layoff there just isn't the time, energy, or resources to train and fit people who may be generically "better" at some level into roles that already have people presumably doing adequate jobs filling them. People are not fungible. Someone can be in a role where they're re…

Ok then why do we still have recruiters and HR? If their job is impossible why do we pay them to pretend otherwise? If people aren’t fungible why do we force them into fungible roles?

If the reality is that people are fungible and leadership is just out of touch and made bad decisions then they’re the ones that should be canned.

Hiring people is expensive. Firing people is expensive. Reorganizing people requires competent leadership.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#174

Post by pnathan »

tuckerpo wrote: post #52

This puts the cart before the horse. In reality, the biggest source of untapped potential, at least anecdotally as an engineer, is that corporations tend to give grease to squeaky wheels. So, the upper quadrants in the article. If you have even a few years of industry experience, modulo being intentionally naive, you've noticed that work begets work. The 'skilled pragmatists' quietly do their jobs well. Their reward…

Competence and promotions are two different skillsets, sometimes they intersect.

I've been swept up into some of the promo-optimized guys' orbits, and it was deeply unpleasant. Lots of smoke and mirrors to execs...

Good leadership optimizes for looking at ground truths, rather than yes-men. Some places succeed at that more than others...

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#175

Post by 7789123 »

erikerikson wrote: post #86
vkou wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they are given meaningful equity, it's not their ship, and regardless of whether it is or isn't, unlike the shareholders and creditors, they won't be sinking with it. If you want worker interests to be even a little aligned with owner interests, the correct corporate structure is not an S corp, or a C corp, it is some flavor of worker co-op. And even then, it can't grow too big.

A co-op only attenuates to employees. There are better options. Example: FairShares Commons

>A co-op only attenuates to employees. There are better options. Example: FairShares Commons

I am very interested in learning about these types of models.

I don't know what search terms would get me there, and/or any lists of these types of models that have been curated.

Could you suggest anything that would expedite researching this?

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#176

Post by __experiment__ »

swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #49

Enployees need three things to avoid becoming an uninspired cog: 1) Control 2) Responsibility 3) Recognition Control and responsibility of a project but no recognition will demotivate quickly Responsibility and recognition with no control means they’re a scapegoat for when things bad Recognition and control with no responsibility is like a third party who will take credit but has no reason to ensure success All three…

there are different people who value different things.

some value more control

some value more responsibility

some value more recognition

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#177

Post by Pepe1vo »

twojobsoneboss wrote: post #140
folsom wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why I work like I get paid, a little bit on Fridays.

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That's why I poop, on company time.

That was a rhyme from a simpler time. Now the boss makes a grand and I make a buck. So, let's steal the catalytic converter from the company truck.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#179

Post by redserk »

szundi wrote: post #115
luisgvv wrote: post #7

I began as a junior dev and climbed up the ranks til the point where I became the SME in some areas of the product. Got laid off because sales goals were not met while they retained people which I think were incompetent in their work. Even some guys which I think were better and more critical to the projects were dumped. I'm not climbing that ladder by being proactive and "pragmatic" again... Call me a paycheck steal…

What about not fucking up your life and find a good comany to work for?

How is this “fucking up [their] life”?

Some people don’t care about the grindset or putting in 50hr weeks. As long as work gets done and you’re reasonably keeping your skills up to date, what does it matter?

If anything it’s more of a win by gaining hours of your life back that would’ve been spent people-pleasing.

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