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I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

kalzumeus.com

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Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#191

Post by infinite8s »

tptacek wrote: post #189
owathray123 wrote: post #119

I for one am more than faintly relieved that Starfighter has fallen. It looked to me like an attempt to find the most direct way possible to parlay the prominent position that Thomas and Patrick have in this community into cash - by literally selling its members. There's a line that's crossed here between being a member of HN buoyed up by the good wishes and advice of your fellows, and using the community as a resour…

You'll be happy to know that me and my cofounders are still diligently at work finding new ways to convert HN karma to cold hard cash.

Does it involve a route through bitcoins? :)

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#193

Post by fecak »

Alex3917 wrote: post #154
tptacek wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It turns out --- I'm speaking for at least Erin and I, but I suspect to an extent Patrick too --- we don't have the stomach for the contingency recruiting model. Referring someone for an interview and watching them get turned down was, for me at least, about 80% of the psychic cost of applying myself and getting turned down. Fuck that. It's a job that is possible to do and possible to do well and my life is too short…

Given that you and Patrick have spent the last several years advocating billing by value instead of by time/skills, why did you decide to start a business trying to convince people that the best way to get paid more was by improving their tech skills? Granted learning stuff is often a good thing and there is clearly some connection between skills and value so I don't think there was anything wrong with the concept it…

The game wasn't at all about learning new skills or improving existing skills. It was a means to demonstrate existing skills, to Starfighter first and then to employers.

That's a fundamental difference.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#194

Post by ascorbic »

davidw wrote: post #41
chvid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark you log in using your national identity card (a card with some one-off passcodes) on the following webpage; limited liability companies carries a fee of approx 100 USD, other forms of companies are free. The process takes a few minutes in the simplest case: https://indberet.virk.dk/myndigheder/stat/ERST/Start_virksom...

It's not for nothing that .dk is #3 on this list: http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings But their reported procedures/costs differ from what you wrote: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/denmark/#... Something that's nice in the US as compared to most continental European countries is that no 'initial capital' is required.

UK it's £20, no capital needed, ten minute job online.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#196

Post by jakobegger »

chuamo wrote: post #188

Why would someone making 30k a week as a consultant take a job[1]? [1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/05/01/talking-about-money/

Maybe because

1) 30k contracts don't line up, and you never know when the next opportunity arrives; steady income may be preferable even if it is lower.

2) Money isn't everything. Working on interesting problems with interrsting people is a lot more fulfilling than doing boring work that pays well.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#197

Post by nialo »

eropple wrote: post #131
owathray123 wrote: post #119

I for one am more than faintly relieved that Starfighter has fallen. It looked to me like an attempt to find the most direct way possible to parlay the prominent position that Thomas and Patrick have in this community into cash - by literally selling its members. There's a line that's crossed here between being a member of HN buoyed up by the good wishes and advice of your fellows, and using the community as a resour…

I think this is super unfair. Connecting people with jobs isn't "selling them". I rip on recruiters a lot--probably more than most people--but a good recruiter, and I know a few of them (hat tip to Bivium here in Boston, among others), is looking for a win-win arrangement because they know they'll be working with you again down the line. Starfighter seemed like an attempt to be a good recruiter at scale. It didn't wo…

fwiw, Starfighter (probably mostly Erin/Thomas? hard to tell from the outside) got me a job that I love and certainly couldn't have gotten without them.

It sucks that the business didn't work out, but it certainly wasn't because candidates were somehow getting screwed by Starfighter.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#198

Post by davidw »

walterstucco wrote: post #190
davidw wrote: post #2

Sorry to hear about starfighter, but it looks like you've more than landed on your feet. Good luck! I think with a big company at your back, you may be able to leverage that to do some great things. People in the US have no idea how easy they have it with creating a company, something I helped to fix a little tiny bit in Italy: https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-litt... One of the key points: > A…

not anymore in Italy you can create a new type of company: S.r.l.s. (società a repsonsbailita limitata semplice) with only a few hundreds euros I'm italian and owner of an S.r.l.s.

Errrr, yes, that's what I helped create:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120831053519/http://www.govern...

It makes me very happy that it's working out for you!

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#199

Post by TulliusCicero »

fecak wrote: post #163
tptacek wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really interesting! Our experience was: we didn't need to do any outbound sales work at all (our entire client base was cold inbounds), and we could close a contract with 1-2 phone calls. Our referrals I think with 1 exception? all got interviews. But we're sourcing non-traditional candidates, and the --- you know what, I'm getting ahead of myself on a blog post I'm still tuning up. In any case, that might exp…

The outbound sourcing work is the worst part without doubt, but the game took care of that for you. That, and the fact that it was backed by people with good industry names, was the beauty of Starfighter. I told Patrick that you already had the two hardest parts covered - engaging with qualified candidates and establishing credibility. You also had cred with the hiring folks, so that was taken care of as well - hirin…

> If you ever want to discuss recruiting stuff, I'm easy to find.

Yeah you are. Do you use this same username everywhere?

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#200

Post by tptacek »

fecak wrote: post #193
Alex3917 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that you and Patrick have spent the last several years advocating billing by value instead of by time/skills, why did you decide to start a business trying to convince people that the best way to get paid more was by improving their tech skills? Granted learning stuff is often a good thing and there is clearly some connection between skills and value so I don't think there was anything wrong with the concept it…

The game wasn't at all about learning new skills or improving existing skills. It was a means to demonstrate existing skills, to Starfighter first and then to employers. That's a fundamental difference.

Actually: I'd like it to be more about learning new stuff, or at least learning that you're already good at new stuff.

What I want to find are people who are spooky good at specialized, high-status tech skills. HFT is like that. So is reversing. So are like 10 other specialties I can think of.

My thesis is that the training requirements for these things are way overblown.

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