21–30 of 31 posts
Direction is more important than speed. If you are running in the wrong direction it doesn't matter how fast, or if you come in on the weekend. If you are headed in the rigt direction then speed and velocity can be important. It's easy to want to believe that success is repeatable and due to an observable formula...
Marissa was paid big $, I understand she needed to work hard for that money but everyone else, what reason did they have 20 hour days?
I kinda get what she is saying. It takes a certain amount of passion and dedication for someone to show up on weekends. They must truly believe in the company or the idea to put in that type of effort. This dedication and passion will also reflect itself in the product. Many people can make a mediocre product by putting in the minimum amount required, but for something outstanding it usually takes more. Much more. Wh…
I have had co-workers who practically lived in the office. Every time something urgent came up they would volunteer to work the weekends and late nights. Surprisingly the same guys were also known among the developers as people who got the least amount of work done. And while the management was initially impressed with their hard work and "commitment", every single one of them was let go in the very first rounds of lay offs.
I kinda get what she is saying. It takes a certain amount of passion and dedication for someone to show up on weekends. They must truly believe in the company or the idea to put in that type of effort. This dedication and passion will also reflect itself in the product. Many people can make a mediocre product by putting in the minimum amount required, but for something outstanding it usually takes more. Much more. Wh…
That is just a fantasy, Reza and Marissa live in a fairy tale where working long hours equals passion. It doesn't. I have had co-workers who practically lived in the office. Every time something urgent came up they would volunteer to work the weekends and late nights. Surprisingly the same guys were also known among the developers as people who got the least amount of work done. And while the management was initially…
But the opposite does not apply. When management expects you to work long hour you will not become more passionate about your work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know? I mean, how do you test for false negatives in the hiring process? Perhaps you're rejecting lots of people without side projects, but they go on to be successful anyway?
Sure, I mean I didn't say I actually use this test to make hiring decisions. I can just directly test lots of things like ability to code or problem solve (not perfectly for sure, but I do my best to evaluate directly the skills that can be evaluated directly). I am just making the point that there are often very highly correlated attributes that people can have, and one that is easy to test for can give you a lot of…
- If you really meant you can get 95% precision in hiring from the answer to one question, I believe you only if you're super-conservative in hiring (i.e. will reject unless you're super-confident). In this case, your recall and false negatives is also going to be really high, so your single-question test isn't really helpful.
- If you actually meant 95% accuracy (i.e. precision in the everyday sense, not the math sense), then I don't believe you, because you probably can't estimate your accuracy, unless you also hire some people who fail the interview process.
There are awesome programmers and technical leads who don't have side projects just because they are so focused on their work and being a good parent.
I'm probably over-analysing your original statement, so I'll stop here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what do you do when people work until 11pm every night and keep showing up on Saturday? Tell them to go home? There are teams where people are having more fun 'kicking ass' and getting things done, and have a great time with the people they are there doing it with, and frankly they would laugh you out of the building (literally) if you even for one second referred to them as 'resources'. I have seen people wander…
You're assuming the parent advocates discouraging passionate team members which isn't fair. "Resources" and "resourcing" are pretty standard terms esp. in the agency space and with companies using contractors as an example. Not sure why you take so much offense. Perhaps you are referring to co-founders or equity owners that would laugh one out of the building? The notion that everyone has to grind on weekends to buil…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, I mean I didn't say I actually use this test to make hiring decisions. I can just directly test lots of things like ability to code or problem solve (not perfectly for sure, but I do my best to evaluate directly the skills that can be evaluated directly). I am just making the point that there are often very highly correlated attributes that people can have, and one that is easy to test for can give you a lot of…
I agree their might be some correlation. What I'm saying is: - If you really meant you can get 95% precision in hiring from the answer to one question, I believe you only if you're super-conservative in hiring (i.e. will reject unless you're super-confident). In this case, your recall and false negatives is also going to be really high, so your single-question test isn't really helpful. - If you actually meant 95% ac…