You weren't meant to have a boss • Hacker News Board

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#201

Post by strey » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 10:06 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #64

JoeProgrammer wrote: post #62

Unfortunately, student loans constrain the freedom of action of many recent graduates. They have to have that income to make the payments, which can be quite high. This of course favors upper middle class people as young company founders.

Yes, that is a real problem. I thought of mentioning this in the essay. The problem is the same as with visas: the government's definition of work is a job working for someone else. I hope eventually they'll wise up and change the rules about student loans, because the intent of the rules about repayment is not simply to get the money back as soon as possible, but to discourage people from merely slacking after colle…

Could YC somehow register as the corporation the founders work for? Then they'd have a "regular" job for loan repayment.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#202

Post by cleyva » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 10:52 AM UTC

I love the analogy about lions in the wild. When you are living by your wits, there is a sense of "apprehension" (not sure I would call it fear) but that is where the adrenaline comes from and also the sense of freedom. You are (more or less) in control of your own destiny.

I am a veteran of the tech industry. Started a few companies and consulted for a twenty year period. I haven't had boss (the wife excluded) during the entire time except for a stint with Shell Oil out of school. Just recently graduated from law school (went back as an "old man") and am in the process of launching a "digital law practice" that feels in many ways like a tech startup. We are doing it completing "on the cloud" with virtual offices in a couple of states.It has gotten a lot easier (still not "easy") to do!

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#203

Post by marvin » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 11:22 AM UTC

LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #141

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…

My first major job out of school was with CitiBank. I hated the corporate culture there, and the immense inertia. When I left I had health insurance through the federal COBRA plan, but it cost me $400 monthly. I don't recall the deductible offhand. That was a double-whammy because not only did I no longer have the steady income from that job, but I now had an additional $400/mo expense. Fortunately I had some small s…

You should compare your health care expenses to what people in countries with state-paid health care pay. In Norway, the government or local government end up with about 60% (probably a bit more) of the money a regular employee earns. I think something in the realm of 10% of that money goes to health care (stitching together these numbers is a bit tricky, because our health care doesn't pay for exactly the same things your health insurance does)

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#204

Post by jmvdpol » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 11:49 AM UTC

"groups of 8 work well; by 20 they're getting hard to manage; and a group of 50 is really unwieldy."

Amen. I like to state here my 2nd law of corporate's immutable entropy: individual intelligence times somewhere between 50 to 150 leads to collective stupidity. It's a rather sharp s-curve, really.

Great stuff Mr. Graham, thanks. Jurgen

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#205

Post by matthewhurst » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 12:58 PM UTC

An interesting essay, but some misleading assumptions.Consider these points: Animal groups do have bosses and hierarchies; Society at large is required to be hierarchical in order to create enough cash to allow high risk ventures to fund your 'wild' or 'natural' programmers.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#206

Post by captainpotato » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 1:09 PM UTC

Damn you, Paul. You had to post this just as I was trying to make the decision whether to accept a relatively high-paying corporate job or keep struggling to "live the life" running my own business. I'd almost convinced myself to go back into the world of commuting, bosses, dark windowless cubicles, and soul-crushing boredom in exchange for certain financial stability.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#207

Post by chrisco » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 2:32 PM UTC

I made a similar point, albeit more briefly, in this post: "Pardon Me, But Would You Have Any Grey Poupon?": http://buzzpal.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/would-you-have-any-g...

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#208

Post by jpick » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 3:02 PM UTC

I'll have to ask my Birkenstock-wearing living-in-Berkeley friends what they eat now... :-)

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#209

Post by Tichy » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 3:03 PM UTC

optimal wrote: post #181

kingkongrevenge wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subsidies follow the disproportionate voting power and political influence of the relevant mid-west states, not the inherent marketability of corn. Veggies and nuts are mostly grown at massive industrial operations in California with desert sunshine and irrigation systems. It's definitely a scalable operation not much different from corn and soy. Not to nit-pick, but carrots keep really well even at room temperat…

Another related movie (was on Sundance this past weekend): http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm

I didn't like that one very much, it seemed rather one-sided.

For example, I thought it was bullshit to claim that Brazilian farmers are starving because other countries are buying all the soy beans. Clearly it is a political problem, otherwise Brazil would use the money it gets for the soy beans to buy other food for the farmers.

Re: You weren't meant to have a boss

#210

Post by ktundwal » Sat, Mar 22, 2008, 3:06 PM UTC

wonderful analysis...

I can so much relate to this one. I work for a medium size business (~500 employees). I have been termed cowboy, SWAT and such - it took me around 5-6 years to realize I am more of an entrepreneur than a big team player. I have an idea and I want to execute it to full extent.

Problem is, after all, software is for a business and to run a business you need non-technical business mind, one that understands customers, their needs, marketing, sales & support. Thus a need for that other half. I am still trying to find one :)

Kapil Tundwal http://ktundwal.blogspot.com