Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hire people who give a shit

alexw.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 342 posts

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#261

Post by rueynshard »

rushabh wrote: post #259

The amount of founder/CEO backlash on this thread is eye opening. The OP said many things, among which he talked about the effort required to put in to be a master in your craft. No one is forced to work for such a company. There are many low/mid paying comfortable jobs you can do that suit your personality. The reality is that drive and effort. How you redistribute rewards is another thing.

There are plenty of jobs that pay better and don't require you to devote your lives to the company (incidentally, one of them is mentioned in the article). If a firm wants people who are obsessed with work, then that's their choice. However, I hope they recognize that they would also drive away plenty of talent with better options, so it's up to them to weigh the trade offs.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#263

Post by rueynshard »

csdtx wrote: post #40

Is this that dude who made a company that rehires cheap labor in the third world for $5/day to help with classification while his team sits back and gets all the benefits? https://twitter.com/alexandr_wang/status/1332059634606112768 The guy wants his company to be more of a cult than a value producing service. Makes sense. People who care do put in more of their effort and get better results, but you have to give the…

Criticism of the company's product seems pretty tangential to the blog post. Either way, the value provided comes not from the labeling alone, but from the platform it provides to be able to do so. If it were so easy, why don't these labellers bypass Scale AI entirely and make more money themselves?

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#264

Post by peter_d_sherman »

>"o What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked on something?

o How many hours were you working a week?

o Why did you work so hard? Why did you care?

o When were you the most unmotivated in your life?

o What’s the thing you’re the most proud of?

o Do you think it was worth it?"

PDS: These are some great interview questions!

I would also add:

o Tell me what your future goals are?

o How do you think your future goals would/could relate to this company?"

o What do you think this company can do for you to help you achieve those goals?

o What do you think you can do for this company, to help us achieve our corporate goals?

Etc., etc. -- but the interviewer must first establish at least a little bit of trust, rapport, safety, etc., if they are to have any hope of an answer that contains a high percentage of candor, because after all, there is a potential job and there is a potential income at stake...

But, all in all, some great interview questions!

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#265

Post by dheera »

arp242 wrote: post #209
wbronitsky wrote: post #121

This article is megalomaniacal. Insisting that your company with 200+ employees will only hire people who will work themselves to the bone without any mention of how those people will be properly compensated is wild corporate propaganda. I honestly don’t know why the tech industry continues to capitulate to leaders like this who obviously, and loudly, mistreat and dehumanize their employees by insisting that if you a…

I think the way the author expands on it isn't too great, with questions like "How many hours were you working a week?" and "obsessed person". However, I do think there's sense in the general premise of "hire people who care about what they do", but this doesn't need to translate to "work your ass off". A lot of the time when I see people produce really crap code it's because they just don't care. They show up for wo…

Agreed. Not to mention expecting people to work 60+ hours a week is direct discrimination against people who give a shit about their {mental health, diet, cardiovascular health, family, friends}.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#266

Post by handoflixue »

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #264

>"o What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked on something? o How many hours were you working a week? o Why did you work so hard? Why did you care? o When were you the most unmotivated in your life? o What’s the thing you’re the most proud of? o Do you think it was worth it?" PDS: These are some great interview questions! I would also add: o Tell me what your future goals are? o How do you think your future goals would/c…

o What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked on something?

o How many hours were you working a week?

If your work environment is routinely 60+ hour weeks, that's probably a useful pair of questions. As an interviewee, I'd definitely be taking those as a red flag that you expect a lopsided work-life balance.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#267

Post by lotsofpulp »

preordained wrote: post #244
xwdv wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been shitting all over people like this for a long time and trying to get people to see the light that a job is a job and nothing more, but then I get blamed for having a “mercenary mentality” and “not a team player”. You are renting your skills to an entity that needs your skills for an agreed upon rate for a certain amount of time. If another employer offers you a better situation and your current employer d…

This seems logical, but I've yet to experience a software shop of any complexity where you can just plug people in and out with this mercenary approach. A year or two is when I notice people actually start adding significant value, and the really high value work when you get in tune with an organization's DNA maybe still years later. Companies need veterans. If it seems like someone can't even pretend to get invested…

> Companies need veterans.

They pay for mercenaries, they get mercenaries. Rarely do companies pay for veterans, at least not good ones.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#268

Post by wyclif »

dheera wrote: post #265
arp242 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the way the author expands on it isn't too great, with questions like "How many hours were you working a week?" and "obsessed person". However, I do think there's sense in the general premise of "hire people who care about what they do", but this doesn't need to translate to "work your ass off". A lot of the time when I see people produce really crap code it's because they just don't care. They show up for wo…

Agreed. Not to mention expecting people to work 60+ hours a week is direct discrimination against people who give a shit about their {mental health, diet, cardiovascular health, family, friends}.

A further problem for those of us who are adults with at least a decade or more of experience in this industry is that Wang is practically a child, and that means 100% certainty that he does not have the leadership experience to either convincingly swagger or lead a company. He needs to dial down the attitude on posts like this and learn from startup leaders who understand what success and healthy work/life balance looks like.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#270

Post by hibbelig »

austincheney wrote: post #223
wbronitsky wrote: post #121

This article is megalomaniacal. Insisting that your company with 200+ employees will only hire people who will work themselves to the bone without any mention of how those people will be properly compensated is wild corporate propaganda. I honestly don’t know why the tech industry continues to capitulate to leaders like this who obviously, and loudly, mistreat and dehumanize their employees by insisting that if you a…

I can empathize with the merits of this idea but I also agree that such cult worship of a business idea is absurd. There is a massive gap between the output of passionate people who go the extra mile to provide original solutions in the highest quality way versus people who watch the clock and press buttons on a keyboard. The biggest problem is how to achieve maximum talent. The solution is ownership and setting high…

What about those who are intrinsically motivated?
Post reply on HN