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

I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

marcgayle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 115 posts

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#31

Post by heliodor »

maxklein wrote: post #2

But he's very successful. Who's viewpoint are we supposed to champion here - the employee or the employer? Should we not be happy when an employer is successful and can get a lot from his employees with minimal expense? Does the process of building a startup not put us squarely in the side of the employer?

in my mind, success is not primarily measured in money. happiness is much more important. it's a broader representation of life's needs, including money. also, success is not a zero-sum game. on the contrary, a lot of the more successful startups treat their employees better than average.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#32

Post by marcamillion »

verysimple wrote: post #30

You clearly aren't knocking him. lol.

The truth is, I didn't intend to.

But the more I thought about him, and wrote the post and started commenting here...the more difficult it is for me to find something positive to say.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#33

Post by alain94040 »

I flagged this post because it provides no information. If you were an ex-employee of Jason, then your viewpoint could be interesting.

As it is, this is an attack based on a video interview. You have never even met the person and have zero first-hand knowledge.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#34

Post by uurayan »

The irony of this post is that Jason would most definitely not want you in his company.

In a startup, which his companies are, there really is no room for people want normal jobs and want to work normal hours. Startup life is a very fast paced constant swim upstream. You're trying to cram years worth of work into months to create enormous value as quickly as possible. ALL startups want "rockstar" employees as they help this process exponentially. What he's stating is not really anything different than any other start up founder would say he/she wants, its just he says it in a very inflammatory way.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#35

Post by strlen »

dasil003 wrote: post #16

Neither would I, but does that mean he has a hiring problem? His advice is not necessarily bad advice for a business. Granted, he'll never create a great product, but neither will most businesses. If he can drive people to turn a profit that way, then he'll be doing better than most entrepreneurs. Wanting people who are willing to work 80 hours a week is probably one of the less ethically questionable things in his b…

False dichotomy: either it's working eighty hours a week or working nine to five.

It's true that employees in a startup should be flexible: being willing to work late some days, work from home in an emergency, travel with a laptop (in return, startups are also more flexible: no one cares that you're not in your desk at 0930 or if you're working from home or a cafe).

However, eighty hour weeks usually happen for very specific reasons and are followed by less intense periods: it's not a generally applicable way of doing more with less. If you want to do more with less, hire better people (who frequently have other options available to them and won't work on a team that demands eight hour weeks as a matter of routine).

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#36

Post by hugh3 »

roschdal wrote: post #27

Q: "How would you describe your management style, because you have a pretty unique management style?" Jason Calacanis: "Yeah, I would say I like people to be able to keep up with me. Uuuhm. And I don't get tired - I have only experienced being tired a couple of times in my life, it's typically from running the marathon and so I need people who are indefatigable, people who have pretty high stamina. I need people who…

Wow. Okay. I've read people complaining about this Calcanis guy a whole lot and never understood why. To me it was just a name, I never really knew precisely what he had done or what he was doing now, and I'm still not sure what this Mahalo thing does if it's not a shoe company.

Anyway, now I understand. He's a jerk. Not some kind of unique and interesting jerk, fascinating in his jerkiness, but just a regular garden-variety jerk. I know those guys. They exist all over academia.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#37

Post by verysimple »

roschdal wrote: post #27

Q: "How would you describe your management style, because you have a pretty unique management style?" Jason Calacanis: "Yeah, I would say I like people to be able to keep up with me. Uuuhm. And I don't get tired - I have only experienced being tired a couple of times in my life, it's typically from running the marathon and so I need people who are indefatigable, people who have pretty high stamina. I need people who…

I can very well imagine Calacanis in the shores of Africa 400 years ago giving the same speech.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#38

Post by iamgoat »

uurayan wrote: post #34

The irony of this post is that Jason would most definitely not want you in his company. In a startup, which his companies are, there really is no room for people want normal jobs and want to work normal hours. Startup life is a very fast paced constant swim upstream. You're trying to cram years worth of work into months to create enormous value as quickly as possible. ALL startups want "rockstar" employees as they he…

His company is over 3 years old. It is no longer a startup.

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#39

Post by mh_ »

roschdal wrote: post #27

Q: "How would you describe your management style, because you have a pretty unique management style?" Jason Calacanis: "Yeah, I would say I like people to be able to keep up with me. Uuuhm. And I don't get tired - I have only experienced being tired a couple of times in my life, it's typically from running the marathon and so I need people who are indefatigable, people who have pretty high stamina. I need people who…

I know it's fashionable to hate Calacanis, but must confess to not finding too much wrong with the paragraph. I have worked with quite a few people who wondered "is my name in lights yet?", while wanting work/life balance at the same time. My personal thought on it was: "we are trying to make a dent in the world, and it takes something extra, and you have to really want it, cause it's hard (and tiring), and if you would rather have work/life balance now, then maybe another job would be better".

Re: I would never work for Jason Calacanis - There, I said it

#40

Post by alnayyir »

marcamillion wrote: post #29
praptak wrote: post #3

Also, sky is blue. Check http://www.bnet.com/blog/entry-level/jason-calacanis-gen-y-j... Says Calacanis: "... the majority of Gen Y seem to operating under the bizarre rallying cry of: More money! Less responsibility! Shorter hours! No stress! More freedom! It’s all about me!" Yeah, shame on the employees for wanting better job conditions and admitting they actually care about own interest.

Jason wonders why people 'job hop' at Mahalo. Are you kidding me right now?

Oh man, don't get me started on that job-hoppers fiasco from a couple/few months ago.

That thread put people into hysterics.

You had people rallying behind the opposing flags of "work like damn dirty apes and love us for it!" and "we want our paternity leave and paid vacation!".

Blood was spilt. :(

Post reply on HN