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Is my advice too mercenary?

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Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#301

Post by dlp211 »

nmhancoc wrote: post #211
dlp211 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating things like physical infrastructure and defense contracts with welfare. The welfare that we do give, for the most part, is exceptionally well run and effective.

Why do you think this? Do you count social security as a welfare program and if so would you consider it exceptionally well run and effective?

Because giving individuals money, targeted or otherwise, is given/spent to enhance an individual or families life in some way. It is a direct benefit to them.

And yes, SS is absolutely welfare and it is extremely effective. It reduces the poverty rate of the elderly by nearly 30%. It also reduces, directly and indirectly, child and young adult poverty by meaningful amounts as well, 1.5% and 3% respectively.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#302

Post by tonyedgecombe »

spacechild1 wrote: post #243
beepbooptheory wrote: post #163

Small aside, reading all these conversations: I just think a lot of static gets injected into these discussions about wage/employers/comp on HN because a large majority of the commenters here are either currently business owners, or founders, or trying to be either of those. But there is also a huge contingent of people who do regular waged labor here, whether FAANG or freelance. Beyond any political differences, I t…

> a large majority of the commenters here are either currently business owners, or founders, or trying to be either of those I'm pretty sure they are really a minority.

I would guess slightly higher than the general population but still not a huge number.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#303

Post by tonyedgecombe »

jseban wrote: post #222
idiotsecant wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you should probably tell that to the entire rest of the civilized world where state insurance seems to work quite well.

In Germany, health insurance is also tied to your employer. If you're a freelancer in Germany you pay out of your own pocket every month (around 500 bucks). It's a very similar system, the real difference is that it's illegal to not have insurance, so you are "forced" to always be insured, and unemployment support is more generous.

>so you are "forced" to always be insured

This sounds more like a hypothecated tax.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#304

Post by tonyedgecombe »

_aavaa_ wrote: post #151
randrews wrote: post #63

One of the wisest pieces of career advice I ever heard was "you cannot change an organization by leaving it." It works both ways: if you're leaving in hopes that it'll be a wake-up call to management that a valuable person left, then it probably won't be. And, if you leave your workplace to improve your own life, you've also necessarily chosen not to try and improve the workplace. Leaving means giving up on trying to…

Depends on the scenario. I know personally of several examples where key people who had little say in a company, but were key technical roles, simply resigned. Resigned publicly, and drained other talent with them. First it was the better talent who had the most options, and then it was everyone else, like rats off a sinking ship. This reminds me of Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert Hirshchman [0]. The gist is that…

This seems common in takeovers. I've seen it twice. In both cases the new management came in and said how surprised they were at the quality of their staff. Within two months all the management had gone. They were quickly followed by the technical staff.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#305

Post by tonyedgecombe »

bin_bash wrote: post #172
sgustard wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For much of the past century, the best career advice in the world was: go to IBM, General Motors, General Electric. Climb the ladder for a few decades, get a pension, retire at the top 1% of the income pyramid. That worked great until it didn't, and millions of people got left with no savings or useful job skills. Today's world offers so many more paths for talented builders, beyond joining the currently hot company…

I’ve published 2 books, created a significant open source project, and was staff engineer at a Fortune 50 company. Was reasonably well known as a blogger and speaker in the JS community too. (I’ve given up on OSS since FAANG) But you know how I’ll be introduced? They’ll say I was “ex-FAANG”. None of that other stuff matters in comparison. I’m not at all saying it’s the only path, I’m saying it’s the best and certainl…

I'm not sure. I suspect the gloss of working at a FAANG is starting to look a bit tarnished. Just because they employee so many people now.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#306

Post by lovich »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #296
lovich wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It isn't like people were relying on business then business owners got greedy. Do you actually believe that? That all these business owners were running their factories out of the goodness of their hearts and that they only stopped because the government took all the money they had to give out as charity? If that is the case why do we see ultra profitable businesses returning to this form instead of trying to carve…

Being charitable / good to employees is good for business and for retaining workforce in a world where employees don't have anyone else to care for them. If I need to give 40% of my profits (and your salary) to the government and there is an avenue for getting some of that money back when you're in trouble, then go and ask for the government for help. The mistake is in allowing the government to gather more resources…

> Welfare also destroyed the family unit (especially in the black community).

All I needed to read to dismiss this

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#307

Post by tonyedgecombe »

wnolens wrote: post #143

If you don't like something about your job/org, speak up and let management know. If nothing happens, try to spearhead some change. It's your job! Sometimes the lower levels can see value that upper levels can't. If you can't change it, cope. If you can't cope, then leave. Anything you want to say in an exit interview, you should have spoken up about already in step 1. If there's something you haven't spoken up about…

>It's your job!

It rarely is. Not only that but it isn't wanted most of the time.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#308

Post by tonyedgecombe »

arghnoname wrote: post #58
dvtrn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm constantly barraged with acceptance training, "human connection" training and calls where the expectation is to "share and connect" by telling the group something personal We had a "leadership training" thing a few weeks back where one of the segments involved a breakout session with a random coworker who you may or may not already know, with the expectation that you share something deep and revealing you've neve…

I know someone who had a similar event happen in training, except the deep and dark secrets were meant to be shared among a group of six or seven. People shared actual deep and dark secrets; crying was involved. My friend who told me about this was deeply uncomfortable with the whole affair and found it bizarre and cultish, but of course, they went along with it and made up some semi-plausible thing to be a "team pla…

Why wouldn't the sociopath in the group file all this information away to use against people later. I think I'd just refuse to take part.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#310

Post by spacemanmatt »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #296
lovich wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It isn't like people were relying on business then business owners got greedy. Do you actually believe that? That all these business owners were running their factories out of the goodness of their hearts and that they only stopped because the government took all the money they had to give out as charity? If that is the case why do we see ultra profitable businesses returning to this form instead of trying to carve…

Being charitable / good to employees is good for business and for retaining workforce in a world where employees don't have anyone else to care for them. If I need to give 40% of my profits (and your salary) to the government and there is an avenue for getting some of that money back when you're in trouble, then go and ask for the government for help. The mistake is in allowing the government to gather more resources…

Can't even take seriously a comment which refers to elected leaders as "elites" and that's against my very harsh criticism of the voting restrictions and average voter apathy here.
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