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My Time Working at Stripe

jondlm.github.io

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Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#351

Post by astrange »

snozolli wrote: post #325

She, and apparently others she gathered feedback from, felt like I hadn’t done a good enough job pulling other engineers into the project. She spoke of how proud she was of the outcome but that it didn’t excuse my less than ideal methods. I gather from what he wrote that he's a software engineer. How is it his duty to "pull other engineers into the project"? What does management at this company do, besides invent con…

Two reasons:

* it depends if the "other engineers" are on the same team or not. If they're a different team, it's not so much a manager responsibility.

* in tech, it helps to already be doing the next job level up to get promoted to it.

> What does management at this company do, besides invent contrived criticism to mash into a compliment sandwich?

The primary job of a manager is to get their employees promoted. The second job is to do whatever you promised your own management you'll do. So yes, that's what they're supposed to do - the "compliment sandwich" is the yearly performance review.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#352

Post by astrange »

onetokeoverthe wrote: post #344
snapcaster wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in my experience stripe's software is great, and their documentation is top notch. What is your problem with the product?

I￶t's not a personal "me or your" problem. It's "macro, structural". Prohibited Businesses￶: By registering for Stripe, you are confirming that you will not use the Service to accept payments in connection with the following businesses, business activities or business practices: (1) door-to-door sales, (2) offering substantial rebates or special incentives to the Cardholder subsequent to the original purchase, (3) ne…

It's because they support credit cards, which have easy chargebacks. If you can get customers to pay via bank transfer/FedNow they could allow a lot more scummy sounding businesses.

Of course then the customers are going to get scammed or killed a lot more and will sue Stripe!

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#353

Post by charlie0 »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #160
Aeolun wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is true, I find myself depressed by the idea of exchanging coding for herding everyone in the right direction. I’ve been trying to make that switch as it’s the only career prospect I have, but…

I’m in early 40s and going thru a minor midlife crisis around this. Feeling that I’d wasted time in my 20s building technical prowess only to see myself still be viewed as mostly fungible. I think my future is moving towards consulting and building my own products. If people want to fight each other to get a seat at the table, be my guest. I see it as a waste of life. I can already build significant projects on my ow…

Don't feel bad about the technical prowess part. Just consider you are "done" with growing the tech skills and start stacking other skills on top and you'll do great.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#354

Post by astrange »

snapcaster wrote: post #323
thecleaner wrote: post #208

I kinda applaud OP for sharing their personal story. However, I personally never understood why people give a shit about objectives which aren't tied to business objectives. I mean the build improvement of 10x is great, but so what ? Also, Stripe is barely profitable. As an engineer in big tech, I wouldn't even consider applying. You're better off targeting Principal engineer at Big Tech since it implies doing some r…

I'm glad someone else mentioned this, i think too often engineers think they've done something huge because it was technically challenging but how does any of this impact the business? why would speeding up dashboard builds by 10x matter at all?

Focusing on things often causes you to get worse at them, so businesses intentionally keep most employees away from profit or from thinking about it. In ZIRP land this might be because they're banking tech workers so they won't start their own startup, or in case someone comes up with a better thing for them to do.

Instead you do artificial projects and it either impresses people enough to get you a good performance review or it doesn't.

This often produces customer surplus (like when companies release cool open source projects they didn't need to write) so it's a good thing, maybe.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#355

Post by onetokeoverthe »

astrange wrote: post #352
onetokeoverthe wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I￶t's not a personal "me or your" problem. It's "macro, structural". Prohibited Businesses￶: By registering for Stripe, you are confirming that you will not use the Service to accept payments in connection with the following businesses, business activities or business practices: (1) door-to-door sales, (2) offering substantial rebates or special incentives to the Cardholder subsequent to the original purchase, (3) ne…

It's because they support credit cards, which have easy chargebacks. If you can get customers to pay via bank transfer/FedNow they could allow a lot more scummy sounding businesses. Of course then the customers are going to get scammed or killed a lot more and will sue Stripe!

Beyond technical aspects I don't see the added value. In fact gumroad kept some earnings because when it came time for payout I had to (re￶)qualify under stripe's terms. Who was the scammer in that siuation? I'd say gumroad was.

I've processed with added value high risk processor platforms who'll handle hair extension transactions. For 15%. All it required technically was an html widget link.

That processor also used to not require the annual mcvisa fee. Amazing loophole lasted for a decade. They do require the fee now. Progress.

As for the main topic of touchy feely confessions that is 100% directly out of the communist struggle session playbook.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#356

Post by cutemonster »

captnObvious wrote: post #156
dymk wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were my boss and did this I'd be going to my skip manager to complain.

It sounded like an optional request not a command. I’ve managed and I’ve been managed and the relationship ships I’ve built along the way are deep enough to have conversations like these. We’re doing life with this people it’s not a dystopian novel about capitalism. If you have a genuine person as your boss moments like these help form friendships, and don’t feel like a dark Dilbert comic. Friendships increase team c…

> Friendships increase team communicability which bolster project success.

I've read that, too, e.g. something from Google about psychological safety.

It seems to me that these "be 10% more vulnerable" increases safety / friendship for some people,

but decreases it for others who don't want to share anything.

Maybe there's better ways to go about increasing psychological safety ... For example, about Psychological Safety on Wikipedia:

> Two aspects of leadership have been shown to be particularly instrumental in creating a psychologically safe team. They are leaders using:

> Participatory management > Inclusive management

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_safety

Here's a nice comment (in this discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42026278

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#357

Post by cutemonster »

whutmuffin wrote: post #247
Nashooo wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is this ever providing someone with 'ammunition' and how is this self-sabotage? What are you afraid someone would do with this kind of information? Reading this comment and others feels like people have read a bit too much Sun Tzu and are treating what could be collegiality as warfare.

Maybe you’ve never worked at a company like this. Did you not see the note about his perf review, which had nothing to do with his performance (the actual outcome) but instead had random negative feedback? Like not involving coworkers enough? What if your “confession” indicated that you have a hard time opening up and involving others? Couching your feedback in a personal insecurity makes it far less likely it will b…

> random negative feedback? Like not involving coworkers enough?

You got the order of events wrong. That was with the first manager, before the "10% more vulnerable" meeting. (Not saying it's a good idea though.) (Or did you mean sth else?)

From the article:

> I told my team I was struggling with depression and took some time off. ...

> My team was extremely supportive.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#358

Post by cutemonster »

kyleee wrote: post #216
baxtr wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is - and the post actually showcases this - that "10% more vulnerable" is super abstract. What does that even mean? Seems like it triggers people to share very deep stuff.

People are very weird. 10% more vulnerable to me would be a story about “I’m not very good at painting but I like it” or “I have 6 toes on my left foot”. As opposed to divorce, bipolar, etc.

It means that everyone shares 10% of their mental illnesses

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#359

Post by dartos »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #345
ValentinA23 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it could be problematic ?

Future employers may consider your HN history before they hire you, or even fire you if they discovered criticism of past employers.

I’ve never heard of this.

Very creepy

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#360

Post by wiseowise »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #345
ValentinA23 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it could be problematic ?

Future employers may consider your HN history before they hire you, or even fire you if they discovered criticism of past employers.

That’s why you never use your real name online, unless you want to be identified.
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