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

Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

web.archive.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 488 posts

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#461

Post by peyton »

xtracto wrote: post #266
peyton wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you’re describing is already standard practice. You have to shuffle option pools as you hire more people and raise more money.

No, when I was hired as a 1st engineer at a startup, I was given 2.5% of the shares. When we hired the next 10 people, the value/% of my shares did not get affected. So, I in a way I, as an IC with 2.5% of shares could push to hire more people to do more of the work I did without any negative direct impact to me (I know the impact comes as the company spends more money, has to raise more and then dilute the value of…

> Hey, do we REALLY need to hire this 11th person?

This conversation happens when fundraising. Usually the lead wants to see the option pool replenished at the same time.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#463

Post by spopejoy »

nebula8804 wrote: post #244
Thr0wawayDocs wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't know the half of it: I worked on Dalio's HR system, and what is really "interesting" is how the dots are put together. First off: All dots are public. You know who is grading you well, who is grading you badly, and who is liked and disliked by each executive and manager you want. Imagine giving Ray Dalio a low score in Critical Thinking, one of the many categories. It's not going to be easy. The dots are al…

Isn't Bridgewater a very high performing organization? How has the company not completely collapsed at this point? Or is there a ticking time bomb coming that will end up destroying Dalio's supposed "reputation for excellence"?

Calling any hedge fund "high performing" is pretty meaningless, as once they've figured out their core trade their main job is to 1) keep the core trade secret, 2) try to find some other bet, 3) try to trade bigger/faster/stronger, in that order.

They're just big poker players and so looking like they're the smartest in the room is part of the bluff. Secrecy is way more important but that doesn't require PhDs.

This is why they're so culty, use various personality tests in hiring, and things like the rube goldberg 360 rating disaster described above.

A simpler example is Jane Street who went hard into OCAML for no reason whatsoever that had to do with their bottom line but made them look "smart" while money machine goes brrr.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#464

Post by theklr »

aeternum wrote: post #456
Aeolun wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People can believe strongly in the vision and mission of a company while also feeling strongly that upper leadership is steering it in the wrong direction Clearly that is the case here. CEO really comes off as if he’s living in a fantasy world here. Which isn’t surprising given he started a crypto company.

This might be true if Coinbase had a super unique vision and mission. However there are now plenty of other crypto companies to join however.

but are they as stable as Coinbase and still hiring? For the most part Crypto/web 3 is in a hiring tundra outside of SecOps.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#465

Post by rahimiali »

blindmute wrote: post #432
hackernewds wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't. Brian is publicly declaring he will retaliate against whistleblowers.

You can't just leak anything you want and claim you're a whistleblower. Whistleblower protection is for leaking illegal actions, not for posting a petition that you don't like some executives.

You’re right. A whistleblower has to report illegal activity, and that’s not what the petition does. My phrasing is bad.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#466

Post by the_biot »

jjulius wrote: post #285
barmstrong wrote: post #271

Responded here https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/15353049437284147...

>Second, if you have no confidence in the execs or CEO of a company then why are you working at that company? Quit and find a company to work at that you believe in! This comment is really, really tone-deaf. People can believe strongly in the vision and mission of a company while also feeling strongly that upper leadership is steering it in the wrong direction and/or making decisions that negatively impact the compan…

That argument really falls flat when you realize that this guy is the co-founder and CEO, i.e. he was already there and in charge when these people decided to join him.

If you don't like a company's leadership, obviously don't go work there. If you do, then decide you don't like them, obviously you quit. A 5-year old could understand that. Though it's beyond the anarchist collective on HN, apparently.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#467

Post by doktorhladnjak »

d4rkp4ttern wrote: post #101
nowherebeen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> include values like positive energy There is so many things wrong with a system like this. It's asking coworkers to rat on each other. This is dystopian.

Right. I’m reminded of Travis Kalanick’s “super pumped” metric at Uber. And of course that Black Mirror episode. Constantly evince a super positive energy or else.

There was no "superpumped" metric. It was one of their Amazon-style leadership principles.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#468

Post by doktorhladnjak »

native_samples wrote: post #364
antonvs wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of company was this? I do contracting and have worked a lot of places, big and small, but have never seen anything remotely like this. Perhaps it's a matter of perspective? Would you say e.g. James Damore was "cancelled", rather than being fired for discriminatory statements that an NLRB lawyer described as "so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected"?

Damore was cancelled and a woke NLRB lawyer making things up to ensure his cancellation stuck doesn't mean anything beyond the NLRB being just one more corrupted organization on top of so many others. Obviously, if you think Damore is actually a terrible person then you're a part of the problem, and not going to perceive anything as woke regardless of how many other people find it crazy.

Damore was canned by Google for exactly one reason: he had become a liability to the company. If he became a manager with a report who was a woman, or even worked on a team with women, any negative feedback would be suspect. He had literally written a treatise stating that women were not as predisposed to working in tech as men. Any woman could challenge him as biased. And Google would have to deal with the fallout of that, which would be a huge time sink and PR disaster for them.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#469

Post by leaflets2 »

shanusmagnus wrote: post #249
tzs wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had something like that at one of my jobs. The most senior engineers there were myself and the founder, and everyone else was either fresh out of college or fresh out of high school. The founder had to spend a lot of time on business stuff so most of the things that required a senior engineer were done by me. Most of what we did was Windows and Mac utility software, usually difficult or tricky stuff that messed he…

This is a fantastic example in how incentive design can go awry! Would love to hear any other stories like this one (from you or anyone) to learn from.

Me too

Learning through others' mistakes instead of ones own :-)

Also, interesting to read

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#470

Post by leaflets2 »

Thr0wawayDocs wrote: post #235
fathyb wrote: post #10

Initiatives like the Dot Collector and the Performance review system that has led to a toxic workplace culture I was curious about that "Dot Collector": Dot collector was an application invented by Ray Dalio’s hedge fund and Bridgewater Associates. The application has set its foot in Coinbase since the start of the year and has been in use by the HR and IT teams of the company. The user interface of the app is quite…

You don't know the half of it: I worked on Dalio's HR system, and what is really "interesting" is how the dots are put together. First off: All dots are public. You know who is grading you well, who is grading you badly, and who is liked and disliked by each executive and manager you want. Imagine giving Ray Dalio a low score in Critical Thinking, one of the many categories. It's not going to be easy. The dots are al…

> look at the baseball card of someone you have to meet with, but you don't work close to, and act accordingly

I don't understand -- what should I look for, how should I act (and why)?

(I've never been in such an environment)

Interesting to read about their system!

Post reply on HN