Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already • Hacker News Board

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#501

Post by dang » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

patientplatypus wrote: post #333

extra88 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the reason that all the students go to university is to make money. Like 90%+ of undergrads go there to make money Which is it, "all" or "90%?" I went to a private liberal arts college so maybe that automatically puts me and my classmates in the 10% but I did not think the overwhelming majority of us were there to make money. The fact that lots of students still major in subjects that can be very worthwhile and val…

> the reason that all the students go to university is to make money. Like 90%+ of undergrads go there to make money Which is it, "all" or "90%?" Ok come on man. I said 90%+. Don't quibble just to be a prick.

If you can't stick to posting civil, substantive comments, we're going to have to ban you. Nitpicking is annoying but it doesn't give license to damage the site in your own right.

Would you mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html and abiding by the desired spirit when posting here?

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#502

Post by thecrazyone » Tue, Dec 05, 2017, 1:32 PM UTC

vm wrote: post #184

simonbyrne wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it isn't in your creditor's interest that you go bankrupt either.

Bankruptcy can definitely be in the creditor's interest. It can take possession of the company's assets, and then sell them off to recover principal (in addition to many other outcomes - bankruptcy is complicated). Debt incentives do not align with equity.

I don't equity investments align in interest either - among Founders, angels, VCs, PEs and public shares.

There's enough material to backup the struggle between any of these entities

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#503

Post by softawre » Tue, Dec 05, 2017, 5:39 PM UTC

_wp3r wrote: post #424

blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

It would rarely be effective to market yourself as a generalist on paper. If you have 3 primary skill sets you should have 3 focused resumes. If you want a position that requires a generalist, the only/best fit would be founder. In almost all other circumstances, companies hire for a problem and not general optimizations. Even if they need a generalist. I would posit that you have a marketing problem and not a skills…

A team lead position on a team that has autonomy is also a good place to be as a generalist. It's where I see myself providing the most value to my company. I've had some opportunities to move up to Director+ but blegh.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#504

Post by softawre » Tue, Dec 05, 2017, 5:46 PM UTC

rocqua wrote: post #279

majormajor wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I crazy to think that generalists are the best-suited engineers to making the managerial move? You can keep a good broad knowledge base sufficient to be useful in early directional discussions, and sufficient to sniff out a lot of (not all) BS artists and identify which specialists to listen to/loop in, in less time than it would take a specialist to do the same in terms of juggling things across team, due to the…

Being a tech generalist is a great background for a manager. But there are some caveats. Firstly, besides understanding the work, a manager also has to be able to actually manage subordinates. This is orthogonal to technical ability. Secondly, internal promotion of a generalist carries risk of that generalist being too opinionated based on his own work. They are much more likely to be a conservative force. This might…

Great comment. I found these problems in myself as I transitioned into management years ago. I was blocking good changes...

These days I try to just be a tie-breaker for the team, instead of laying out the plan and looking for "feedback".

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#505

Post by kod » Tue, Dec 05, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC

acoard wrote: post #500

kod wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law schools (or at least the top 20 school that I went to) are definitely not 100% focused on teaching you the vocation of being an attorney. Hell, they aren't even focused on teaching you to pass the bar, which is why most people pay for separate cram schools.

Yet, going to law school is a pre-requisite for becoming the vocation of a lawyer. Arguably, "a school one must go to in order to practice a vocation" can be referred to as a "vocational school." I understand that vocational schools are often thought to be purely practical and not theoretical, but I think this definition does a disservice to the reality of entering certain vocations.

No, it is not a pre-requisite. At least in the U.S., several states still allow you to pass the bar and become a licensed attorney without going to law school.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#506

Post by pc86 » Fri, Dec 08, 2017, 2:57 PM UTC

vm wrote: post #38

drewrv wrote: post #8

> Everyone in Silicon Valley uses equity, and not debt, to fuel their growth because debt is not available in sufficient quantities to poorly capitalized companies without a strong history of adequate cash flows to service debt. A corollary to this is that if you're fundraising and can get debt, you should take it over equity almost every time. Many founders are skeptical of debt because everyone takes equity, yet ev…

No no no. Debt is not universally better. Debt can wipe out companies. It requires payments that equity does not. Miss one payment and you're in default. It's extremely risky for companies that are young and volatile. Debt vs. equity is always a case-by-case situation. Debt is cheaper but comes with strings attached. Equity is pricey but more flexible.

> Miss one payment and you're in default.

I mean this is just factually wrong. Sure you'll rack up fees, it gets expensive quick, and there's generally no good reason to do it, but you're not in default until you're in default - and missing 1 payment is not going to do that.