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I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

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Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#71

Post by uptime »

I met Heifermann once during a project and I thought he was a grounded person. I remember one thing he did was paying not for ad slots, but to change your background to a dalmation spotted print for a promotion, with a link. This was long before CSS, etc.

He made his money just when the idea of value being divorced from real product to virtual metrics, “chasing eyeballs,” etc. was getting hot. The days when you sold a huge contract by showing a CD ROM of the website you were never going to achieve, to a client who had no idea what they were buying.

This guy was much more honest than the norm. The McD and meetup stuff reflects the fact that he kept people in the equation.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#72

Post by sandspar »

tennisflyi wrote: post #70
dylan604 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is working the counter at McDs something you add to a LinkedIn profile? Do people moving from the counter at McDs to BurgerKing use LinkedIn?

Such a classist comment

Guy who makes $200,000 a year is aghast that some people actually work at McDonald's

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#73

Post by sandspar »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #18
karaterobot wrote: post #5

If his timeline and application are true, he was technically still the chairman of his company while working at McDonald's, if in name only. > 10/99-10/01: chairman, i-traffic (an agency.com company) > 10/00-10/00: counterperson, mcdonald's (4th & broadway, nyc) I sometimes think about going back to work at food service jobs after I retire, just to keep busy. I enjoyed those jobs as a high school and college student,…

> he was technically still the chairman of his company while working at McDonald's, if in name only. He discusses this in the blog post: > in my interview, the manager (ralph) asked if i can handle a fast-paced, intense environment. i said yes. he looked at my resume and asked about my current part-time job as chairman at i-traffic. i said, "it's an internet thing." he said "ok" and then asked me for my waist size.

Did he really use lowercase? The status-seeking, high status lowercase mixed with the "outside looking in" account of working class people written for the benefit of other rich high status people, Jesus.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#75

Post by xeromal »

sandspar wrote: post #73
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he was technically still the chairman of his company while working at McDonald's, if in name only. He discusses this in the blog post: > in my interview, the manager (ralph) asked if i can handle a fast-paced, intense environment. i said yes. he looked at my resume and asked about my current part-time job as chairman at i-traffic. i said, "it's an internet thing." he said "ok" and then asked me for my waist size.

Did he really use lowercase? The status-seeking, high status lowercase mixed with the "outside looking in" account of working class people written for the benefit of other rich high status people, Jesus.

His whole site uses lower case. Seems like a stylistic choice. Check it ou

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#76

Post by _xiaz »

sandspar wrote: post #72
tennisflyi wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a classist comment

Guy who makes $200,000 a year is aghast that some people actually work at McDonald's

In our little IT bubble where 3+ interviews are the norm, it's fine to envy the straightforward hiring in food-service.

Ofc we still got the better deal overall and should only complain in hush tones

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#77

Post by reaperman »

swozey wrote: post #41
bogota wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still live in denver but in the very outer burbs. I moved from market st about a year ago and it is so much better out here. Denver needs to gets its downtown under control. I used to love nightlife and going out to bars but after 2023 when places were all open again I never went out again as it didn’t feel safe after 9pm. Really hoping they turn it around.

This isn't a $XCityBad thing. It's happened to drunk crowds everywhere and is completely irrelevant to location or whether you're even downtown. I guarantee the two step bars in the burbs are filled with drunk drama too nowadays. I was in Austin, Tampa, Dallas, Houston and Denver over the last decade and go to a few of them yearly. Denver is far away the safest out of those and I'm glad to be here. I live in 5 points…

I live in one of the cities you mentioned. I think part of the problem is that many of the “fun” areas have become expensive and bring a different crowd, or people feel entitled to a certain experience because of the prices they’re paying.

The bars that still have $2-3 drinks (yes, these exist!) still have a wonderful, self-policing crowd. I also used to bartend in the same time range as you, at the equivalent of a 6th street bar.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#78

Post by klyrs »

oceanplexian wrote: post #68
SoftTalker wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that explains why he felt nobody appreciated his efforts. The first few weeks at a job like that you are pretty much just in the way. It takes some time to learn the routines and operate the equipment so you can work quickly without thinking.

Agree that’s kind of *^%% move, I’d have too much self respect to start working somewhere for a few weeks than bail. Doesn’t matter if it’s a food service job or a FAANG. McDonalds was doing him a solid by offering some kind of employment for a person presumably down on their luck with zero experience. Hiring people is a huge expense and risk even for a small franchise.

I dunno. Sounds like you've never bitten off more than you can chew. I have found myself in a situation before, where my continued participation would be an immediate low-grade harm and my rate of improvement was slow because I had volunteered for something well out of my wheelhouse. So I had a dilemma: give up and disappoint today, forcing my replacement; or carry on in my incompetence and risk the whole endeavor.

Quitting early did bruise my self-respect: people were depending on me! But hanging on, just to protect my feelings, would have been a much greater regret.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#79

Post by [deleted] »

another-dave wrote: post #50
jdietrich wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in England, there's a very significant cultural divide between North and South. One of the key symbols of that cultural divide is whether people thank the bus driver when disembarking. In London, thanking the driver would make you a bit of a weirdo; in Newcastle, not thanking the driver would make you dreadfully antisocial. I imagine that there's a huge difference in this respect between a McDonalds in Manhattan…

In London I often see people thanking the driver. At least outside of rush hour & outside zone 1

[deleted]

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#80

Post by jandrese »

sobelius wrote: post #17

Honestly, I think he’s living the dream — no tech headaches, just flipping burgers and taking it easy. Really makes me think...

You've never worked in fast food have you? "Taking it easy" is not how it works. You're on the clock 100% until you clock out, no rest, no breaks, if a burger takes more than 60 seconds to land on the customer's tray the boss is on your ass. If you miscalculate how many patties to slap on the grill and either run out or you have to toss some because they've sat in the steamer for more than 15 minutes you are in for such a dressing down. The machine tracks from the start of the order till it is closed out so he knows. He has some bullshit regional contest thing with all of the other franchisees in the area that he has to win if he wants to make that boat payment. If there are no customers you are cleaning, even if you just cleaned it. Plus you had to spend like half of your time training new recruits or filling in for them when they stopped showing after like two days. I did one summer of that in college and it cemented me in my tech career path. I couldn't deal with the stress.
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