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A day in the life of a CEO

ryancarson.com

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Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#81

Post by slurgfest »

crusso wrote: post #64
slurgfest wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't blame people for working in order to have money, bargaining in order to keep some free time. Those are constructive. Dominating everyone and being known by everyone are greedy goals which won't make you happy. If you want a spouse and kids you had better think they are beautiful. People go ballistic when you suggest that they are obligated to accept terrible working conditions where they don't have (for examp…

People go ballistic when you suggest that they are obligated to accept terrible working conditions where they don't have (for example) any free time to spend with their beautiful family. No, that's a straw man. I'm talking about people going ballistic when there's no true obligation in question. We're in a high-demand industry where you can normally go get another job. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions, but typi…

This is the actual issue. You have caricatured people you disagree with in order to make their position sound weaker than it really is. This is not about objectivism, this is about humane work conditions.

It is better if we do not promote a fashion of 160-hour work weeks, because that is bad for human beings. If you run a company, holding people's lives in your hands, you should try to be a good person who makes a good difference in those lives. From a production perspective, productivity actually drops off as fatigue increases. From a business standpoint you should want employees who generate significant value to be happy so they will be loyal rather than leaving or melting down. And it's probably better NOT to become known for squeezing dimes to the detriment of others' health because you thought that was a better way of making money than growing the business.

That isn't "sniping at hard workers" and it isn't "self-victimization." It is resisting the attempt of some employers to give everyone 160 hour work weeks and classify people who don't accept that as antisocial communist complainers. That isn't free-market capitalism, it is the company store.

Give people who bring value to your business fair conditions and fair pay. If a few people want to spend more time for some specific reason that doesn't need to be specifically encouraged and made into a fashion or a de facto requirement. This makes people miserable and it kills them early and it is wrong.

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#82

Post by larrys »

pitt1980 wrote: post #37
tatsuke95 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He can't hear you. He's at the gym.

why are you being a dick? if you want him to go into more detail about a paticular item, why don't you ask about it? if you don't care at all, why don't you just find a different item to read?

"why are you being a dick?"

Surprisingly the OP's profile says:

"Not a hacker whatsoever, but enthralled by the culture."

Ryan has gotten ink on HN. There is something to be learned from that. It is a part of the culture or it wouldn't get comments the way it has.

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#83

Post by crusso »

slurgfest wrote: post #81
crusso wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People go ballistic when you suggest that they are obligated to accept terrible working conditions where they don't have (for example) any free time to spend with their beautiful family. No, that's a straw man. I'm talking about people going ballistic when there's no true obligation in question. We're in a high-demand industry where you can normally go get another job. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions, but typi…

This is the actual issue. You have caricatured people you disagree with in order to make their position sound weaker than it really is. This is not about objectivism, this is about humane work conditions. It is better if we do not promote a fashion of 160-hour work weeks, because that is bad for human beings. If you run a company, holding people's lives in your hands, you should try to be a good person who makes a go…

I'm going to leave this:

> You have caricatured people you disagree with

right next to this:

> It is better if we do not promote a fashion of 160-hour work weeks

If you disagree with the substance of what I'm saying, I'll happily discuss the finer points and think about my arguments vs the ones you're offering. I'm here to actively learn, share, and find motivation -- not really to just howl and argue by using fallacious reasoning and cheap debating tactics.

If all you can do is throw up straw men[1], then I'm going to have to challenge you to show where I've made any such arguments. You'll need to show where anyone is advocating 160 hour work weeks, much less "forcing" others to work 160 hour work weeks. That you're distorting the facts of easily-referenced articles[2] is troubling.

Seriously, I'm happy to concede a point and learn from my mistake... but if you think I'm making one, you'll need to provide better arguments.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[2] http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/223723?Source=Taboola

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#84

Post by tatsuke95 »

mindcrime wrote: post #47
runjake wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does this guy think he's a celebrity or something? Not to slam the guy, but if you examine his submission history, he seems to be using HN as a tool to build his "personal brand". Regardless, readers upvote it.

It people find the content valuable, does it matter if he's gaining something from the exposure? Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one[1]. [1]: Fogbeam Labs, the up-and-coming Open Source collaboration/knowledge-management company. http://www.fogbeam.com Go there now and sign…

>"Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one"

And if it's excessive, you're likely to get called out on it.

Look, I have no agenda here. I got up this morning and started reading HN, like I do every other day. I got to this article, read it, and thought, "My god, this guy is full of himself." So I came to discuss my opinion on the article, which is precisely what this forum is for. He didn't answer the question that was asked of him. He talked about wanting to give us specifics and details, and didn't give any. Glossed right over anything pertaining to the business. Then submitted the article himself. So it's not like someone stumbled on it and thought, "Great stuff!"

As far as putting CEO in quotes, that's a bit of a joke. I'm aware he's the CEO; it's there on that page about 5 times. In fact, he refers to himself as CEO more times in that article than I've heard my CEO refer to his title....ever. Again, a little obnoxious.

I admit, I don't know the guy from a hole in the ground. All I can do is judge him on how and what he writes. That's what I'm doing, and what others are doing to me. I'm glad you found the article insightful. I found it to be crap. And I think that the story he's selling is unsustainable. Time will tell. But I can assure you I'll be following this company closely from now on.

Anyway, I've stirred it up a bit more than I intended, so I'm going slink into the shadows...

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#85

Post by mindcrime »

larrys wrote: post #79
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It people find the content valuable, does it matter if he's gaining something from the exposure? Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one[1]. [1]: Fogbeam Labs, the up-and-coming Open Source collaboration/knowledge-management company. http://www.fogbeam.com Go there now and sign…

"Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building?" I don't have an issue with self promotion on the part of anyone including what you have done with the [1]. (As an aside I've never charged anyone for anything mentioned in my hn profile although somehow I suspect that some people have felt that I am self promoting. (Which…

As an aside, you need to get some serious lorum ipsum on your site if you are going to promote it as you've done.

Good point. We've been so "heads down" writing code, that the website hasn't been much of a priority to date. Truth be told, I'd forgotten that "coming soon" was there. Thanks for pointing it out. :-)

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#86

Post by mindcrime »

tatsuke95 wrote: post #84
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It people find the content valuable, does it matter if he's gaining something from the exposure? Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one[1]. [1]: Fogbeam Labs, the up-and-coming Open Source collaboration/knowledge-management company. http://www.fogbeam.com Go there now and sign…

> "Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one" And if it's excessive, you're likely to get called out on it. Look, I have no agenda here. I got up this morning and started reading HN, like I do every other day. I got to this article, read it, and thought, "My god, this guy is full…

So I came to discuss my opinion on the article, which is precisely what this forum is for.

Fair enough. I guess your earlier post just struck me (and apparently some other people) as overly antagonistic or something. No biggie...

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#88

Post by ivanr »

dbecker wrote: post #22

CEO's say how busy they are, but it seems like most execution is handled by people below the CEO. So I'm left wondering what are specific tasks that are the right level to keep the CEO so busy? The author had a great chance to address this... but all we're told is "meetings" and "todo list."

There's a blog post from Fred Wilson that I've found to be most insightful:

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/08/what-a-ceo-does.html

The main point is this:

"A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank."

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#89

Post by cncool »

brown9-2 wrote: post #63
evilbit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that may be because you actually oversleep. unless you're very young (<20yo), 7h of sleep is likely all you need, and anything less than 6h or more than 8h will leave you tired and lacking energy.

source?

No source. What he said is just broscience. You will feel tired and groggy if you wake up from an alarm in the middle of a sleep cycle regardless of number of hours slept.

Re: A day in the life of a CEO

#90

Post by blhack »

hoppster wrote: post #77
crazygringo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. It sounds awfully ridiculous -- appreciation of life isn't something that happens "on schedule" any more than falling in love is. Maybe he should have just said, "take a quiet moment before starting my day, because it helps keep me relaxed/whatever" or something to that effect.

I have to disagree with you guys here. I'm definitely not a ryan carson fanboy, but I've been scheduling my 'life appreciation' time for years and my life has been better because of it. In fact, you'll see it on almost every daily schedule I create. It was very easy to go months without appreciating all the blessings before I made a deliberate effort to schedule that time. I'm already teaching this important 'trick'…

Do you also schedule time for things like "laughter"?
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