4 ms·

To piggy-back of off this. The hidden problems aren't just extensions of old-age experience vs young-age experience (i.e. social-network vs hospice placement).

by hacknat 11y ago

To piggy-back of off this. The hidden problems aren't just extensions of old-age experience vs young-age experience (i.e. social-network vs hospice placement). It's often domain expertise vs none. There are so many older folks out there who have had decades of experience in one domain that none of us have even heard of, or are only, maybe, vaguely aware of. They are aware of that domain's problems, know most of the key players, etc. My father is a Director-level exec at a Fortune 100 company, and I've talked to him, ad nauseam, about the problems he wishes the enterprise line-of-business crapware his company keeps purchasing would actually solve. I keep trying to convince him to strike out and do something, and have even offered to go in on something with him, but he's just too comfortable. He has more than enough money, and he's decided to retire early if he doesn't get the next promotion he's gunning for. He was recently honored by the trade association of the domain he's an executive in (I guess there's no harm in saying it's logistics). I'm sure the contacts he has would send a startup hurtling into the stratosphere within a few years. How many people are like him out there, who are going to waste all their domain expertise on retirement or the next promotion? I feel like someone needs to write a manifesto to the older and successful among us about how they owe it to themselves and the younger generation to disrupt the industries they've been leading for so long. These fat-cat, lazy ass, companies just get to skate by on pure inertia.

ThomPete 11y ago
Exactly! But they don't even need to be successful. Just the fact that they have spent years dabbling with something. A slightly absurd example of a way to surface this would be to do a kind of "retirement interview".
basseq 11y ago
If he retires early, that's the perfect time to pull him into something entrepreneurial. When the viable alternative is "play golf", a stab in the dark looks a) more interesting and b) low risk (because you can always go play golf).
dougmany 11y ago
I think the role of fortune 100 companies is more to keep the lights on then disrupt. Disruption and new direction rely on a foundation of the current state. Yes that foundation will be replace, but only by the best of ten disruption that survived while its peers perished.
- ThomPete 11y ago
  I think we all agree on that. The Parent was just saying that his father complains about these "hidden problems" and the parent wished his father would strike out on his own and solve some of them. But thats just how I read it.
drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>These fat-cat, lazy ass, companies just get to skate by on pure inertia. How long before young and sexy startup becomes lazy fat cat nowadays? Maybe ten years? So, now the older crowd needs to constantly re-do everything because the younger guys got lazy? I'm not sure what the solution you're advocating here is. Eventually, everyone becomes a fat cat it seems, at least to the eyes of the new guy. I suspect the $bad_vendor or $bad_project isn't that bad and the time/work commitment to constantly re-do it is non-trivial. Especially if by the time you finish this big rewrite its already obsolete or unlikeable in some way -- not HTML5 or not whatever is hot right now. I think part of maturing is knowing how to recognize the grind and when to actually disrupt it in some way. Is $boring_logistics app really the problem that needs to be solved at $big_co? Arguably, the execs have better things to do and that judgement is what we're paying them for. When it becomes a problem they should know and address it, but to a young guy spoiled by ultra-shiny ipad apps, well, that logistics interface looks "old and boring" but its actually doing the job well. > but he's just too comfortable. Perhaps this is besides the point, but maybe there's a shelf-life on human 'can do' attitudes? Ten years ago I'd do anything that piqued my interest, obsess over it, and now its a lot more difficult to get excited and motivated especially if you have been in the grind long enough. At a certain point you realize this is all folly. Another product, another roll out, another set of unhappy/happy customers, another sales projection, another competitor to worry about, another thing that will obsolete in a week, etc. From a psychological perspective, we don't often talk about what it means to have a lifetime of work under your belt. How does it affect us? Is it reasonable to spend ages 22-65 working in the same industry/focus? Imagine if we put monkeys in a cube and forced them to do the same-ish things for decades. We would probably be arrested for animal abuse. But its okay to do to people apparently. Maybe have some sympathy for the codgers, they're as much victims of this weird world we call work as anyone.
- DaveWalk 11y ago
  This is an interesting question: is there a shelf life on "can do" attitudes? I think just in allowing that this fact might be true changes my perspective -- hinting that we might be in a kind of startup-frenzy groupthink even in this discussion.

by hacknat 11y ago

ThomPete 11y ago

Exactly! But they don't even need to be successful. Just the fact that they have spent years dabbling with something. A slightly absurd example of a way to surface this would be to do a kind of "retirement interview".

basseq 11y ago

If he retires early, that's the perfect time to pull him into something entrepreneurial. When the viable alternative is "play golf", a stab in the dark looks a) more interesting and b) low risk (because you can always go play golf).

dougmany 11y ago

I think the role of fortune 100 companies is more to keep the lights on then disrupt. Disruption and new direction rely on a foundation of the current state. Yes that foundation will be replace, but only by the best of ten disruption that survived while its peers perished.

ThomPete 11y ago
I think we all agree on that. The Parent was just saying that his father complains about these "hidden problems" and the parent wished his father would strike out on his own and solve some of them. But thats just how I read it.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago

>These fat-cat, lazy ass, companies just get to skate by on pure inertia. How long before young and sexy startup becomes lazy fat cat nowadays? Maybe ten years? So, now the older crowd needs to constantly re-do everything because the younger guys got lazy? I'm not sure what the solution you're advocating here is. Eventually, everyone becomes a fat cat it seems, at least to the eyes of the new guy. I suspect the $bad_vendor or $bad_project isn't that bad and the time/work commitment to constantly re-do it is non-trivial. Especially if by the time you finish this big rewrite its already obsolete or unlikeable in some way -- not HTML5 or not whatever is hot right now. I think part of maturing is knowing how to recognize the grind and when to actually disrupt it in some way. Is $boring_logistics app really the problem that needs to be solved at $big_co? Arguably, the execs have better things to do and that judgement is what we're paying them for. When it becomes a problem they should know and address it, but to a young guy spoiled by ultra-shiny ipad apps, well, that logistics interface looks "old and boring" but its actually doing the job well. > but he's just too comfortable. Perhaps this is besides the point, but maybe there's a shelf-life on human 'can do' attitudes? Ten years ago I'd do anything that piqued my interest, obsess over it, and now its a lot more difficult to get excited and motivated especially if you have been in the grind long enough. At a certain point you realize this is all folly. Another product, another roll out, another set of unhappy/happy customers, another sales projection, another competitor to worry about, another thing that will obsolete in a week, etc. From a psychological perspective, we don't often talk about what it means to have a lifetime of work under your belt. How does it affect us? Is it reasonable to spend ages 22-65 working in the same industry/focus? Imagine if we put monkeys in a cube and forced them to do the same-ish things for decades. We would probably be arrested for animal abuse. But its okay to do to people apparently. Maybe have some sympathy for the codgers, they're as much victims of this weird world we call work as anyone.

DaveWalk 11y ago
This is an interesting question: is there a shelf life on "can do" attitudes? I think just in allowing that this fact might be true changes my perspective -- hinting that we might be in a kind of startup-frenzy groupthink even in this discussion.