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> I'm fairly confident the entire thing was written as fiction in the first place Nope. http://rollioforce.com/ http://rollioforce.com/ https://www.linkedin.

> I'm fairly confident the entire thing was written as fiction in the first place Nope. http://rollioforce.com/ http://rollioforce.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/krubner https://www.linkedin.com/in/krubner "Lawrence Krubner -- Lead Programmer at Rollio Force"

powera 11y ago
Still don't believe it's at all an accurate account of the company. If it was accurate, I don't believe the author would be competent to write an accurate assessment of anything. I realize I'm sounding incredibly harsh, but "cargo cult startup" is a generous assessment of what is described in the article, and the supposedly 15-year veteran is completely oblivious to this.
- fencepost 11y ago
  I'm probably nobody to talk having never actually held a software development management position (though I've been a team lead at times), but this strikes me as what I'd call "programmer mentality." I'd also say he was constrained by feeling that he didn't have the authority (or the ability to force/take that authority) to actually make decisions. Within the scope he could control it sounds like he did what he could. I also suspect that if he'd had any idea this was going to go even slightly viral he'd have anonymized it further and posted it through medium or the like. I'll note that on his website (smashcompany.com) in the About section, the link to "my profile on LinkedIn" is either a tragic mistake or some combination of blunt and subtle humor/commentary (it goes to the page to edit your own public profile, nothing related to Lawrence K's profile at all. Very reminiscent of the footer links on the RollioForce site. And finally, if I ever received an email or chat/Slack message from a CEO (or Chairman) of a company I worked for like the one he received on October 8, my two responses would be A) Is this person drunk, drugged, otherwise impaired (and do I need to get medical attention for them) and B) Holy Crap if this person is in a position of authority over me I need to get the hell out now. It's like some kind of semi-literate verbal diarrhea and certainly nothing that should come from a decision-maker in a company.
- Smushman 11y ago
  I have the years now to recognize that a fair bit of the chances you run into this are simply statistical odds. But if I had more time I would share a bit of my stories. Trust though that these types of personalities are unfortunately very real. I try to remember that for every bit of effort and skill I put into my job doing technical tasks, someone else is probably putting just as much into using their personality to get what they want. It's just inevitable...

powera 11y ago

Still don't believe it's at all an accurate account of the company. If it was accurate, I don't believe the author would be competent to write an accurate assessment of anything. I realize I'm sounding incredibly harsh, but "cargo cult startup" is a generous assessment of what is described in the article, and the supposedly 15-year veteran is completely oblivious to this.

fencepost 11y ago
I'm probably nobody to talk having never actually held a software development management position (though I've been a team lead at times), but this strikes me as what I'd call "programmer mentality." I'd also say he was constrained by feeling that he didn't have the authority (or the ability to force/take that authority) to actually make decisions. Within the scope he could control it sounds like he did what he could. I also suspect that if he'd had any idea this was going to go even slightly viral he'd have anonymized it further and posted it through medium or the like. I'll note that on his website (smashcompany.com) in the About section, the link to "my profile on LinkedIn" is either a tragic mistake or some combination of blunt and subtle humor/commentary (it goes to the page to edit your own public profile, nothing related to Lawrence K's profile at all. Very reminiscent of the footer links on the RollioForce site. And finally, if I ever received an email or chat/Slack message from a CEO (or Chairman) of a company I worked for like the one he received on October 8, my two responses would be A) Is this person drunk, drugged, otherwise impaired (and do I need to get medical attention for them) and B) Holy Crap if this person is in a position of authority over me I need to get the hell out now. It's like some kind of semi-literate verbal diarrhea and certainly nothing that should come from a decision-maker in a company.
Smushman 11y ago
I have the years now to recognize that a fair bit of the chances you run into this are simply statistical odds. But if I had more time I would share a bit of my stories. Trust though that these types of personalities are unfortunately very real. I try to remember that for every bit of effort and skill I put into my job doing technical tasks, someone else is probably putting just as much into using their personality to get what they want. It's just inevitable...