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"It's surprising to me that no one starts a company solely for creating an amazing place to work. " An interesting dynamic of startups. You try to build a grea

"It's surprising to me that no one starts a company solely for creating an amazing place to work. " An interesting dynamic of startups. You try to build a great place to work at, [0] and in building that startup you screw it up by building a bigger company. [1] [0] "Managing Software Engineers" ~ http://philip.greenspun.com/ancient-history/managing-software-engineers http://philip.greenspun.com/ancient-history/managing-softwar... [1] "ArsDigita: From Start-Up to Bust-Up" ~ http://waxy.org/random/arsdigita/ http://waxy.org/random/arsdigita/

slededit 10y ago
The author of your first link has an obsession with overworking his employees. "If you see one of your best people walking out the door at 6:00 pm, try to think why you haven't challenged that person with an interesting project." "This means that if you want to follow the best practices of the industry in terms of design and architecture, the only way to improve speed to market is to have the same people working longer hours." Software development is inherently creative. Employees need external stimuli to be effective.
- douche 10y ago
  It's generally the case that you can't work on anything truly interesting or challenging until after 6pm anyway -9-5 gets chewed up so badly by all the bullshit, meetings, email, and noisy salespeople yelling into their phones, that the real work can't get done until everybody goes home and some peace and quiet can be obtained. 3 hours of focused work with no distractions is worth at least 3 typical work days.
  - eru 10y ago
    Just say no to meetings. As an employee for your own calendar, and as a startup founder for the whole company.
    - disgruntledphd2 10y ago
      I block off three mornings a week, and all day Friday for "actual work". I like to start early, and have no desire to work till 9pm (sometimes it happens, but it will be at home and because I really want to finish something). Most people are pretty accommodating (and I work with lots of very noisy salespeople).

slededit 10y ago

The author of your first link has an obsession with overworking his employees. "If you see one of your best people walking out the door at 6:00 pm, try to think why you haven't challenged that person with an interesting project." "This means that if you want to follow the best practices of the industry in terms of design and architecture, the only way to improve speed to market is to have the same people working longer hours." Software development is inherently creative. Employees need external stimuli to be effective.

douche 10y ago
It's generally the case that you can't work on anything truly interesting or challenging until after 6pm anyway -9-5 gets chewed up so badly by all the bullshit, meetings, email, and noisy salespeople yelling into their phones, that the real work can't get done until everybody goes home and some peace and quiet can be obtained. 3 hours of focused work with no distractions is worth at least 3 typical work days.
- eru 10y ago
  Just say no to meetings. As an employee for your own calendar, and as a startup founder for the whole company.
  - disgruntledphd2 10y ago
    I block off three mornings a week, and all day Friday for "actual work". I like to start early, and have no desire to work till 9pm (sometimes it happens, but it will be at home and because I really want to finish something). Most people are pretty accommodating (and I work with lots of very noisy salespeople).