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I have a superstition that when people in a startup start fabulating about the company jet it's time to jump ship. Based on a sample-of-one experience, but I've

I have a superstition that when people in a startup start fabulating about the company jet it's time to jump ship. Based on a sample-of-one experience, but I've happily extrapolated to the population (statistical word meaning). Since I'm with another startup I hastily and aggressively stop anyone talking about possible riches as soon as they try to voice such thoughts, to prevent the curse from spreading. I know I can make plenty of money with established enterprises - have done that as employee and as freelancer, getting lots of money. So I'm at the position I'm in, while giving up a lot of sure and easy money, because I hate 9-5 jobs and doing highly paid but uninteresting projects (and not infrequently I got paid for nothing but being present, even when they had to pay an hourly rate). I don't want coworkers with dollar signs in their eyes.

rwhitman 10y ago
I had a tech startup superstition of my own: When a founder asks you to write answers on a FAQ page or knowledge base in response to questions that have never actually been asked by a customer yet, the startup will fail. Based on a similar philosophy about detached thinking at the top, and how it sinks companies. Answers to customer questions should only be posted after they've been asked at least once, otherwise it's a sign the founders are daydreaming about customers with problems that don't exist yet
VLM 10y ago
Especially in the telecom world, yet applicable elsewhere, a fancy new company HQ building means its all over in less than two years, closed, bankrupt, sold, etc. In two years it'll be an empty building. Ditto for extremely fancy new data center.