9 ms·
you might enjoy: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2484147-lessons-i-learned-at-mcdonald-s-that-help-me-build-software https://www.goodreads.com/auth
by pitt1980 10y ago
you might enjoy:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2484147-lessons-i-learned-at-mcdonald-s-that-help-me-build-software https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2484147-lessons-...
from Ed Weissman (who's #6 in overall karma on HN)
- Diamons 10y agoEnjoyed the read overall but one line stuck out: "- I take one bite out of my cold Big Mac and eat one cold fries and throw it all out." You have to be a special kind of asshole to throw away meat and food instead of just saying the food is cold.
- gjm11 10y agoAsshole? Why? What harm or pain did Ed cause to anyone by throwing the food away?
- msie 10y agoSeems disrespectful to poor, starving people.
- seansoutpost 10y agoThis country (USA) throws away $537 Billion retail in food annually. I don't think it's just this guy.
- drakonandor 10y agoDoes trash really have a $ value? ;)
- linkregister 10y ago1. 40% of food in the U.S. is discarded. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf 2. Much food is never harvested. A large portion of it is also never taken to market due to blemishes. http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/food-waste-remains-persistent-problem-farms-grocery-stores-and-restaurants http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/food-waste-rem... 3. Supermarkets discard about 1/3 of their food due to spoilage, blemishes, and overripeness. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/25/351495274/supermarkets-waste-tons-of-food-as-they-woo-shoppers http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/25/351495274/sup...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- nicky0 10y agoIs this low, high or average compared to other countries?
- slavik81 10y agoIt's fairly normal. In the first world, we waste a lot of food because consumers can afford to be picky or forgetful. In the third world, they waste a lot of food because storage and distribution infrastructure is worse.
- Banthum 10y agoMultiplying together, only about 30% of the food grown is actually consumed? Is that really true? Whoa if so. Oddly enough, it kind of makes me feel better about food security.
- brianwawok 10y agoI think even bigger is the 10:1 gains or more you lose feeding crops to animals. If we all went vegan we would almost instantly double our food supply. Spoiler: I eat meat
- altcognito 10y agoFood that doesn't make it for human consumption at the farm/factory level often finds its way as animal feed.
- altcognito 10y agoFood that doesn't make it for human consumption at the farm/factory level often finds its way as animal feed.
- msie 10y agoI'm puzzled by your response. You list some stats about waste and that justifies what the guy is doing? Of course it's probably hyperbole but people are working hard to defend this guy's statement.
- comboy 10y agoWith this kind of logic, flushing your toilet is disrespectful to people in Africa with limited access to drinkable water.
- msie 10y agoWell, it is. So don't be wasting water unnecessarily. If you spent time and money eating at McDonald's why would you throw it away? Our society wastes a lot for sure so try not to. Don't go to McDonald's in the first place.
- comboy 9y agoIf you bought this burger, you already gave back to society by paying for it. It has zero influence on the rest of the society whether it goes through your belly or not before being disposed.
- csorrell 9y agoWe don't have a water shortage problem just like we don't have a food shortage problem. We have a water/food distribution problem. Throwing away a burger in the US takes nothing away from Africa.
- komali2 10y agoRespectful sure, but I could argue I'm disrespectful to the world's poor every time I light a joint, kick back on my couch, pig out on taco Bell, and watch Vikings in my air conditioned condo.
- msie 10y agoNot the same. You are not throwing out your Taco Bell after the first bite.
- komali2 9y agoI disagree that it's not the same. 1. Whether or not I eat the food is irrelevant to the poor. 2. The amount of food I order is completely up to me. I usually order, and eat, more than I need to survive (because I'm stoned). I revel in the decadence and my ability to buy and eat so much food I'm disgustingly full. I could argue that I do this to "flaunt" my wealth and privilege. (really, I do it because I grew up dirt poor and hungry, so I gain inordinate pleasure from excess. Probably unhealthy, but it's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to)
- mpeg 10y agoAs Dave Chapelle would put it; you can't do comparative suffering. There might be people starving in Africa, but I still want my lunch.
- pc86 9y agoOnly if you threw it away instead of giving it to a poor, starving person. Between two choice of eating it or throwing it out, neither affects the hungry any more than the other.
- aquadrop 9y agoIs opening a window in a too hot room disrespectful to those who are freezing on the north pole?
- logfromblammo 10y agoThe temperature of food can be easily changed with the ubiquitous household appliances called "refrigerator" and "microwave oven". And it isn't as though a drop in temperature of 5 degrees changes the flavor. It's like throwing your pants away because you spilled ketchup on them, or throwing your car away because it ran out of gas--trivial issue, easily remedied. Besides that, McDonald's corporate considers the service temperature of their food to be deadly serious. Complaining to the management with cold food and receipt in hand would almost certainly generate an overly obsequious response sufficient to satisfy even the grumpiest of customers. If not, going to management above the restaurant would probably get everyone at the restaurant re-trained right quick.
- ergothus 10y ago> And it isn't as though a drop in temperature of 5 degrees changes the flavor. Leaving aside the rest of the discussion, and not even addressing if throwing it out was good/fine, this line stood out to me. I often feel that temperature changes the taste. More obvious in ranges > 5 degrees, but still noticeable at that range. Given how subjective taste is, it's hard to prove, though I'm sure some neurologist has hooked a pig or chimp up to try and measure the "taste" reaction. My two questions for you are: * Do you feel temperature has no real (direct) effect on taste, or only in larger swings than 5 degrees * Do you have any reason for your above statement than your own experiences? (not a criticism, curiousity)
- Retric 10y agoIt's well known that the current temperature changes the taste. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/temperature-can-effect-intensity-and-flavor-of-tastes_n_1529944.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/temperature-can-eff... But, I think his comment was changing the temperature is easy, and having food get cold does not change the taste after reheating. However, there is a large food safety issue with how long food stays between 40f and 140f, which is probably the root cause of this policy.
- mod 10y ago
- csours 10y agoKinda OT, but that's why I never buy physically large food items at McD's: the quicker you eat it the warmer it is. Also, the quicker you eat it, the less you have to think about it; and most of McD's food items do not bear much thinking about.
- mpeg 10y agoYMMV too. Personally, in my local McDonald's I can put an order without talking to a human, pick it up and buy some weed on the way out. Is that representative of every McD? No.
- pc86 9y agoOther than the lack of human interaction I'm sure it's representative of a fair number of them.
- freeflight 10y agoJust customize your order in such a way that they have to make it fresh. I don't eat raw tomatoes, so if I tell them not to put those on my burger/wrap/whatever I end up getting freshly made food that's even hot.
- omegaham 10y agoYou can specifically ask for them to make it fresh; you just have to be willing to wait around for them to make it. On a similar note, I hate the "exploit" of "Ask for fries with no salt to get them to make you a fresh batch of fries" when you can just ask them to make you a fresh batch of fries. Potatoes are about $6 per hundred pounds; they could not care less about making you a fresh batch if it means chucking the old fries out.
- jon-wood 10y agoThe other thing to hate about asking for fries with no salt is that making them has a fairly high chance of flinging hot oil on yourself. Usually the addition of salt causes the oil to soak in a bit, without the salt it doesn't soak in and gets thrown around the place.
- linkregister 10y agoYou might not want to visit a farm, processing plant, warehouse, grocery store, or restaurant. They all throw away enormous amounts of food. Throwing away a Big Mac because it got too cold is a rounding error in perspective. That said, we produce more food than we ever have. Is there a difference to starving people whether a grain of wheat went ungrown or was wasted? What was the author meant to do, walk the hamburger and fries (with bites missing) to his closest homeless shelter?
- stctgion 10y agoMicrowave it like the rest of us
- linkregister 10y agoWhat about the energy wasted to cook that food? There are freezing Inuit who could have used it.
- chillwaves 10y agoIt takes far more energy to create a big mac than to nuke one.
- QuantumGravy 9y agoNo no no, you separate out the vegetation, if any, and keep it aside. Microwave any non-vegetable remainder for 15-30 seconds, depending on the mass of the burger: just enough to warm the meat. Transfer from microwave to toaster oven in two halves, toast briefly to crisp the buns, re-sizzle the meat, and melt the cheese. Arrange vegetation back in between. Enjoy a McDonald's burger that rivals its freshly served cousin. Finally, sit back and question the life decisions that lead you to putting this much thought into reheating fast food from McDonald's.
- pc86 9y agoMicrowaving fast food french fries is a special kind of alchemy that somehow turns them into concrete.
- douche 10y agoReminds me of the scene from the Into the Wild movie - McCandless is working in a McDonalds-alike fast food joint, and the camera lingers on a signs that says "It's O.K. to waste fries"
- ebbv 10y agoWhat do you think they're going to do at a McDonald's if you say that? They're going to throw it away and make you a new one. The reality is most of the food McDonald's serves nowadays is served cold. It's an unfortunate side effect of moving away from actually grilling meat to just warming it in trays.
- baby 10y agoI worked at McDonalds and we would throw burgers after X minutes if they didn't sell. Can't remember what X was but we were throwing a lot of . Same thing with fried stuff like mcnuggets except we would wait longer before throwing it. I don't know why we were following the rules for burgers but not for fried stuff... It all seemed like waste to me because X was pretty short. But this was to ensure good quality, crunchiness and all that jazz. Mind you that it was not a franchise and it was in France (where McDonalds restaurants have higher standards).
- greedo 10y agoUsed to be 10 minutes. Not sure now. Fried foods like McNuggets, McChicken and Filet O Fish were kept in a cabinet, then assembled into sandwiches. They were kept for roughly 30 min? The reason for the 10 minute rule was a quality issue; after that amount of time, cheese was gross, and the various condiments were trashed.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoHow tightly do they manage their production rate, presumably they're more careful than just "keep 6 on the warmer" and more like "the usual rate at this time is 70 per hour, we only lose 15% of those sales by asking the customer to wait, 5% of those losses go for other products, so we'll make at a rate of 1 every X minutes unless we have more than Y on hand"? (numbers completely off the top of my head)
- baby 9y agoI was in a pretty busy McDonalds so we were usually asked to do one more of X when doing X, or two more of Y, or 5 more of Z, ... depending on the rush. That's how we ended up trashing some. That's because, when doing a big mac for example, it's almost as easy to make one or five on a tray. So better make 5 if you're in a rush, they will likely be fulfilled. In cool periods we would only produce on command. So no waste. Fresh burgers. Everyone used to say that Franchise didn't care too much about these rules (where they should), and the director didn't like getting employees from Franchise McDonalds because they had to re-learn all the hygiene standards. Since that day I avoid franchise restaurants and go only to the official ones.
- Mz 10y agoThe article indicates he tried to suggest to the employee that his fries should not be sitting on a tray getting cold while waiting for a burger and got ignored, nor should a burger be cold if you had to wait for it. I am not even convinced he was being literal. That reads to me as possible hyperbole to emphasize the point that he only goes when it has been so long that he has forgotten how bad it is. Plus, see other remarks here about how 40% of food goes to waste for various reasons.
- msie 10y agoWow, look at all the responses and downvotes. More privileged assholes with money to burn feel it's fine to spend $10 on a meal and just throw it away. Just because there is so must waste doesn't mean that you have to behave like you don't know the value of money.
- averagewall 10y agoWhat things do you feel it's acceptable to throw away without being a privileged asshole? Is there a way you made this decision that can be generalized beyond Big Macs?
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoWhat do you think they'll do with it if you complain that it's cold? If you don't want it, it's getting tossed either way. "Eat your peas, there are starving children in Africa" only makes sense if there's a ready means to get your peas to the starving children. If the choices are eating food you don't want or throwing it away, it's wasted either way. Eating it isn't the superior moral option; it doesn't accomplish anything but making you fat.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoWhat do you think they'll do with it if you complain that it's cold? If you don't want it, it's getting tossed either way. "Eat your peas, there are starving children in Africa" only makes sense if there's a ready means to get your peas to the starving children. If the choices are eating food you don't want or throwing it away, eating it doesn't accomplish anything but making you fat. It's not a superior moral option.
- afterburner 10y agoNot sure I like his "back in the day" reality distortion: "It was nothing like today: high volume, fast paced, brutal hard work, low pay, and 10 other kids ready to take your job if you didn't like it." Right, because it's nothing like that now.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- wapz 10y agoI totally read that in the opposite way at first. I thought he was saying "today is high volume, fast paced..." then I read the rest of the article and was a little confused.
- erikb 9y agoWhy do you think this was an enjoyable read? It's probably bad to guess Ed's personality from just one article, but most of what he says is said by the bullies in software dev who push their own tasks to "Done" on the cost of the whole team, to then say how much more efficient they are since they have closed more tasks than anybody else. Also the goal is not to beat Mozart, but to provide regular, recurring quality background music for tv show episodes every day, if you want to earn your bread and butter with it, and not just win a price. That's done best by a cooperating team, not by a rockstar. So if he was part of the "top 5 of 60" employees it may have been an improvement to overall results if there were just the other 55 employees. The general success of today's McD is that they are open nearly 24/7 and that they are nearly everywhere you go. I bet McD makes more money now than back in his "glorious" days.