4 ms·

This is total bullshit. Many many years ago I was working in for-profit warez group, and this job after twenty years remains absolutely the best I ever had. Bas

by wareis 9y ago

This is total bullshit. Many many years ago I was working in for-profit warez group, and this job after twenty years remains absolutely the best I ever had. Basically the reason that I, after several trials to land a normal IT or startup job, became nauseaus and went away from any office to freelancing..

Malwarethrow 9y ago
Throwaway for obvious reasons. My first "job" was building a "crypter" and exploit pack with a team of very talented re/xdev folks. It was a great time.
oh_sigh 9y ago
Perhaps being downright illegal is different from 'evading regulation'
- noway421 9y ago
  This indeed seems to have correlation. The more legal business is, the worse its culture is. /s
  - eru 9y ago
    There might actually be more to it, if you generalize slightly: Banks have big moats of enormous regulation that any would-be upstart competitor would have abide by. Hence they are more 'legal' just counted by number of regulations they comply with. Banks ain't great places to work for. (But I don't think you can build a good rule out of that. I think what determines a great culture more is how high the opportunity cost is for employees to just go and get a new job that at least as good. Googlers can just walk away, and get a decent job anywhere else: so Google has to treat them nicely. Retail assistants in depressed East Germany in the 90s had almost no other options, especially since legislation basically forced companies to pay above market clearing rate; you can imagine what bosses got away with on such a captive labour supply.)
- taneq 9y ago
  Could be. Downright illegal is more honest, 'skirting the rules' is weaselly.
- SmellTheGlove 9y ago
  That sounds reasonable. Knowing what you are versus trying to rationalize away the behavior might very well foster different environments. Interesting thought.
SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
I think it's a matter of scale, as well. Small criminal groups can be fine, because the small size tends towards better working habits. Large criminal groups have a reputation for brutality. Very different effects come in to play once you have layers of middle management.

by wareis 9y ago

Malwarethrow 9y ago

Throwaway for obvious reasons. My first "job" was building a "crypter" and exploit pack with a team of very talented re/xdev folks. It was a great time.

oh_sigh 9y ago

Perhaps being downright illegal is different from 'evading regulation'

noway421 9y ago
This indeed seems to have correlation. The more legal business is, the worse its culture is. /s
- eru 9y ago
  There might actually be more to it, if you generalize slightly: Banks have big moats of enormous regulation that any would-be upstart competitor would have abide by. Hence they are more 'legal' just counted by number of regulations they comply with. Banks ain't great places to work for. (But I don't think you can build a good rule out of that. I think what determines a great culture more is how high the opportunity cost is for employees to just go and get a new job that at least as good. Googlers can just walk away, and get a decent job anywhere else: so Google has to treat them nicely. Retail assistants in depressed East Germany in the 90s had almost no other options, especially since legislation basically forced companies to pay above market clearing rate; you can imagine what bosses got away with on such a captive labour supply.)
taneq 9y ago
Could be. Downright illegal is more honest, 'skirting the rules' is weaselly.
SmellTheGlove 9y ago
That sounds reasonable. Knowing what you are versus trying to rationalize away the behavior might very well foster different environments. Interesting thought.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago

I think it's a matter of scale, as well. Small criminal groups can be fine, because the small size tends towards better working habits. Large criminal groups have a reputation for brutality. Very different effects come in to play once you have layers of middle management.