4 ms·

Naivety and gullibility.

koolba 9y ago
The question is about working there, not being a customer. If you’re paid in cash and willing to deal with some job volatility I see no issue with working at one. I’d suggest vetting their idea / angle first though.
- workthrowaway27 9y ago
  I do wonder how future employers will view working at a lot of these companies in the future once the hype is gone and they're out of business (not just confined to blockchain/cryptocurrency stuff). Right now it's easy to find work because there's a lot of easy money propping up companies of dubious worth, but at some point that's got to stop.
  - Drdrdrq 9y ago
    Given the lack of developers in general I can't imagine this being an issue. Besides, most of the work at "blockchain companies" is just your old boring engineering.
  - gknoy 9y ago
    Let's imagine that Lyft, or Pinterest, or Yahoo end up failing for $BusinessReasons. I don't think future employers would hold that against you, an employee, especially since you've surely been able to build skills that are useful for more than that domain. (E.g., my company's domain is telecom, but nearly all of the work I do in my job is building microservices and UI apps that consume them -- hardly domain specific.) I think the only time you'd need to worry would be if you were working for a company that turned out to be profoundly unethical (such as the one we've been reading about these past few weeks). Regular engineers probably had nothing to do with most of that, but I'd not be surprised if some future employers asked some questions about that.
- PeterisP 9y ago
  If (for whatever reason) you truly believe that what your employer is selling requires customers to be naive and gullible, then being paid in cash and willing to deal with some job volatility isn't sufficient, you also need a lack of ethics to work at one.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 9y ago
  If your customers have to be naive and gullible for the company to succeed (even if it's for the very short term) didn't that used to be called a 'scam'? Not sure I'm imagining or if it's real but cynicism is strong recently. I get the idealism around startups got a bit overblown but there's got to be some people who still want to work on something that 'makes the world a better place' even if it's in a small way.
justin66 9y ago
As well as a pretty big shovel and some boots.
j45 9y ago
There is a special amount of learning that can occur when bring able to keep the mindset of a curious and innocent beginner.

The question is about working there, not being a customer. If you’re paid in cash and willing to deal with some job volatility I see no issue with working at one. I’d suggest vetting their idea / angle first though.

workthrowaway27 9y ago
I do wonder how future employers will view working at a lot of these companies in the future once the hype is gone and they're out of business (not just confined to blockchain/cryptocurrency stuff). Right now it's easy to find work because there's a lot of easy money propping up companies of dubious worth, but at some point that's got to stop.
- Drdrdrq 9y ago
  Given the lack of developers in general I can't imagine this being an issue. Besides, most of the work at "blockchain companies" is just your old boring engineering.
- gknoy 9y ago
  Let's imagine that Lyft, or Pinterest, or Yahoo end up failing for $BusinessReasons. I don't think future employers would hold that against you, an employee, especially since you've surely been able to build skills that are useful for more than that domain. (E.g., my company's domain is telecom, but nearly all of the work I do in my job is building microservices and UI apps that consume them -- hardly domain specific.) I think the only time you'd need to worry would be if you were working for a company that turned out to be profoundly unethical (such as the one we've been reading about these past few weeks). Regular engineers probably had nothing to do with most of that, but I'd not be surprised if some future employers asked some questions about that.
PeterisP 9y ago
If (for whatever reason) you truly believe that what your employer is selling requires customers to be naive and gullible, then being paid in cash and willing to deal with some job volatility isn't sufficient, you also need a lack of ethics to work at one.
ajeet_dhaliwal 9y ago
If your customers have to be naive and gullible for the company to succeed (even if it's for the very short term) didn't that used to be called a 'scam'? Not sure I'm imagining or if it's real but cynicism is strong recently. I get the idealism around startups got a bit overblown but there's got to be some people who still want to work on something that 'makes the world a better place' even if it's in a small way.

justin66 9y ago

As well as a pretty big shovel and some boots.

j45 9y ago

There is a special amount of learning that can occur when bring able to keep the mindset of a curious and innocent beginner.