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Perhaps I miss something for cultural reasons (I am not a US citizen nor do I live in the USA): > The tech is amazing, but this is a company owned by a consort
by wolfgke 9y ago
Perhaps I miss something for cultural reasons (I am not a US citizen nor do I live in the USA):
> The tech is amazing, but this is a company owned by a consortium of big hotels (Marriot, Sheraton, etc) and they have no interest in feeding a disruptive startup that threatens their business. Rather, they simply want RoomKey to exist so they can use it as leverage in negotiations with Expedia and Orbitz and maybe Kayak. In other words, they want to be able to say "Give us a better percentage of revenue or we will fully fund RoomKey and you will be sorry."
> This truth is obvious to the tech at programmer, and they find it immensely frustrating.
Why is this so frustrating to the programmers working there? They can work with interesting technology (e.g. Clojure). Yes, because of the incentives it will probably not become a really huge company, but again: where is the problem if they earn a good salary?
- Gravityloss 9y agoBecause you want achieve positive things in your life's work, not pass time.
- watwut 9y agoBoring repetitive project in closure is still boring.
- ACow_Adonis 9y agoBecause technology is the means, not the ends. Many of us work with tech not because we're fetishists for proximity or status of technology, but because we recognise that the technology is a means to actually do something meaningful in the world. Have no meaning in the work that we do, and job-wise we'll be as happy working with tech as we were flipping burgers at McDonald's: pay and conditions aside obviously.
- wolfgke 9y ago> Have no meaning in the work that we do To create a website that serves as an important bollock against other travel websites that endanger the company that pays you is not what I would call meaningless.