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This is crazy, he's a veritable legend (and so young). RIP. My condolences go out to his friends and family. Maybe related to his stepping down 3 months ago[1]?
by dvt 6y ago
This is crazy, he's a veritable legend (and so young). RIP. My condolences go out to his friends and family. Maybe related to his stepping down 3 months ago[1]?
My comment from that 3-month-old thread, regarding Hsieh: From 2015-2017, I worked at Edmunds.com which was (to put it lightly) a bit obsessed with "Delivering Happiness" and Zappos' culture. So much so, that the leadership team visited Vegas to get a tour of the Zappos HQ (this was before I joined). But Edmunds based their entire cultural approach, including hiring, interviewing, and onboarding on Zappos.
The Edmunds onboarding experience has been by far the best out of any company I worked at. Sure, it was silly games and scavenger hunts that didn't really have anything to do with "work," but I look back at the entire experience with a lot of nostalgia. I loved the onboarding so much, I've been contemplating doing a startup that literally just focuses on improving cultural onborading at companies. It made my first few months at Edmunds not only incredibly productive, but also intellectually and socially stimulating.
And they were doing something right. Over there, I had the honor of working with one of the best managers I ever had (he's now at Amazon), and with one of the best software architects I've ever worked with (he's now at Facebook). My team was made up of motivated, smart, folks from all walks of life (recent grads to data science PhD's in their 50s). I still keep in touch with my old team even though we're spread all over these days: doing our own startups, at Facebook, Uber, Amazon, and beyond.
I have the utmost respect for the cultural revolution that entrepreneurs like Tony Hsieh brought to the fore. People that call it a "cult" are missing the point. It's no more a cult than cheering for your school mascot or being in a club. We seem to forget that people are inherently social and need a sense of belonging.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24268522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24268522
- dclusin 6y agoWhat sticks out to me in your comment is that in spite of all your nice words about their culture, the nicest/best people you worked with still left for other companies. I suspect it was probably a 20% pay raise that convinced them to.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dvt 6y agoI left to do my own startup -- which will, (un)fortunately, probably always be my end-game :) and in the months following my departure, the company really did take a cultural hit (after significant layoffs), so a lot of good folks left.
- ljlolel 6y agoto be fair, with FB it was probably more like 50 or over 100% pay raise
- asveikau 6y agoI have no knowledge of either company mentioned, but sometimes people leave and it's not personal, especially with the passage of time. Although, reading that comment again, 2015-2017 was not that long ago.
- baccheion 6y agoA better work environment doesn't have any effect on tenure. Only the extremes make a difference. That is, lower when extremely bad and a bit longer when extremely good. According to the BLS, median tenure is 2.x years for those 25-34. For those 35-44, it's 4.x years. Keeps going up with age, peaking at 10.x years starting in the 50s. Not much seems to change it in a relevant way, maybe another many companies are blah in this regard: not worth the money/time/effort. Just mumble some BS to look good to the world, then repeat as the same dead company. The BS isn't even mumbled to recruit, as it also doesn't have any effect there. The only ones in a position to be affected by such marketing are new grads, a group typically viewed as worthless and that have to take what they get. It's all just air in the winds.
- ftio 6y agoI don’t doubt what you’re saying, but can you link to a source on this? Highly relevant to some work I’m considering, and I’ve been looking for additional data on this for a bit.
- dylan604 6y agoThat's interesting. The first job I had starting in college was a 7 year stint. I started in one of the entry level jobs, but the company had lots of upward positions and they liked to hire from within. The second job I had was another 7 year stint. It wasn't until after that before my resume started to have those shorter durations at various places.
- rtx 6y agoIf you look it from a different angle, the culture allowed Edmunds access to talent who were motivated enough to reach these bigger companies.
- soperj 6y ago>Maybe related to his stepping down 3 months ago He died from injuries related to a house fire. So likely not.
- narshian 6y agoLet’s see the autopsy
- nodoodles 6y agoWhere could I learn more about the onboarding practices? Sounds super interesting!
- smt88 6y ago> Maybe related to his stepping down 3 months ago The cause of death has been released. He died in a house fire. Edit: Died of injuries sustained in the fire, not in the house itself. My point was just that there seems not to be any behavioral reason that this happened.
- tyingq 6y agoSounds like he died some time after the house fire, due to the injuries incurred. "Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos, died peacefully and surrounded by family on Friday, according to a statement emailed to CNN by Megan Fazio, a spokesperson for DTP Companies, a Las Vegas-based enterprise for which Hsieh served as the visionary. Hsieh, 46, died from injuries sustained in a house fire that occurred in Connecticut while he was visiting family, according to Fazio." https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/us/tony-hsieh-zappos-dies/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/us/tony-hsieh-zappos-dies...
- mooreds 6y agoToo young, too young. Not that there's ever a time when it feels right to lose a loved one, but wow, he was in the prime of his life.
- xoxoy 6y agoFound it very strange to say that he died “peacefully” when he died because of injuries from a house fire a week earlier.
- loeg 6y agoIt's a polite euphemism.
- leroy_masochist 6y agohttps://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/man-suffers-substantial-burns-after-house-fire-in-stratford-fd/2368281/ https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/man-suffers-substa...