7 ms·

Agreed, except for one point. Please don't call it a windfall. Anyone in that company that would have seen life changing amounts of money has likely put incred

Agreed, except for one point. Please don't call it a windfall. Anyone in that company that would have seen life changing amounts of money has likely put incredible effort and hard work into making this happen.

jamestimmins 6y ago
Interesting, I just thought a windfall meant "a lot of money at once", but it looks like you're right that it implies luck. So agreed, a different word would be more accurate here.
- Talanes 6y ago
  But obviously some element of luck is present here. Unless we're willing to say that the success or failure of the merger is entirely on how hard each employee worked.
roflc0ptic 6y ago
I mean, nobody reasonably joins a startup and expects to make buku bucks. It’s “unexpected good fortune” from my perspective, and certainly seems to qualify as a windfall.
- delecti 6y ago
  "Buku"? Beaucoup?
  - wrsh07 6y ago
    Yes, it's an intentional misspelling
supernova87a 6y ago
Well, maybe it isn't a "windfall" to someone who lives in the tech world and comes to expect such good fortune and thinks their effort should be rewarded in an outsized way. I'm sure we think it's deserved in a relative sense. But it is most definitely a windfall to the rest of the world (even the rest of the country), who work equally hard, under worse conditions, for their entire lives and cannot even hope to earn say 1/5 the wealth that a tech worker can accumulate after his/her first job. To have a payday of millions of $ fall out of the sky, for toiling the same as others trying to make a living, yet also being lucky to be in the right place and the right time to have it rewarded.
- Grimm1 6y ago
  It's almost like startups have non technical workers that also have an equity stake in the companies they work for. This comment strikes me as almost entirely out of touch. No one expects these results, most people never see a startup they work for successfully exit let alone to the tune of billions. "Being in the right place at the right time" sure it's partly that but if you think you're getting there without some really hard work you'd be sorely mistaken. Also startups everywhere need good folks to work for them it's not like this is some secret club to get into, many people just have no risk tolerance for one reason or another. You're line of thinking really get's at me because the reality is a lot more than luck goes into things even if the current popular line of thinking is to suggest otherwise. Especially on a community that was established initially to talk about startups.
  - supernova87a 6y ago
    Everyone works hard, and yes some work harder than others. And no one is saying that tech workers randomly won the lottery and should shut up and just be grateful. But to imagine that suddenly having the fruits of your labor yield 10-100x the wealth that others in life can ever hope to produce, and think that it's just your hard work and not a function of having been blessed both with good talents and an environment in which your value can be exploited -- is sheer arrogance not to acknowledge that. Or be offended that someone points it out. What does being on HN have to do with keeping a sense of reality? We need to create a protective bubble of thought that doesn't offend millionaires? As Warren Buffett has said, "I was born with a talent for capital allocation. If I had been born in rural Africa, my talents might never have given me the wealth I have today. I would not be so different from my secretary. Our positions might even be reversed. I thank America for that difference." Maybe the word windfall triggers you in a way that suggests it should be taken away and you didn't "deserve it". No one said that. Yet also, everyone in such a fortunate position tends to grow to think they deserve it fully as a result of their talents and work. When in fact an objective person should see how much the factors have aligned to give you this gift. Just because you read HN doesn't mean you are exempted from realizing how lucky you are. We're not that much of a bubble I hope.

jamestimmins 6y ago

Interesting, I just thought a windfall meant "a lot of money at once", but it looks like you're right that it implies luck. So agreed, a different word would be more accurate here.

Talanes 6y ago
But obviously some element of luck is present here. Unless we're willing to say that the success or failure of the merger is entirely on how hard each employee worked.

roflc0ptic 6y ago

I mean, nobody reasonably joins a startup and expects to make buku bucks. It’s “unexpected good fortune” from my perspective, and certainly seems to qualify as a windfall.

delecti 6y ago
"Buku"? Beaucoup?
- wrsh07 6y ago
  Yes, it's an intentional misspelling

supernova87a 6y ago

Well, maybe it isn't a "windfall" to someone who lives in the tech world and comes to expect such good fortune and thinks their effort should be rewarded in an outsized way. I'm sure we think it's deserved in a relative sense. But it is most definitely a windfall to the rest of the world (even the rest of the country), who work equally hard, under worse conditions, for their entire lives and cannot even hope to earn say 1/5 the wealth that a tech worker can accumulate after his/her first job. To have a payday of millions of $ fall out of the sky, for toiling the same as others trying to make a living, yet also being lucky to be in the right place and the right time to have it rewarded.

Grimm1 6y ago
It's almost like startups have non technical workers that also have an equity stake in the companies they work for. This comment strikes me as almost entirely out of touch. No one expects these results, most people never see a startup they work for successfully exit let alone to the tune of billions. "Being in the right place at the right time" sure it's partly that but if you think you're getting there without some really hard work you'd be sorely mistaken. Also startups everywhere need good folks to work for them it's not like this is some secret club to get into, many people just have no risk tolerance for one reason or another. You're line of thinking really get's at me because the reality is a lot more than luck goes into things even if the current popular line of thinking is to suggest otherwise. Especially on a community that was established initially to talk about startups.
- supernova87a 6y ago
  Everyone works hard, and yes some work harder than others. And no one is saying that tech workers randomly won the lottery and should shut up and just be grateful. But to imagine that suddenly having the fruits of your labor yield 10-100x the wealth that others in life can ever hope to produce, and think that it's just your hard work and not a function of having been blessed both with good talents and an environment in which your value can be exploited -- is sheer arrogance not to acknowledge that. Or be offended that someone points it out. What does being on HN have to do with keeping a sense of reality? We need to create a protective bubble of thought that doesn't offend millionaires? As Warren Buffett has said, "I was born with a talent for capital allocation. If I had been born in rural Africa, my talents might never have given me the wealth I have today. I would not be so different from my secretary. Our positions might even be reversed. I thank America for that difference." Maybe the word windfall triggers you in a way that suggests it should be taken away and you didn't "deserve it". No one said that. Yet also, everyone in such a fortunate position tends to grow to think they deserve it fully as a result of their talents and work. When in fact an objective person should see how much the factors have aligned to give you this gift. Just because you read HN doesn't mean you are exempted from realizing how lucky you are. We're not that much of a bubble I hope.