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I can't make sense of your comment. > you don't pay more to person A to entice person B to enhance your team That has nothing to do with the "dream team" idea

I can't make sense of your comment. > you don't pay more to person A to entice person B to enhance your team That has nothing to do with the "dream team" idea. It's a metaphor referring to the 1992 USA Olympics basketball team [1] that included: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Charles Barkley ... and a few other of the most famous all-star basketball players. The coach was the famous Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. This was made possible by a rule change that allowed professional basketball players to play for the first time in the Olympics. This team went to win the gold medal. The closest score in the eight olympic matches was 117-85. In other words, the "dream team" utterly dominated. Netflix does not try to make do with what they have. They try to assemble a "dream team" for each thing they do. I saw Netflix be pretty successful at it while I was there. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_United_States_men%27s_Olympic_basketball_team https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_United_States_men%27s_Oly...

gmichnikov 4y ago
Mentioning Ewing but not Larry Legend... Ouch. Also Chuck Daly was the coach.
- sanjosethrow7f2 4y ago
throwaway_1928 4y ago
And now the time has come for the Netflix dream team. Stock down 72% in 6 months.
- alchemyromcom 4y ago
  You know it's kind of funny, because many former Olympic dream teams have famously fallen short from time to time. The most noteworthy is the American basketball team losing early rounds to smaller countries, but also Canadian Hockey "dream teams" being knocked out of early rounds too. Every so often there are upsets, even if you do have a "dream team". https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/lists/team-usa-basketball-every-shocking-loss-since-the-dream-team-era/ https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/lists/team-usa-basketball-ev...
  - jader201 4y ago
    “Upset” is usually used to refer to a one-off, when a team expected to win has been defeated by an underdog, but then the team often returns to their former level of dominance. So your analogy suggests Netflix will quickly return to its former glory days. I think this is premature, at best, if not incredibly optimistic. I think this is the beginning of a long uphill battle for Netflix, and that if they ever return to their former glory days, it will be much further down the road than what is a typical recover from an upset. I’m not convinced they ever will be the same. Not even close.
  - kamaal 4y ago
    This reminds me of my friends who are generally disappointed when the English team with their favorite 'premier league' players loses to other teams in the world cup. Turns out great players in a league are playing in a specific team configuration, and the context of the league in general is very different compared to a competition between national teams at the world cup level.
- freyr 4y ago
  So is it time for Hastings and Sarandos to get cut from the team? They’re clearly not achieving dream team results lately, and it has nothing to do with the worker bees.
  - throwaway_1928 4y ago
    "Rules for thee but not for me"
  - weq 4y ago
    I cant beleive they say with a straight face they have a dream when when they cant even implement a search catalogue correctly! People are leaving netflix because its value propersition is sh*t. Its dream-team algorithm is eating its profit and so full of wankers no one has noticed. The amount of times ive herad an ex-netflixer tell me they never saw the content i saw is just the writing on the wall. You had an early mover advantage and the dream team dropped the ball! The only reason your a house-hold name is because of account sharing your users will never pay what will make you profitable. People have left Network TV and the news. Creators no longer dream of Hollywood. Actors are moving to direct to fan engagements. Movies are just re-hashing classics. The world has moved on.
    - petre 4y ago
      > I cant beleive they say with a straight face they have a dream when when they cant even implement a search catalogue correctly! s/can't/won't/ I believe they're gamifying their app to be the software equivalent of a discount retail outlet clothes bin. You get frustrated with the experience and just pick something. Now they're going to put ads in their app. The moment I start seeing ads is the goodbye netflix moment.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - nix23 4y ago
        Gamify? Finding Movies that are not even playable/available?
tomc1985 4y ago
I think GP is referring to the obnoxious type-A personalities that dominate management where everything has to be the best (or at least be presented as such) and virtuous (hah!) competition weeds out the weak. They like to see themselves as moneymaking stablemasters cultivating fine workhorses for their shareholders. I personally had a manager refer to me as an athlete on a big-league sports team (I was a software developer), and it was incredibly off-putting. I don't like athletes, I don't like sports or athletics, and I don't like zero-sum bullshit at work. If I didn't like the guy otherwise he would have been one of the wankers GP is referring to.
scarface74 4y ago
Netflix isn’t “successful” as a business. It thought of itself as a technology company instead of a content company. It’s content is second rate compared to its competitors were able to throw money at companies like BamTech (now owned by Disney) to have “good enough” technology. Yes it’s “profitable”. But until last year, it was having to borrow more money than if was making just to produce and acquire content and the acquired content was ripped away from them by their competitors.
- xupybd 4y ago
  If found Netflix to be better than Disney for content. Amazon prime is a close second to Netflix and loads better than Disney. I'm in NZ maybe our catalog is that different?
  - namelessoracle 4y ago
    Netflix with VPN is vastly vastly better than US Netflix for sure. Of course they now aggressively block the VPN services for some reason :(
UmbertoNoEco 4y ago
> The coach was the famous Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. The coach was Chuck Daly. In any case, all of this is just the usual self-serving blah blah of top executives to rationalize to extract as much value as possible from the employees while minimizing the cost. I suppose that's the rational, cold thing to do, but I could be spared from the BS discourse.
gonehome 4y ago
This is just a cultural divide “dream team” to someone from the UK would be met with a harsh eye roll at best. There’s some irony here though - UK software companies pay shit. Netflix engineers were routinely making 400-800k in cash with a similar amount of severance if it didn’t work out. Wanker talk aside, I’d rather be at Netflix with top compensation than a UK software company paying devs 60k/yr with heavy top down management.
- sph 4y ago
  Sure, use a top US tech company with a random UK company as your example, also prices are not in line with market rates. I earned twice as much in a £1M/yr revenue small company. That said, the price comparison between US and Europe is always ignoring the myriad of economic difference between the two places, and in this case whether you're working for wankers that only care about their dream team or where you're treated like a decent human being and not a human resource. There's a reason why many UK developers stay here and don't move to the Silicon Valley to work for Netflix for half a million dollars a year. Not because we're all idiots.
  - nivenkos 4y ago
    > There's a reason why many UK developers stay here and don't move to the Silicon Valley to work for Netflix for half a million dollars a year. Because it's incredibly hard to get a work visa, and it comes with a lot of restrictions. It's better for the US corporations to keep us as colonies of cheap labour for offshoring.
    - sph 4y ago
      No, that's not the only factor. It may come as a surprise to some, but not everyone wants to live in the US, or live the US company life. I couldn't care less about getting a work visa and doubling my salary if it means I have to live in Silicon Valley. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying it's not for me, and for many others. $250k/yr in Europe > $500k/yr in US, especially since in Europe that would put me somewhere in the 1% and I would live like a prince pretty much everywhere. And more personally, $250k/yr at a company I enjoy > $1M/yr at a FAANG. I have no interest in getting filthy rich working for any of those companies, but YMMV.
3by7 4y ago
> The coach was the famous Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. Mike K. was part of the coaching team, led by Chuck Daly.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
nix23 4y ago
>They try to assemble a "dream team" for each thing they do. Uhh yeah the Star Trek "dream team" is really something else ;)
honkdaddy 4y ago
That was a cool read. I knew there were some American basketball legends in the 90s but I had no idea the sheer level of dominance they had over the rest of the world. > The team has been described by journalists around the world as the greatest sports team ever assembled. > The team defeated Cuba 136–57, prompting Cuban coach Miguel Calderón Gómez to say, "You can't cover the sun with your finger."[33] Marv Albert, who announced the game, recalled that "it was as if [the Americans] were playing a high school team, or grade school team. They were so overwhelming ... a blowout after blowout."[16] The Cubans were the first of many opponents who were more interested in taking photos with the Americans than playing them.

gmichnikov 4y ago

Mentioning Ewing but not Larry Legend... Ouch. Also Chuck Daly was the coach.

sanjosethrow7f2 4y ago

throwaway_1928 4y ago

And now the time has come for the Netflix dream team. Stock down 72% in 6 months.

alchemyromcom 4y ago
You know it's kind of funny, because many former Olympic dream teams have famously fallen short from time to time. The most noteworthy is the American basketball team losing early rounds to smaller countries, but also Canadian Hockey "dream teams" being knocked out of early rounds too. Every so often there are upsets, even if you do have a "dream team". https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/lists/team-usa-basketball-every-shocking-loss-since-the-dream-team-era/ https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/lists/team-usa-basketball-ev...
- jader201 4y ago
  “Upset” is usually used to refer to a one-off, when a team expected to win has been defeated by an underdog, but then the team often returns to their former level of dominance. So your analogy suggests Netflix will quickly return to its former glory days. I think this is premature, at best, if not incredibly optimistic. I think this is the beginning of a long uphill battle for Netflix, and that if they ever return to their former glory days, it will be much further down the road than what is a typical recover from an upset. I’m not convinced they ever will be the same. Not even close.
- kamaal 4y ago
  This reminds me of my friends who are generally disappointed when the English team with their favorite 'premier league' players loses to other teams in the world cup. Turns out great players in a league are playing in a specific team configuration, and the context of the league in general is very different compared to a competition between national teams at the world cup level.
freyr 4y ago
So is it time for Hastings and Sarandos to get cut from the team? They’re clearly not achieving dream team results lately, and it has nothing to do with the worker bees.
- throwaway_1928 4y ago
  "Rules for thee but not for me"
- weq 4y ago
  I cant beleive they say with a straight face they have a dream when when they cant even implement a search catalogue correctly! People are leaving netflix because its value propersition is sh*t. Its dream-team algorithm is eating its profit and so full of wankers no one has noticed. The amount of times ive herad an ex-netflixer tell me they never saw the content i saw is just the writing on the wall. You had an early mover advantage and the dream team dropped the ball! The only reason your a house-hold name is because of account sharing your users will never pay what will make you profitable. People have left Network TV and the news. Creators no longer dream of Hollywood. Actors are moving to direct to fan engagements. Movies are just re-hashing classics. The world has moved on.
  - petre 4y ago
    > I cant beleive they say with a straight face they have a dream when when they cant even implement a search catalogue correctly! s/can't/won't/ I believe they're gamifying their app to be the software equivalent of a discount retail outlet clothes bin. You get frustrated with the experience and just pick something. Now they're going to put ads in their app. The moment I start seeing ads is the goodbye netflix moment.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - nix23 4y ago
      Gamify? Finding Movies that are not even playable/available?

tomc1985 4y ago

I think GP is referring to the obnoxious type-A personalities that dominate management where everything has to be the best (or at least be presented as such) and virtuous (hah!) competition weeds out the weak. They like to see themselves as moneymaking stablemasters cultivating fine workhorses for their shareholders. I personally had a manager refer to me as an athlete on a big-league sports team (I was a software developer), and it was incredibly off-putting. I don't like athletes, I don't like sports or athletics, and I don't like zero-sum bullshit at work. If I didn't like the guy otherwise he would have been one of the wankers GP is referring to.

scarface74 4y ago

Netflix isn’t “successful” as a business. It thought of itself as a technology company instead of a content company. It’s content is second rate compared to its competitors were able to throw money at companies like BamTech (now owned by Disney) to have “good enough” technology. Yes it’s “profitable”. But until last year, it was having to borrow more money than if was making just to produce and acquire content and the acquired content was ripped away from them by their competitors.

xupybd 4y ago
If found Netflix to be better than Disney for content. Amazon prime is a close second to Netflix and loads better than Disney. I'm in NZ maybe our catalog is that different?
- namelessoracle 4y ago
  Netflix with VPN is vastly vastly better than US Netflix for sure. Of course they now aggressively block the VPN services for some reason :(

UmbertoNoEco 4y ago

> The coach was the famous Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. The coach was Chuck Daly. In any case, all of this is just the usual self-serving blah blah of top executives to rationalize to extract as much value as possible from the employees while minimizing the cost. I suppose that's the rational, cold thing to do, but I could be spared from the BS discourse.

gonehome 4y ago

This is just a cultural divide “dream team” to someone from the UK would be met with a harsh eye roll at best. There’s some irony here though - UK software companies pay shit. Netflix engineers were routinely making 400-800k in cash with a similar amount of severance if it didn’t work out. Wanker talk aside, I’d rather be at Netflix with top compensation than a UK software company paying devs 60k/yr with heavy top down management.

sph 4y ago
Sure, use a top US tech company with a random UK company as your example, also prices are not in line with market rates. I earned twice as much in a £1M/yr revenue small company. That said, the price comparison between US and Europe is always ignoring the myriad of economic difference between the two places, and in this case whether you're working for wankers that only care about their dream team or where you're treated like a decent human being and not a human resource. There's a reason why many UK developers stay here and don't move to the Silicon Valley to work for Netflix for half a million dollars a year. Not because we're all idiots.
- nivenkos 4y ago
  > There's a reason why many UK developers stay here and don't move to the Silicon Valley to work for Netflix for half a million dollars a year. Because it's incredibly hard to get a work visa, and it comes with a lot of restrictions. It's better for the US corporations to keep us as colonies of cheap labour for offshoring.
  - sph 4y ago
    No, that's not the only factor. It may come as a surprise to some, but not everyone wants to live in the US, or live the US company life. I couldn't care less about getting a work visa and doubling my salary if it means I have to live in Silicon Valley. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying it's not for me, and for many others. $250k/yr in Europe > $500k/yr in US, especially since in Europe that would put me somewhere in the 1% and I would live like a prince pretty much everywhere. And more personally, $250k/yr at a company I enjoy > $1M/yr at a FAANG. I have no interest in getting filthy rich working for any of those companies, but YMMV.

3by7 4y ago

> The coach was the famous Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. Mike K. was part of the coaching team, led by Chuck Daly.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nix23 4y ago

>They try to assemble a "dream team" for each thing they do. Uhh yeah the Star Trek "dream team" is really something else ;)

honkdaddy 4y ago

That was a cool read. I knew there were some American basketball legends in the 90s but I had no idea the sheer level of dominance they had over the rest of the world. > The team has been described by journalists around the world as the greatest sports team ever assembled. > The team defeated Cuba 136–57, prompting Cuban coach Miguel Calderón Gómez to say, "You can't cover the sun with your finger."[33] Marv Albert, who announced the game, recalled that "it was as if [the Americans] were playing a high school team, or grade school team. They were so overwhelming ... a blowout after blowout."[16] The Cubans were the first of many opponents who were more interested in taking photos with the Americans than playing them.