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I would have expected stuff like: - expertise or at least competency related to the domain - social currency, ability to influence/convince people - stamina

by dgb23 4y ago

I would have expected stuff like: - expertise or at least competency related to the domain - social currency, ability to influence/convince people - stamina and fortitude Most of the points in the very short article are about "don't be an asshole to your employees", which is certainly a good thing and what people should be doing. But I can think of quite a few outrageously successful founders who have been insufferable dickheads. I think my second point above might be the single most important one. I have no data to back it up, but I feel like if you can just make people do what you want in some way or another (and that includes customers, workers, partners etc.) then you're set up for success. At least short or midterm (a few years). I think this is a bad thing because it is quite arbitrary and stupid. I say that in a loving way. I wish we (humans) were not that dumb.

rgbrenner 4y ago
Your points are all correct.. but this article isn’t written for startups. When you work at trillion dollar company that likes to think of itself as a small nimble startup, you write articles like this… the point isn’t to help startups, it’s to influence people in the organization to behave in a certain way by attributing the behavior you want to another group you admire. Google doesn’t care about creating a successful startup.. they do care about how their employees work together. A slightly less cynical take is that when Google "studies" startups, they dont recognize problems like you describe because creating a startup isnt a problem they are faced with. But cultural issues exist everywhere, and so those are the problems that the person sees and addresses in their writeup. The result is the same either way. You're not going to get startup lessons from one of the largest companies in the world.
itronitron 4y ago
I'd love it if people would just do what they say they are going to do, and I think a lot of companies would be great places to work at if that turned out to be the case.

by dgb23 4y ago

rgbrenner 4y ago

Your points are all correct.. but this article isn’t written for startups. When you work at trillion dollar company that likes to think of itself as a small nimble startup, you write articles like this… the point isn’t to help startups, it’s to influence people in the organization to behave in a certain way by attributing the behavior you want to another group you admire. Google doesn’t care about creating a successful startup.. they do care about how their employees work together. A slightly less cynical take is that when Google "studies" startups, they dont recognize problems like you describe because creating a startup isnt a problem they are faced with. But cultural issues exist everywhere, and so those are the problems that the person sees and addresses in their writeup. The result is the same either way. You're not going to get startup lessons from one of the largest companies in the world.

itronitron 4y ago

I'd love it if people would just do what they say they are going to do, and I think a lot of companies would be great places to work at if that turned out to be the case.