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Beautiful website. I also think this is the same guy who had to ask Musk if he was fired because HR couldn't confirm it. Maybe it was a mistake to let him ago,

Beautiful website. I also think this is the same guy who had to ask Musk if he was fired because HR couldn't confirm it. Maybe it was a mistake to let him ago, he seems to be pretty talented actually.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
francislavoie 4y ago
Yep. Here's the saga: https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632947160416149504 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632947160416149504 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705
- wood_spirit 4y ago
  It’s sad but he’ll probably forever now be remembered as “that guy who got publicly fired on Twitter by Musk” rather than Iceland’s person of the year 2022 and all the great philanthropy he’s done :(
  - vaidhy 4y ago
    I wonder if that will be the new badge of honor
    - rideontime 4y ago
      It already is, in some people's opinions.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    No, he won't. Things like this are "hot news this week" while the other things are accomplishments in life. He'll surely be remembered for the much more important things he has done and the much more important things he'll do in the future.
  - mr_woozy 4y ago
    Icelander here, we're all a bit chuffed at the moment that the world is recognizing what a cool individual he is. We already knew it here.
  - archagon 4y ago
    Personally, I just learned about a really interesting new person to follow. (Too bad he’s not on Mastodon.)
  - runarberg 4y ago
    He was already a celebrity in Iceland. So much so that he acted in the end of year comedy show (which is the nr. 1 television event in Iceland) despite not being an actor (which is rare; kind of like appearing in the Superbowl for Americans, or Eurovision for Europeans [although now I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there also next May]). In one recent event he had the president come and vandalize a poster for his ramp project with a spray can, striking out 1000 ramps and spraying 1500 rapms over it. Internationally he might be most known for this, but in Iceland he is known for far more. I have no doubt people will laugh with him in the next end of year comedy show about this incident, and then continue supporting him in his disability activism.
  - rvbissell 4y ago
    I dunno, "Publicly fired by Elon!™" is a strong resume flex.
- junofan 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - brigadier132 4y ago
    I believe him when he says he was asking for work and nobody gave him anything to do. I've had that happen to me many times at the "best" tech companies. Yes not having work to give people is a valid reason to lay someone off but not to publicly humiliate them and be cruel.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - yunohn 4y ago
    I think you're describing all managerial positions if you think he was coasting.
  - yardie 4y ago
    Twitter acquired his company and kept him on as an employee. A lot of times founders end up having to coast because the buyer is still trying to sort out how to merge the tech. The founder is basically on garden leave/on-call tech support until a strategy is in place. Some never get there, vest a few years, and start a new company.
    - wjnc 4y ago
      They kept him on as ‘senior director’ in his words. I think the senior directors in my company are quite capable as senior directors setting strategy, priority, creating valuable work environments and sometimes add some value in tactics and logistics. Never, ever are they to do any work. Don’t let them touch customers, processes or god forbid use any tooling. It’s been decades for the most of them. De facto demotion is a sorry excuse for firing with a good package. Notable exception for the phase nearing retirement where awesome firms put these types in risk management and audit.
  - 206lol 4y ago
- bmitc 4y ago
  There were front page posts on this earlier today, but both were flagged and buried by Hacker News. Thread on person of the year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35056098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35056098 Thread on Twitter saga: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839
  - mustacheemperor 4y ago
    Disappointing to see they were flagged, but moreso to see the apparent ratio between downvotes and negative comments on those threads. Apparently a large subset of the community felt those posts should be removed from the front page, but didn’t feel obliged to explain why. It’s like Elon is becoming a radioactive element for this community’s health too. Edit: This submission also briefly showed as flagged sometime in the last 20m
    - mschuster91 4y ago
      People are sick and tired about constant news about Musk's latest crap antics, just like with Trump - basically, at least here in Europe, you can't go to bed and wake up without yet another newsflash of either a large Twitter outage or Elon Musk shitposting again. I get why people are exhausted, but the desensitization is dangerous on its own - when there are no consequences, people escalate their behavior... and Musk already has intervened to make Starlink less usable for Ukraine. I don't want that to continue.
      - 93po 4y ago
        > Musk already has intervened to make Starlink less usable for Ukraine. and here you are perpetuating the fake shit about Elon that gets everyone engaged. Elon doesn't want Starlink to be directly used on weapons to kill people. Would you also fault the World Nuclear Association for being willing to provide uranium to power Ukraine, but refusing to provide the same material for nuclear bombs? He has a right to determine whether he wants his technology to be used directly for offensive war efforts. He is still providing Starlink for general military operations and communications. He just doesn't want it directly enabling weapons.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
> Maybe it was a mistake I suspect many mistakes have been made. This isn't even anywhere near the Top Ten.
- CydeWeys 4y ago
  The way Elon is handling it on Twitter is uniquely bad, and could be opening Twitter up to massive discrimination liability. I would say this does actually make a top ten list.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    That's a good point. [UPDATED] > But as I told HR (I'm assuming that's the confidential health information you are sharing) I can't work as a hands on designer for the reasons outlined above. > Or even small companies, like Twitter today. That's gonna leave a mark.
    - colin_jack 4y ago
      Yeah its disgraceful behavior from Musk.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        I have a feeling that Halli is getting a lot of solicitations from solicitors. I suspect lawyers are salivating over the possibilities. Target-rich (very rich) environment... [UPDATE] and there's this: https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/1633176820072816640 https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/1633176820072816640 There will definitely be lawyers in the mix...
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
It’s one thing to decide that someone’s role is no longer necessary at a company. It’s business, things change, no role is guaranteed to exist forever. But firing someone without communication and with HR unable to confirm it is just low. Mocking them on Twitter for their well-documented physical disability is just abhorrent. This could have been a completely different exchange if the response was a simple “Sorry for the confusion, I’ll look into it and have HR get back to you ASAP.”
- vaidhy 4y ago
  It feels like the head of HR is asking elon for confirmation rather than having the information. In a well run company, you have institutional knowledge. In a dictatorship, all institutions are the dictator.
- bediger4000 4y ago
  > Mocking them on Twitter for their well-documented physical disability is just abhorrent. I agree, but we've allowed our upper class to do this since November 26, 2015.
  - rnk 4y ago
    You must be referring to the mocking of a reporter by TFG. I wouldn't say we allowed it. We elected one fool, he got almost dictatorial powers. It could literally lead to the end of our country. We are of course stuck in a dictatorship of the electoral collage at this point. Might as well call it the proletariat.
- jsheard 4y ago
  An interesting detail with this is that the purchase of Haraldur's design agency was structured as part of his salary at Twitter > In early 2021, Haraldur sold Ueno to Twitter. In an agreement between him and Twitter, most of the purchase price was paid as salary to maximize the tax he would pay for the sale in Iceland, he chose to pay for tax out of respect to Iceland for the disability benefits he received. Per the agreement, he paid the second highest tax of an individual in Iceland in 2021. Elon's focus on the work he was or wasn't doing is almost beside the point, because much of his salary was simply to pay off this debt. Now that he's been fired they'll either have to keep paying his salary anyway, or pay out the probably substantial amount he's owed as a lump sum. Haraldur has alluded to this in his tweets about getting "what he's owed" per his contract. Allegedly he was on a do-not-fire list for this reason, but it's unclear if Elon knew about any of this before jumping on the opportunity to punch down at a subordinate.
webworker 4y ago
He clearly is a fan of curious george
- asimpletune 4y ago
  I thought it was more Tin Tin.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

francislavoie 4y ago

Yep. Here's the saga: https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632947160416149504 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632947160416149504 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705 https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705

wood_spirit 4y ago
It’s sad but he’ll probably forever now be remembered as “that guy who got publicly fired on Twitter by Musk” rather than Iceland’s person of the year 2022 and all the great philanthropy he’s done :(
- vaidhy 4y ago
  I wonder if that will be the new badge of honor
  - rideontime 4y ago
    It already is, in some people's opinions.
- capableweb 4y ago
  No, he won't. Things like this are "hot news this week" while the other things are accomplishments in life. He'll surely be remembered for the much more important things he has done and the much more important things he'll do in the future.
- mr_woozy 4y ago
  Icelander here, we're all a bit chuffed at the moment that the world is recognizing what a cool individual he is. We already knew it here.
- archagon 4y ago
  Personally, I just learned about a really interesting new person to follow. (Too bad he’s not on Mastodon.)
- runarberg 4y ago
  He was already a celebrity in Iceland. So much so that he acted in the end of year comedy show (which is the nr. 1 television event in Iceland) despite not being an actor (which is rare; kind of like appearing in the Superbowl for Americans, or Eurovision for Europeans [although now I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there also next May]). In one recent event he had the president come and vandalize a poster for his ramp project with a spray can, striking out 1000 ramps and spraying 1500 rapms over it. Internationally he might be most known for this, but in Iceland he is known for far more. I have no doubt people will laugh with him in the next end of year comedy show about this incident, and then continue supporting him in his disability activism.
- rvbissell 4y ago
  I dunno, "Publicly fired by Elon!™" is a strong resume flex.
junofan 4y ago
[flagged]
- brigadier132 4y ago
  I believe him when he says he was asking for work and nobody gave him anything to do. I've had that happen to me many times at the "best" tech companies. Yes not having work to give people is a valid reason to lay someone off but not to publicly humiliate them and be cruel.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- yunohn 4y ago
  I think you're describing all managerial positions if you think he was coasting.
- yardie 4y ago
  Twitter acquired his company and kept him on as an employee. A lot of times founders end up having to coast because the buyer is still trying to sort out how to merge the tech. The founder is basically on garden leave/on-call tech support until a strategy is in place. Some never get there, vest a few years, and start a new company.
  - wjnc 4y ago
    They kept him on as ‘senior director’ in his words. I think the senior directors in my company are quite capable as senior directors setting strategy, priority, creating valuable work environments and sometimes add some value in tactics and logistics. Never, ever are they to do any work. Don’t let them touch customers, processes or god forbid use any tooling. It’s been decades for the most of them. De facto demotion is a sorry excuse for firing with a good package. Notable exception for the phase nearing retirement where awesome firms put these types in risk management and audit.
- 206lol 4y ago
bmitc 4y ago
There were front page posts on this earlier today, but both were flagged and buried by Hacker News. Thread on person of the year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35056098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35056098 Thread on Twitter saga: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35055839
- mustacheemperor 4y ago
  Disappointing to see they were flagged, but moreso to see the apparent ratio between downvotes and negative comments on those threads. Apparently a large subset of the community felt those posts should be removed from the front page, but didn’t feel obliged to explain why. It’s like Elon is becoming a radioactive element for this community’s health too. Edit: This submission also briefly showed as flagged sometime in the last 20m
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    People are sick and tired about constant news about Musk's latest crap antics, just like with Trump - basically, at least here in Europe, you can't go to bed and wake up without yet another newsflash of either a large Twitter outage or Elon Musk shitposting again. I get why people are exhausted, but the desensitization is dangerous on its own - when there are no consequences, people escalate their behavior... and Musk already has intervened to make Starlink less usable for Ukraine. I don't want that to continue.
    - 93po 4y ago
      > Musk already has intervened to make Starlink less usable for Ukraine. and here you are perpetuating the fake shit about Elon that gets everyone engaged. Elon doesn't want Starlink to be directly used on weapons to kill people. Would you also fault the World Nuclear Association for being willing to provide uranium to power Ukraine, but refusing to provide the same material for nuclear bombs? He has a right to determine whether he wants his technology to be used directly for offensive war efforts. He is still providing Starlink for general military operations and communications. He just doesn't want it directly enabling weapons.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

> Maybe it was a mistake I suspect many mistakes have been made. This isn't even anywhere near the Top Ten.

CydeWeys 4y ago
The way Elon is handling it on Twitter is uniquely bad, and could be opening Twitter up to massive discrimination liability. I would say this does actually make a top ten list.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  That's a good point. [UPDATED] > But as I told HR (I'm assuming that's the confidential health information you are sharing) I can't work as a hands on designer for the reasons outlined above. > Or even small companies, like Twitter today. That's gonna leave a mark.
  - colin_jack 4y ago
    Yeah its disgraceful behavior from Musk.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      I have a feeling that Halli is getting a lot of solicitations from solicitors. I suspect lawyers are salivating over the possibilities. Target-rich (very rich) environment... [UPDATE] and there's this: https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/1633176820072816640 https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/1633176820072816640 There will definitely be lawyers in the mix...

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

It’s one thing to decide that someone’s role is no longer necessary at a company. It’s business, things change, no role is guaranteed to exist forever. But firing someone without communication and with HR unable to confirm it is just low. Mocking them on Twitter for their well-documented physical disability is just abhorrent. This could have been a completely different exchange if the response was a simple “Sorry for the confusion, I’ll look into it and have HR get back to you ASAP.”

vaidhy 4y ago
It feels like the head of HR is asking elon for confirmation rather than having the information. In a well run company, you have institutional knowledge. In a dictatorship, all institutions are the dictator.
bediger4000 4y ago
> Mocking them on Twitter for their well-documented physical disability is just abhorrent. I agree, but we've allowed our upper class to do this since November 26, 2015.
- rnk 4y ago
  You must be referring to the mocking of a reporter by TFG. I wouldn't say we allowed it. We elected one fool, he got almost dictatorial powers. It could literally lead to the end of our country. We are of course stuck in a dictatorship of the electoral collage at this point. Might as well call it the proletariat.
jsheard 4y ago
An interesting detail with this is that the purchase of Haraldur's design agency was structured as part of his salary at Twitter > In early 2021, Haraldur sold Ueno to Twitter. In an agreement between him and Twitter, most of the purchase price was paid as salary to maximize the tax he would pay for the sale in Iceland, he chose to pay for tax out of respect to Iceland for the disability benefits he received. Per the agreement, he paid the second highest tax of an individual in Iceland in 2021. Elon's focus on the work he was or wasn't doing is almost beside the point, because much of his salary was simply to pay off this debt. Now that he's been fired they'll either have to keep paying his salary anyway, or pay out the probably substantial amount he's owed as a lump sum. Haraldur has alluded to this in his tweets about getting "what he's owed" per his contract. Allegedly he was on a do-not-fire list for this reason, but it's unclear if Elon knew about any of this before jumping on the opportunity to punch down at a subordinate.

webworker 4y ago

He clearly is a fan of curious george

asimpletune 4y ago
I thought it was more Tin Tin.