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Author here. Cool to see your response here! >I'm a bit confused at how you'd come up with that summary of my career. I worded that poorly, you're right. I me

Author here. Cool to see your response here! >I'm a bit confused at how you'd come up with that summary of my career. I worded that poorly, you're right. I meant early-stage startups at the scale of Fog Creek when you started. I've updated the post. >No, this coworker right here was starting to say "shit fuck shit dammit" on camera as he discovered that a stale precompiled header was getting picked up on the build box and then realized Lerone was rolling, so you're hearing me halt myself before saying a pile of profanity on camera. Ah, thanks for the context! I watched that scene over and over trying to figure out what happened. It sounds like a "shush" but it's also weirdly stretched out. Liz seems to have heard it as a shush, as she shushes herself after. It shows Michael look over at you, but it's not clear if he was reacting to the noise. There's an imdb trivia item[0] about how you and Liz disagree about whether it was a shush, but it's unsourced, so it was hard to put much stock in it. This is a much more satisfying answer. I've updated the post to link to your comment here. >I'm also happy to answer any questions anyone has about the movie or about that time at Fog Creek. How do you feel about the movie looking back? I notice on your website that you recommend people watch it "if [they]’re feeling masochistic." Is it just the awkwardness of being the focus of a film at that age or were there things you disliked about how it came out? What did you like/dislike about working at Fog Creek? How'd it change during your tenure? [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813987/trivia/?item=tr0602787&ref_=ext_shr_lnk https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813987/trivia/?item=tr0602787&...

anildash 3y ago
One other bit of trivia, Alexis Ohanian drew one of the versions of Fog Creek’s kiwi mascot that was featured on some t-shirts and merch, though never in any of the products.
- mtlynch 3y ago
  Wow, I never expected to hear from so many Fog Creek folks! Thanks for sharing that bit of trivia, Anil. How'd that happen?
  - anildash 3y ago
    At that time Alexis was drawing logos or art for products he advised or knew the founders of, including most notably Hipmunk. I’m not sure if Joel asked him to draw it, or he volunteered, but it happened and then early in my time at Fog Creek, Alexis and I were catching up about some other stuff and he told me that version of the kiwi was his.
    - mtlynch 3y ago
      Great bit of trivia. Thank you for sharing!
    - fsckboy 3y ago
      logos aren't just trademarks, they are also themselves copyrighted, and if he never explicitly gave up the rights...
      - borski 3y ago
        He'd have to care, which I can pretty much guarantee he doesn't.
gecko 3y ago
There's an imdb trivia item[0] about how you and Liz disagree about whether it was a shush, but it's unsourced, so it was hard to put much stock in it. This is a much more satisfying answer. Liz thought I shushed her for a long time, but I didn't even know that until years later, at which point I apologized and explained what actually happened. So I guess there was disagreement in the sense that I didn't know she thought that, but we talked that through many years ago. I am aware of the IMDB factoid. Since they also had my bio wrong and gave me a Bacon number of two for years, I have generally just concluded IMDB doesn't care about having accurate data, and never felt a need to correct it. How do you feel about the movie looking back? I notice on your website that you recommend people watch it "if [they]’re feeling masochistic." Is it just the awkwardness of being the focus of a film at that age or were there things you disliked about how it came out? On a personal level, there's a lot I dislike. There was a lot of pressure on us to have reality-TV-show-like conflicts, which we mostly just didn't have. As a result, I end up being the antagonist in quite a few scenes (the building jump experiment is the main one), where it looks like I'm a bit of an asshole due to how things got edited together. So, normal reality TV show stuff. (Me being awkward and arrogant also does play into it, but, like everyone else, I've grown a lot since then. Seeing how far I've come is at worst a reminder not to let myself be like that again, but usually just ends up making me feel happy I've been able to learn from my mistakes and grow. I can't say it bothers me.) I also just kind of feel like it's a lousy movie. The soundtrack was literally written on the way to the recording studio, and you can tell. The interviews are usually not asking great questions, as much as rehashing Joel's and Paul's blogs via interviews. And there's the fact the movie is so close to being about reddit and Y Combinator right at their inception, but somehow, just...misses it. I should tone down the "masochistic" comment so it doesn't sound like I'm bitter or hate the film. I don't. I just don't really know it's worth a watch in 2023. What did you like/dislike about working at Fog Creek? How'd it change during your tenure? I learned a lot about tech, I got incredible freedom to work how I wanted on what I wanted, I had great coworkers, and I really believed in and used all of our products. They all brought me joy. That was all good. And it wasn't a grindstone like some of my friends went through at thefacebook and Google, so I had time to genuinely enjoy my hobbies and be with friends. The dislikes are mostly just versions of me noting that working in an anarchistic environment is great only if you shout loudest and care more than the next person, but I will add that that company was so young in so many ways. We often were figuring out how to do things from base principles instead of hiring people who knew what they were doing, because we weren't sure if we knew how to tell that someone knew what they were doing. And when we started to hire our way out, we made Some Mistakes. So, things that fell out of those bits.

anildash 3y ago

One other bit of trivia, Alexis Ohanian drew one of the versions of Fog Creek’s kiwi mascot that was featured on some t-shirts and merch, though never in any of the products.

mtlynch 3y ago
Wow, I never expected to hear from so many Fog Creek folks! Thanks for sharing that bit of trivia, Anil. How'd that happen?
- anildash 3y ago
  At that time Alexis was drawing logos or art for products he advised or knew the founders of, including most notably Hipmunk. I’m not sure if Joel asked him to draw it, or he volunteered, but it happened and then early in my time at Fog Creek, Alexis and I were catching up about some other stuff and he told me that version of the kiwi was his.
  - mtlynch 3y ago
    Great bit of trivia. Thank you for sharing!
  - fsckboy 3y ago
    logos aren't just trademarks, they are also themselves copyrighted, and if he never explicitly gave up the rights...
    - borski 3y ago
      He'd have to care, which I can pretty much guarantee he doesn't.

gecko 3y ago

There's an imdb trivia item[0] about how you and Liz disagree about whether it was a shush, but it's unsourced, so it was hard to put much stock in it. This is a much more satisfying answer. Liz thought I shushed her for a long time, but I didn't even know that until years later, at which point I apologized and explained what actually happened. So I guess there was disagreement in the sense that I didn't know she thought that, but we talked that through many years ago. I am aware of the IMDB factoid. Since they also had my bio wrong and gave me a Bacon number of two for years, I have generally just concluded IMDB doesn't care about having accurate data, and never felt a need to correct it. How do you feel about the movie looking back? I notice on your website that you recommend people watch it "if [they]’re feeling masochistic." Is it just the awkwardness of being the focus of a film at that age or were there things you disliked about how it came out? On a personal level, there's a lot I dislike. There was a lot of pressure on us to have reality-TV-show-like conflicts, which we mostly just didn't have. As a result, I end up being the antagonist in quite a few scenes (the building jump experiment is the main one), where it looks like I'm a bit of an asshole due to how things got edited together. So, normal reality TV show stuff. (Me being awkward and arrogant also does play into it, but, like everyone else, I've grown a lot since then. Seeing how far I've come is at worst a reminder not to let myself be like that again, but usually just ends up making me feel happy I've been able to learn from my mistakes and grow. I can't say it bothers me.) I also just kind of feel like it's a lousy movie. The soundtrack was literally written on the way to the recording studio, and you can tell. The interviews are usually not asking great questions, as much as rehashing Joel's and Paul's blogs via interviews. And there's the fact the movie is so close to being about reddit and Y Combinator right at their inception, but somehow, just...misses it. I should tone down the "masochistic" comment so it doesn't sound like I'm bitter or hate the film. I don't. I just don't really know it's worth a watch in 2023. What did you like/dislike about working at Fog Creek? How'd it change during your tenure? I learned a lot about tech, I got incredible freedom to work how I wanted on what I wanted, I had great coworkers, and I really believed in and used all of our products. They all brought me joy. That was all good. And it wasn't a grindstone like some of my friends went through at thefacebook and Google, so I had time to genuinely enjoy my hobbies and be with friends. The dislikes are mostly just versions of me noting that working in an anarchistic environment is great only if you shout loudest and care more than the next person, but I will add that that company was so young in so many ways. We often were figuring out how to do things from base principles instead of hiring people who knew what they were doing, because we weren't sure if we knew how to tell that someone knew what they were doing. And when we started to hire our way out, we made Some Mistakes. So, things that fell out of those bits.