4 ms·

Being obnoxious works well. Obnoxious people get elected to power. Obnoxious companies (and CEOs) generate hype that increases stock prices. Obnoxious youtubers

by aaplok 9mo ago

Being obnoxious works well. Obnoxious people get elected to power. Obnoxious companies (and CEOs) generate hype that increases stock prices. Obnoxious youtubers call themselves influencers and make a good living out of it. Or more charitably it is difficult to be successful without annoying many people.

BuyMyBitcoins 9mo ago
There was some company a while back, I forget what they were called, but their claim to fame was a much higher click through rate on modal popups due to them “guilting” people with dynamic messages like “No, I don’t want to save up to 50%” or “I would rather let children starve than sign up for this newsletter”. One, I can’t believe this worked. Two, some website owners were convinced that being patronizing towards visitors was worth the extra clicks.
- burningChrome 9mo ago
  Someone made a funny video about this approach with a guy at Petsmart and you hear the lady say, "Ok, just follow the prompts." and gets worse/funnier from there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDUvykJVmMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDUvykJVmMU
ranger_danger 9mo ago
What I've seen lead to success: * Arrogance * Overconfidence * Schmoozing with the right people * Doing flashy work, whatever that means in a given situation What I have seen lead to failure or, at best, being undervalued and ignored: * Caring about teammates and your future self * Caring about the end user and the business itself, when it conflicts with something sales, marketing, or a PM want * Creating resilient, well-engineered systems It's the same problem as anywhere else. Well-crafted systems are invisible and taken for granted. Saving the day by putting out a fire is applauded, even when you're the one who laid out the kindling and matches. Managers at all levels care about their own ego more than the company, product, or team. Maybe I just spent too much time with ex-Microsoft hacks.
- thenthenthen 9mo ago
  This can applied to a lot of sectors, look at the arts and culture for example
- collaborative 9mo ago
  No, you are right
- Bridged7756 9mo ago
  No, the first one thrives because they know how to play politics, the second one fails because they don't know how to play politics. You described word for word the archetypical engineer, competent technically, incompetent politically. A liability to his team and superiors in a cut-throat corporate environment. That's why they fail, they can't be trusted to not screw their team over to do the right thing.
  - zelphirkalt 9mo ago
    There is also the type of person, who just wants to do a good job and has passion for what they do well, but does not want to engage in silly political games. Just saying, it doesn't have to be incompetence at that.
    - majorchord 9mo ago
      Complacency is complicity https://tcpca.org/blog/2019/2/1/when-complacency-is-complicity https://tcpca.org/blog/2019/2/1/when-complacency-is-complici... During the rise of the Third Reich, a German named Dietrich Bonhoeffer rejected the path of comfortable ignorance and valiantly chose instead to stand against the banality of evil in his land. May his words haunt the collective soul of our country: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
- otikik 9mo ago
  Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer
ocdtrekkie 9mo ago
Quite true. Sundar Pichai got his start on the path to fame at Google by getting the Google Toolbar install injected into things like the Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Flash installers. Look at him now.
- jonway 9mo ago
  Oh man I totally forgot about that Toolbar scourge back in the day day! These trash piles were all over and everyone’s mom that I knew had like 3 or 4.
  - kstrauser 9mo ago
    Every year, the post-Thanksgiving ritual of deleting all of them from a relative’s PC, at their request because “it’s running slow”, knowing darn well they’d re-install them within the week.
  - PaulHoule 9mo ago
    More like 12 or 15 and you were lucky to have an 800x600 screen and so they were looking through an 800x150 viewport.

by aaplok 9mo ago

BuyMyBitcoins 9mo ago

There was some company a while back, I forget what they were called, but their claim to fame was a much higher click through rate on modal popups due to them “guilting” people with dynamic messages like “No, I don’t want to save up to 50%” or “I would rather let children starve than sign up for this newsletter”. One, I can’t believe this worked. Two, some website owners were convinced that being patronizing towards visitors was worth the extra clicks.

burningChrome 9mo ago
Someone made a funny video about this approach with a guy at Petsmart and you hear the lady say, "Ok, just follow the prompts." and gets worse/funnier from there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDUvykJVmMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDUvykJVmMU

ranger_danger 9mo ago

What I've seen lead to success: * Arrogance * Overconfidence * Schmoozing with the right people * Doing flashy work, whatever that means in a given situation What I have seen lead to failure or, at best, being undervalued and ignored: * Caring about teammates and your future self * Caring about the end user and the business itself, when it conflicts with something sales, marketing, or a PM want * Creating resilient, well-engineered systems It's the same problem as anywhere else. Well-crafted systems are invisible and taken for granted. Saving the day by putting out a fire is applauded, even when you're the one who laid out the kindling and matches. Managers at all levels care about their own ego more than the company, product, or team. Maybe I just spent too much time with ex-Microsoft hacks.

thenthenthen 9mo ago
This can applied to a lot of sectors, look at the arts and culture for example
collaborative 9mo ago
No, you are right
Bridged7756 9mo ago
No, the first one thrives because they know how to play politics, the second one fails because they don't know how to play politics. You described word for word the archetypical engineer, competent technically, incompetent politically. A liability to his team and superiors in a cut-throat corporate environment. That's why they fail, they can't be trusted to not screw their team over to do the right thing.
- zelphirkalt 9mo ago
  There is also the type of person, who just wants to do a good job and has passion for what they do well, but does not want to engage in silly political games. Just saying, it doesn't have to be incompetence at that.
  - majorchord 9mo ago
    Complacency is complicity https://tcpca.org/blog/2019/2/1/when-complacency-is-complicity https://tcpca.org/blog/2019/2/1/when-complacency-is-complici... During the rise of the Third Reich, a German named Dietrich Bonhoeffer rejected the path of comfortable ignorance and valiantly chose instead to stand against the banality of evil in his land. May his words haunt the collective soul of our country: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
otikik 9mo ago
Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer

ocdtrekkie 9mo ago

Quite true. Sundar Pichai got his start on the path to fame at Google by getting the Google Toolbar install injected into things like the Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Flash installers. Look at him now.

jonway 9mo ago
Oh man I totally forgot about that Toolbar scourge back in the day day! These trash piles were all over and everyone’s mom that I knew had like 3 or 4.
- kstrauser 9mo ago
  Every year, the post-Thanksgiving ritual of deleting all of them from a relative’s PC, at their request because “it’s running slow”, knowing darn well they’d re-install them within the week.
- PaulHoule 9mo ago
  More like 12 or 15 and you were lucky to have an 800x600 screen and so they were looking through an 800x150 viewport.