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Suppose I'm working at Valve, and I decided that I want to work on building a robot arm for the rest of the week. Can I do that? What if I keep doing these kin

Suppose I'm working at Valve, and I decided that I want to work on building a robot arm for the rest of the week. Can I do that? What if I keep doing these kinds of projects? Will I eventually lose the popularity contest and be ousted? The amount of money to be made in personal robotics or space robotics probably dwarfs what Valve makes now, but research is risky. The combination of employee selection and social pressure means that it's probably not really true that you can work on whatever innovative ideas you want to. This is what irritates me about companies co-opting hobby time and free time. It's not really free time if it's a popularity contest. You don't have to justify your hobbies to anyone (family, maybe). I work at a company where I have tremendous freedom to organize my own work, and to work on research projects, but there are still areas that are clearly out of scope. I imagine Valve is no different.

goldmab 14y ago
Does this bother you? I think they are just trying to eliminate management overhead by using peer evaluation to set the company's direction by consensus. This could maybe be chaotic, but I see it as a trade-off. A traditional structure is chaotic in its own way. Like, who gets promoted to upper management? The most deserving people, or lucky people? Arbitrary decisions from an executive may or may not be better than popularity contests. I guess it depends on the executives and the culture.
- JabavuAdams 14y ago
  No, it doesn't bother me. Well, no more than the fact that I don't yet have FU money bothers me. I'm just a bit cynical of all the "you can work on whatever you want (that's good for the company -- that others around you agree is good for the company -- that's meant to capture innovation -- but that can't really capture long-term or unpopular innovation)." So yeah, the way I work at my current job, and the way that people supposedly work at Valve seems great. That said, what I really want is to not have to work, but to work anyway. Woe is me.

goldmab 14y ago

Does this bother you? I think they are just trying to eliminate management overhead by using peer evaluation to set the company's direction by consensus. This could maybe be chaotic, but I see it as a trade-off. A traditional structure is chaotic in its own way. Like, who gets promoted to upper management? The most deserving people, or lucky people? Arbitrary decisions from an executive may or may not be better than popularity contests. I guess it depends on the executives and the culture.

JabavuAdams 14y ago
No, it doesn't bother me. Well, no more than the fact that I don't yet have FU money bothers me. I'm just a bit cynical of all the "you can work on whatever you want (that's good for the company -- that others around you agree is good for the company -- that's meant to capture innovation -- but that can't really capture long-term or unpopular innovation)." So yeah, the way I work at my current job, and the way that people supposedly work at Valve seems great. That said, what I really want is to not have to work, but to work anyway. Woe is me.