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I like to think of companies like a computer program. A startup isnt written in anything it is completely implemented in hardware. As the company grows it is ne
by theboss 13y ago
I like to think of companies like a computer program. A startup isnt written in anything it is completely implemented in hardware. As the company grows it is necessary to add these different layers of abstraction until you end up with the CEO and board of a huge company in the application layer.
I don't think you can maintain a flat structure forever. Even people within valve have written about its "flatness". I've at least read that there is just a different set of internal issues.
- JimboOmega 13y agoI was trying to think of a way to say this, but I think you summed it up fairly nicely. I've read too many articles on HN on how managers shouldn't exist. IIRC, at Google it had become something of a general complaint that there was a lack of managers. That is, there might be 100 employees to one manager, and you'd only see this guy once a year when it came to be review cycle. Managers actually do something, and it's not just to micro-manage, set arbitrary deadlines, etc. It's quite possible for teams to organize towards a task without one. But managers do a lot of other things besides yell at people. I think the common view is too heavily informed by bad bosses. It's true bad management is worse than none, but that doesn't mean none is ideal.