5 ms·

Didn't Ben Horowitz basically publish this already as Old People? http://www.bhorowitz.com/old_people http://www.bhorowitz.com/old_people

patmcguire 13y ago
Ah it's basically a smush of two things... http://www.bhorowitz.com/when_smart_people_are_bad_employees http://www.bhorowitz.com/when_smart_people_are_bad_employees
moron4hire 13y ago
The first question you might ask is, “Why do I need senior people at all? Won’t they just ruin the culture with their fancy clothes, political ambitions and need to go home to see their families?” Whaaaat the fuck does any of those have to do with anything, or each other? The last one in particular kind of pisses me off.
fhd2 13y ago
Wow, that one is even worse, pure ageism. He might as well write about "when to hire female people" etc. Somewhat sad that "culture" is mostly a meaningless buzzword these days, used mainly to exclude people you don't like.
- 0013411101 13y ago
  And yet people will listen to this guy because he is a VC and will create cargo cult leadership to hang off his every word.
  - rdl 13y ago
    Ben being a VC is a bad reason to give him credibility. His experience at loud cloud and ops ware (and then HP), and generally being smart, is why I find him interesting. If you read the book, there were only a few fairly badly communicated or stupid parts, and they made a lot more sense in context (it is partially biographical, so he includes mistakes and why they were mistakes). The "old people" is one of those which made more sense in context. It was a bad idea to let it be pulled out like this, imo.
- 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
  Although he makes some good points -- it can be tricky to hire people with more experience than you, especially in the areas where you're weakest -- the title is pretty awful. "When to hire 'old people'?" <-- is a ridiculous question. "Should you take asshat advice?" <-- see Betteridge's Law. Edit: Depersonalized the target of "asshat" because I'm not in a position to judge the person, just this particular post.
lomnakkus 13y ago
Is it a Poe[0]? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

patmcguire 13y ago

Ah it's basically a smush of two things... http://www.bhorowitz.com/when_smart_people_are_bad_employees http://www.bhorowitz.com/when_smart_people_are_bad_employees

moron4hire 13y ago

The first question you might ask is, “Why do I need senior people at all? Won’t they just ruin the culture with their fancy clothes, political ambitions and need to go home to see their families?” Whaaaat the fuck does any of those have to do with anything, or each other? The last one in particular kind of pisses me off.

fhd2 13y ago

Wow, that one is even worse, pure ageism. He might as well write about "when to hire female people" etc. Somewhat sad that "culture" is mostly a meaningless buzzword these days, used mainly to exclude people you don't like.

0013411101 13y ago
And yet people will listen to this guy because he is a VC and will create cargo cult leadership to hang off his every word.
- rdl 13y ago
  Ben being a VC is a bad reason to give him credibility. His experience at loud cloud and ops ware (and then HP), and generally being smart, is why I find him interesting. If you read the book, there were only a few fairly badly communicated or stupid parts, and they made a lot more sense in context (it is partially biographical, so he includes mistakes and why they were mistakes). The "old people" is one of those which made more sense in context. It was a bad idea to let it be pulled out like this, imo.
6cxs2hd6 13y ago
Although he makes some good points -- it can be tricky to hire people with more experience than you, especially in the areas where you're weakest -- the title is pretty awful. "When to hire 'old people'?" <-- is a ridiculous question. "Should you take asshat advice?" <-- see Betteridge's Law. Edit: Depersonalized the target of "asshat" because I'm not in a position to judge the person, just this particular post.

lomnakkus 13y ago

Is it a Poe[0]? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law