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Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire

13 points by andyjohnson0 12y ago

jqm 12y ago
From the article... '''Even Rand acolyte Paul Ryan (R-Wis) is now distancing himself, calling his well-documented enthusiasm an “urban legend.”''' I'm guessing urban legend really mean "political inconvenience" in this context?
- hindsightbias 12y ago
  We all grow up, some just wait until they're running for President.
lmm 12y ago
"His hedge fun is down 40 percent". Typo or clever dig?
maxcan 12y ago
> discredited free-market economics This is the problem with what Salon has become. Little digs like that that are not citaed, vague, and just loaded with the author's biases. I don't remember any part of Atlas Shrugged where death match style, internal bickering was promoted as a management style. Whatever opinions you hold of Rand and Libertarianism, this was a pretty poorly written article.
dharma1 12y ago
My first visit to Sears was the Oakland store mentioned in the article, about a year ago. It was close to our hotel so I thought I'd check it out. Stayed for about 2 minutes, it resembled something between a squat and a jumble sale.
- a3n 12y ago
  I grew up in the sixties, when their motto was "Sears, where America shops." I don't know if they can say that with a straight face today, but back then it was largely true. The end of every summer we made the trek to the other side of the county for school clothes for me and my sister. I have no idea when's the last time I was in Sears, but I can't imagine ever wanting to. Businesses come and go.
jared314 12y ago
> Lampert took the myth that humans perform best when acting selfishly as gospel, pitting Sears company managers against each other in a kind of Lord of the Flies death match. Sounds a bit like how Microsoft was structured [1]. [1] http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/microsoft-org-chart.jpg http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011...
networkguy 12y ago
The problem with an article like this is that the authors want to make a broad stroke claim against an argument which is far more nuanced than they claim. And this works both ways; just like taxation and subsidies aren't cures for the things they support with tax revenue or subsidies. The truth is that people do act selfishly; we just don't understand the "why", a great example is people lining up for the latest gadget, many people question this as crazy but step into the shoes of the people in the line and they have made a very specific decision that at and during that moment they are better off doing what they are doing than doing anything else. To the onlooker who thinks the people are crazy, this is completely irrational, but to the person in the line, they are making a very rational decision based on what they want. People will always do things that are in their best interests, and that doesn't mean people wont donate to charity, or help out the community or exhibit 'selfless' traits, its important to understand that these traits are an important part of who the person is, and they can be selfish, in undertaking selfless acts because it furthers their goals which may not be entirely money driven. The trillion dollar question is why do people make the decisions that they do; entire industries and careers are dedicated to trying to find this out. A CEO destroying his company is more more evidence of a certain philosophy being wholly wrong, than North Korea is an example that all forms of government are horrible and will eventually lead to a North Korean existence for it's citizens.

13 points by andyjohnson0 12y ago

jqm 12y ago

From the article... '''Even Rand acolyte Paul Ryan (R-Wis) is now distancing himself, calling his well-documented enthusiasm an “urban legend.”''' I'm guessing urban legend really mean "political inconvenience" in this context?

hindsightbias 12y ago
We all grow up, some just wait until they're running for President.

lmm 12y ago

"His hedge fun is down 40 percent". Typo or clever dig?

maxcan 12y ago

> discredited free-market economics This is the problem with what Salon has become. Little digs like that that are not citaed, vague, and just loaded with the author's biases. I don't remember any part of Atlas Shrugged where death match style, internal bickering was promoted as a management style. Whatever opinions you hold of Rand and Libertarianism, this was a pretty poorly written article.

dharma1 12y ago

My first visit to Sears was the Oakland store mentioned in the article, about a year ago. It was close to our hotel so I thought I'd check it out. Stayed for about 2 minutes, it resembled something between a squat and a jumble sale.

a3n 12y ago
I grew up in the sixties, when their motto was "Sears, where America shops." I don't know if they can say that with a straight face today, but back then it was largely true. The end of every summer we made the trek to the other side of the county for school clothes for me and my sister. I have no idea when's the last time I was in Sears, but I can't imagine ever wanting to. Businesses come and go.

jared314 12y ago

> Lampert took the myth that humans perform best when acting selfishly as gospel, pitting Sears company managers against each other in a kind of Lord of the Flies death match. Sounds a bit like how Microsoft was structured [1]. [1] http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/microsoft-org-chart.jpg http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011...

networkguy 12y ago

The problem with an article like this is that the authors want to make a broad stroke claim against an argument which is far more nuanced than they claim. And this works both ways; just like taxation and subsidies aren't cures for the things they support with tax revenue or subsidies. The truth is that people do act selfishly; we just don't understand the "why", a great example is people lining up for the latest gadget, many people question this as crazy but step into the shoes of the people in the line and they have made a very specific decision that at and during that moment they are better off doing what they are doing than doing anything else. To the onlooker who thinks the people are crazy, this is completely irrational, but to the person in the line, they are making a very rational decision based on what they want. People will always do things that are in their best interests, and that doesn't mean people wont donate to charity, or help out the community or exhibit 'selfless' traits, its important to understand that these traits are an important part of who the person is, and they can be selfish, in undertaking selfless acts because it furthers their goals which may not be entirely money driven. The trillion dollar question is why do people make the decisions that they do; entire industries and careers are dedicated to trying to find this out. A CEO destroying his company is more more evidence of a certain philosophy being wholly wrong, than North Korea is an example that all forms of government are horrible and will eventually lead to a North Korean existence for it's citizens.