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"That’s reflected by Zuckerberg’s efforts to motivate each person according to what gets them excited: For engineers, that means giving them the best product to

"That’s reflected by Zuckerberg’s efforts to motivate each person according to what gets them excited: For engineers, that means giving them the best product to build, but for business executives, it means big financial incentives." Do engineers just need interesting technical problems to remain happy? If the engineers were motivated by big financial incentives, would they get them?

icey 17y ago
That's a pretty good question. Speaking as an engineer, I would like to have FU money. But the reason I want FU money is so that I can always work on interesting technical problems instead of all the little crap that is also necessary in day-to-day work.
- gcheong 17y ago
  Which is why most engineers are not CEO material. A CEO is someone who wants to provide vision, direction and leadership to a company long after the FU money is in the bank.
  - icey 17y ago
    Arguably as a CEO, you get a new set of interesting problems the moment you solve your last set of interesting problems.
byrneseyeview 17y ago
Given that Zuck is their first engineer and largest shareholder, I'd say yes. The point wasn't that you don't have to pay engineers well -- just that technical challenges are a good way to inspire the right people. (Business people might be inspired by the chance to make big deals, but not so much by the chance to make difficult deals). It's also harder to measure the positive financial effects of smart engineering. If somebody saves a million dollars worth of hardware through some clever optimization, that's easy to calculate; if they reduce the time it takes to display a photo by 10%, that's important, but harder to calculate.
redorb 17y ago
I'm starting to feel like I won't make what I want, until I'm paying myself. If the owner of the company paid you 100% of the value (which is hard to measure) then he wouldn't have a interest in hiring you... (nothing left for him)
rabidgnat 17y ago
"Do engineers just need interesting technical problems to remain happy?" I landed a programming gig working on robotics projects, and working on interesting problems makes up for a world of sins :)

icey 17y ago

That's a pretty good question. Speaking as an engineer, I would like to have FU money. But the reason I want FU money is so that I can always work on interesting technical problems instead of all the little crap that is also necessary in day-to-day work.

gcheong 17y ago
Which is why most engineers are not CEO material. A CEO is someone who wants to provide vision, direction and leadership to a company long after the FU money is in the bank.
- icey 17y ago
  Arguably as a CEO, you get a new set of interesting problems the moment you solve your last set of interesting problems.

byrneseyeview 17y ago

Given that Zuck is their first engineer and largest shareholder, I'd say yes. The point wasn't that you don't have to pay engineers well -- just that technical challenges are a good way to inspire the right people. (Business people might be inspired by the chance to make big deals, but not so much by the chance to make difficult deals). It's also harder to measure the positive financial effects of smart engineering. If somebody saves a million dollars worth of hardware through some clever optimization, that's easy to calculate; if they reduce the time it takes to display a photo by 10%, that's important, but harder to calculate.

redorb 17y ago

I'm starting to feel like I won't make what I want, until I'm paying myself. If the owner of the company paid you 100% of the value (which is hard to measure) then he wouldn't have a interest in hiring you... (nothing left for him)

rabidgnat 17y ago

"Do engineers just need interesting technical problems to remain happy?" I landed a programming gig working on robotics projects, and working on interesting problems makes up for a world of sins :)