4 ms·

Call me naive but I completely believe sama and yishan. Everyone's trying to find the "real" reason because we're all so used to companies lying or trying to sa

by chime 12y ago

Call me naive but I completely believe sama and yishan. Everyone's trying to find the "real" reason because we're all so used to companies lying or trying to save face in every non-positive situation. Too many times the boy has cried wolf and nobody's willing to believe that this time it's the truth. CEOs stepping down for major screwups citing "spending time with family" has made us question if anyone ever voluntarily resigns from a high profile job. Voluntarily quitting is treated as an act of cowardice instead of strength. We espouse failing fast in projects but not in our own personal choices. People are questioning the real reason because they can't accept that a CEO of a hugely popular site has chosen to resign on good terms instead of being involuntarily ousted. Long ago I wrote something about quitting that many of my friends and family loved and hated ( http://chir.ag/200804242130 http://chir.ag/200804242130 ) but I still stick by it. I wish more people would resign, breakup, divorce, and leave when they are in a miserable, non-salvageable situation than stick around and make everyone including themselves miserable. Good luck to yishan and the new reddit crew!

georgemcbay 12y ago
"Call me naive but I completely believe sama and yishan." I believe them as well, the big question for me (still) isn't why yishan left but why reddit needs to be 100% in San Francisco -- not in the sense of SF vs Daly City, but the Bay Area (only) vs. having offices in SLC, New York, etc. I'm sure there are hand-wavy reasons for it like synergy-collaboration-focus-blahdeblah but nobody has yet convinced me that it wasn't just a poor decision (one that seems to clearly have had a large impact in this departure even if yishan and the board agreed on the Bay Area centralization).
- jsmthrowaway 12y ago
  My bet is on YC culture via their presence on the board. My signal as evidence is the requirement that teams relocate to San Francisco as part of being funded. If I'm right -- and I'm not sure I am -- I would hope that's something that gradually changes over time. Twitter's choice to stay in the city was a big bummer for me, but I understand why it happened. Once Caltrain electrifies and gets a bit more optimized, though, I really want to see more of this industry spread out to the peninsula so we can have a bit of a breather. East bay too. There's an ember of startup love taking root in Oakland and it'd be awesome if YC would blow on it. San Francisco is complicated and this industry isn't helping as much as it could, is my point.
- debacle 12y ago
  The least savory reason would be that it was a way to lay off a percentage of the staff without the bad PR that comes with layoffs.
codinghorror 12y ago
> People are questioning the real reason because they can't accept that a CEO of a hugely popular site has chosen to resign on good terms instead of being involuntarily ousted They're probably questioning those terms because the New York Times is also questioning it.. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/reddit-chief-executive-resigns-as-company-shuffles-top-ranks/?_r=0 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/reddit-chief-execut... > But things have been tumultuous at Reddit in recent months. After the company raised a major investment round, Reddit management requested that the company’s global employees relocate to San Francisco or leave the company, according to tweets sent by Mr. Wong. Mr. Wong also recently had a public argument with a former employee of the site in which he laid out the terms of his former employee’s termination in excruciating detail. That incident, according to people close to the company, made some of Reddit’s current employees uncomfortable. There are many ways to tell a partial, incomplete truth. You don't talk about certain parts. Doesn't make what you said any less true, but it is not the complete story.
- duckmysick 12y ago
  > You don't talk about certain parts. Doesn't make what you said any less true, but it is not the complete story. Do we, random Internet commenters, really need to know the complete story? I'm sure all involved parties (the board, the management, CEO, employees, owners) are privy to it. What do we have to gain? I can see knowing this situation inside out would help those who are applying for a job at reddit. With the complete story they can judge whether it's a suitable workplace for them or not. But on the other hand you can't really be sure how you'd personally fit unless you actually work there. Besides, what would make the story complete? Any statement from involved parties will be met with some skepticism as there's always a possibility that something was kept from the public. Do they need to back their story up by publishing private email logs, recorded phone calls, minutes from meetings, and Tinder-style screenshots of text messages? They can also be tampered with. So if a quest for the ultimate and objective truth is our goal here, I don't think we can reach it. The other reasons I can think of is satisfying curiosity and entertainment value. Juicy gossips, where instead of washed-up, B-list celebrities we follow the lives of CEOs and employees of tech companies. Let's not forget that both kinds of stories are written to increase clicks and ad sales.
snowwrestler 12y ago
I believe Yishan now that he's saying that the issue was long-term burnout, and the office thing just the last straw. That's not how it was initially framed by anyone.

by chime 12y ago

georgemcbay 12y ago

"Call me naive but I completely believe sama and yishan." I believe them as well, the big question for me (still) isn't why yishan left but why reddit needs to be 100% in San Francisco -- not in the sense of SF vs Daly City, but the Bay Area (only) vs. having offices in SLC, New York, etc. I'm sure there are hand-wavy reasons for it like synergy-collaboration-focus-blahdeblah but nobody has yet convinced me that it wasn't just a poor decision (one that seems to clearly have had a large impact in this departure even if yishan and the board agreed on the Bay Area centralization).

jsmthrowaway 12y ago
My bet is on YC culture via their presence on the board. My signal as evidence is the requirement that teams relocate to San Francisco as part of being funded. If I'm right -- and I'm not sure I am -- I would hope that's something that gradually changes over time. Twitter's choice to stay in the city was a big bummer for me, but I understand why it happened. Once Caltrain electrifies and gets a bit more optimized, though, I really want to see more of this industry spread out to the peninsula so we can have a bit of a breather. East bay too. There's an ember of startup love taking root in Oakland and it'd be awesome if YC would blow on it. San Francisco is complicated and this industry isn't helping as much as it could, is my point.
debacle 12y ago
The least savory reason would be that it was a way to lay off a percentage of the staff without the bad PR that comes with layoffs.

codinghorror 12y ago

> People are questioning the real reason because they can't accept that a CEO of a hugely popular site has chosen to resign on good terms instead of being involuntarily ousted They're probably questioning those terms because the New York Times is also questioning it.. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/reddit-chief-executive-resigns-as-company-shuffles-top-ranks/?_r=0 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/reddit-chief-execut... > But things have been tumultuous at Reddit in recent months. After the company raised a major investment round, Reddit management requested that the company’s global employees relocate to San Francisco or leave the company, according to tweets sent by Mr. Wong. Mr. Wong also recently had a public argument with a former employee of the site in which he laid out the terms of his former employee’s termination in excruciating detail. That incident, according to people close to the company, made some of Reddit’s current employees uncomfortable. There are many ways to tell a partial, incomplete truth. You don't talk about certain parts. Doesn't make what you said any less true, but it is not the complete story.

duckmysick 12y ago
> You don't talk about certain parts. Doesn't make what you said any less true, but it is not the complete story. Do we, random Internet commenters, really need to know the complete story? I'm sure all involved parties (the board, the management, CEO, employees, owners) are privy to it. What do we have to gain? I can see knowing this situation inside out would help those who are applying for a job at reddit. With the complete story they can judge whether it's a suitable workplace for them or not. But on the other hand you can't really be sure how you'd personally fit unless you actually work there. Besides, what would make the story complete? Any statement from involved parties will be met with some skepticism as there's always a possibility that something was kept from the public. Do they need to back their story up by publishing private email logs, recorded phone calls, minutes from meetings, and Tinder-style screenshots of text messages? They can also be tampered with. So if a quest for the ultimate and objective truth is our goal here, I don't think we can reach it. The other reasons I can think of is satisfying curiosity and entertainment value. Juicy gossips, where instead of washed-up, B-list celebrities we follow the lives of CEOs and employees of tech companies. Let's not forget that both kinds of stories are written to increase clicks and ad sales.

snowwrestler 12y ago

I believe Yishan now that he's saying that the issue was long-term burnout, and the office thing just the last straw. That's not how it was initially framed by anyone.