exelius

60 ms·

571.
by exelius 9y ago
> - can a company which makes money as an advertising platform and data broker really protect the privacy of its users when that is directly at odds with its fundamental mission? Good question; but I'm not sure that's one that
572.
by exelius 9y ago
If you're in a marriage with two high earners (lets say > $500k household gross) then most of your income is being taxed at the highest (or close to highest) marginal rate. You also don't qualify for a bunch of deductions (stud
573.
by exelius 9y ago
Without a doubt, there are a ton of extremely capable female executives who are rightfully recognized for their contributions. The criticism against Mayer was due to a combination of her age, gender and "celebrity" status (celebri
574.
by exelius 9y ago
I loved these books as a child. I had always wanted to play a video game that worked this way; which I guess is why I am such a fan of the BioWare style of games.
575.
by exelius 9y ago
So my total tax rate in the US is just shy of 50%. Software developers are actually in the "sweet spot" for paying a ton in taxes: they make enough money to qualify for the high tax rates, but not enough money to make it worth exp
576.
by exelius 9y ago
Yeah, though hopefully it was a public teaching moment as to the kinds of "microaggressions" that women face every day. Even ones accomplished enough to be on the board of a multi-billion dollar company.
577.
by exelius 9y ago
Exactly. Trot out the old argument "If we didn't pay that, we couldn't find qualified candidates!" Yahoo had to hire her away from a senior leadership position at Google. She was young, sure, but she was definitely qua
578.
by exelius 9y ago
> She spent Yahoo's money like a drunken sailor, an odd thing to do if her job was managing Alibaba (how exactly do you manage a passive stake in anything?). Well, it's no small thing to divest a big chunk of equity like that w
579.
by exelius 9y ago
> Because she’s A female CEO? Any evidence? Lockheed, Duke Energy, IBM – all female CEOs and they don’t get near the scrutiny of Mayer – probably because they are competent and don’t engage in bombastic grandstanding. All B2B industrials
580.
by exelius 9y ago
Both fair points. Also remember that by the time she killed the WFH policy, Yahoo had been circling the drain for a long time. When your best folks can easily find new/better jobs, they do; and you're left with a company full of
581.
by exelius 9y ago
IMO it's because she's a female CEO who, when viewed through the lens of consumer products, failed miserably but was still paid a sum of money that sounds absolutely ludicrous to most Americans. She's an easy target for peopl
582.
by exelius 9y ago
Informality works if there's low cultural distance between employees because you can make a lot of assumptions. But it's not exactly conducive to dealing with differences, because those assumptions might not hold.
583.
by exelius 9y ago
Yeah, for as much as people hate on being corporate, it really does keep a lid on a lot of the bad behavior you see at startups that gets swept under the table because of the informal nature of record keeping and decision making.
584.
by exelius 9y ago
> informal organizations seem a lot better at producing good software I don't think the formality has anything to do with the quality of software; I think it has more to do with VC-funded companies operating lean, and HR is overhead
585.
by exelius 9y ago
Work/life balance is often a cyclical thing: during certain periods in your life, you will have more time available and desire to work than others. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution, which is why giving emplo
586.
by exelius 9y ago
Yes, yes, yes. This was brought up in a thread last week about "As a female, how do I identify a good employer?" The best answers basically said "work somewhere that has as boring a corporate culture as possible". Basica
587.
by exelius 9y ago
Yeah, if you go and ask customers, there are a lot of things people will say they want -- but only a few they're willing to pay you for. My rule of thumb is that if the problem is in the first category, it's a feature of a product
588.
by exelius 9y ago
If you frame the problem correctly, the market will answer you. The real problem is "I need to move people / things from point A to point B". A horse solves that, as does an automobile, as does a boat. The market won't t
589.
by exelius 9y ago
Yeah, a lot of engineers look at business and think "Well, it can't be that hard..." And it's not -- but you don't have as much control over things as most founders pretend to, and you're really at the whims of
590.
by exelius 9y ago
No way; this is the kind of thing that can become a state-secret level advantage. Seriously, it's a graph processor. Graph analysis is basically the entire job of a modern intelligence agency. There's a cold-war level arms race go
591.
by exelius 9y ago
Eventually, the scale advantages when it comes to things like network upgrades will plow you under. Let's compare Comcast (30 million subscribers) with a local cable operator (and let's say it's a co-op with 50,000 subscriber
592.
by exelius 9y ago
Equity bubbles are nothing new. I do think we're in a bit of a bubble (not a huge one, but the market is overvalued right now IMO) but again, the market is cyclical and I expect we'll enter bear market territory again soon. But on
593.
by exelius 9y ago
Retail investors are moving towards ETFs. Institutional investors can still make a little bit more money with active management. An extra 0.05% average return may not matter to a retail investor, but if you're managing a $35 billion fu
594.
by exelius 9y ago
My line of thought is this: inflation is ~3% a year (hasn't been that high in a while, but just wait), and market returns average 5% (aka beta) a year with some level of volatility. By definition, the alpha of an index fund is zero min
595.
by exelius 9y ago
Is MIT actually well-endowed? I don't know the answer to this question so it's not intended to be snarky. But there are plenty of schools (my alma mater CMU is one such example) that have mind share but a very small endowment. CMU
596.
by exelius 9y ago
That's generally how telecom works. You can always try to compete against the big guys, at least for a while, but in the long run they will own you one way or another. It's not an accident that the two biggest wireless companies a
597.
by exelius 9y ago
They use a different model in nearly every city they operate (some are base fare + per mile; some base fare + per mile + per minute, others flat fee between certain areas, etc.) thanks to varied taxi laws across the country / world. Th
598.
by exelius 9y ago
I do agree with you on a personal level (I wouldn't wear shorts or jeans with holes in them to work, but I do on my own time); but I feel strict company-enforced dress codes are unnecessary for this. People tend to self-adjust to the n
599.
by exelius 9y ago
This equation changes entirely if you have kids. Or a medical problem. This mentality of blaming societal problems on the individual ("I didn't have this problem, therefore anyone who does got there because of a character flaw&quo
600.
by exelius 9y ago
Formality of environment need not extend to dress code. Remember, dress codes are used against women (by men telling the woman how she should be dressing) far more often than they are men. You can have a formal office without a formal dre

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