Category: Business, Organization, and Management

  • PRODUCTIVITY I haven’t written much on libertarianism lately. The business is in

    PRODUCTIVITY

    I haven’t written much on libertarianism lately. The business is in crunch mode. Its consuming.

    But I hope to put out a few screen shots of the software that don’t give away too much in the next few weeks. 😉

    I have written a bit. But mostly trying to test minor application of the ideas. Sketches.

    Unfortunately the scoundrels that I work with are a bad influence on my productivity.

    Like when i say i dont want anything to drink. And they buy an entire bottle of scotch from the bar. And then hand me a microphone. And start laughing because they know peer pressure will win out. 🙂

    (Btw: these four women at the next table are really drunk and they cant sing in the first place. 🙂

    Sigh …

    Its hopeless. 😉


    Source date (UTC): 2013-06-13 19:12:00 UTC

  • How Dedicated Should An Entrepreneur Be To Their Start-up, How Much Is Too Much?

    Sacrifice time, sleep, security, health, wealth, relationships – everything.
    The only limit is your ability to do something or not. These sacrifices must be balanced against the rewards.  So, there is only whether a) you CAN endure sacrifices and b) whether the sacrifices you make are worth the return to YOU.

    https://www.quora.com/How-dedicated-should-an-entrepreneur-be-to-their-start-up-how-much-is-too-much

  • How Does The Role Of A Startup Cto Change Over Time?

    Depends upon the technical dependency of the business. You start with designing the product or offering, and building a team. You end up selling to customers, administering talent, constraining budgets,  allocating in investments, and briefing (educating) the management team.   If you educate the rest of the management team well enough then your job should simplify dramatically over time. If  you fail to do that, your job becomes worse over time, and your political power declines.

    https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-role-of-a-startup-CTO-change-over-time

  • NOT SURE YOU CAN TEACH IT – IT’S GENETIC But this is what makes successful entre

    http://onforb.es/YSVQppI’M NOT SURE YOU CAN TEACH IT – IT’S GENETIC

    But this is what makes successful entrepreneurs tick. Relentlessness.


    Source date (UTC): 2013-06-08 06:45:00 UTC

  • CULTURAL MANAGEMENT STYLES : UNCOMFORTABLE LIBERTARIANISM So, I have all these U

    CULTURAL MANAGEMENT STYLES : UNCOMFORTABLE LIBERTARIANISM

    So, I have all these Ukrainian guys now. And, it’s hysterical fascinating trying to get them out of hierarchical thinking. In America, if yo say “you’re a partner” and give someone stock, they pretty much act like an owner, and relegate you as CEO to judge and jury.

    But here, it’s pretty hard. Just no concept of it. Right ethics, but no mental model. They guys are capable but just can’t comprehend it.

    I have all these things I say like:

    “It’s unscientific for me to think I know all the answers. It’s just that I have the need to make decisions in real time with the information at my disposal.”

    Or “My ego isn’t tied up in being right. My ego is tied up in developing a product that sells.”

    or “I don’t think I know anything. Argue with me. Either you’re able to make your case or you’re not. If do I’ll just say…. Damn. You’re right. Watch me. I say it all the time.”

    Or “I gave you this feature and the direction to use your judgement in developing it. Why do you think I did that? To trip you up? Or to leave open the possibility that I’m wrong, and that you might improve on my ideas?”

    Or (my favorite) “I have a very hard time believing that you’re not smart enough to make that decision without my input.”

    Or “If I wanted people to just do what I tell them, I’d hire idiots. You don’t think I hired you, and paid you above market rates because you’re an idiot, do you?” (Love that one. No way out of it.)

    They are getting their slowly.


    Source date (UTC): 2013-06-08 05:41:00 UTC

  • Is It Possible To Quantify Work Experience?

    In reality, no.  (We have been doing it for ten years.) 
    (a) skills are perishable
    (b) experience is not indicative of performance – perhaps error reduction, but not competitive performance.
    (c) rate of career advancement, educational institution (a filter), IQ and physical appearance are the best individual measures.

    We have used stack ranking and peer review and it is surprisingly effective.  Management is almost always wrong. Peers are the best determinant of value.

    https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-quantify-work-experience

  • Should The Personal Socio-political Views Of Individuals Working At A Company Dissuade Potential Job Applicants If They Disagree With Those Beliefs?

    REALITY:
    People organize.  They organize to their advantage. Especially where that advantage is mating preference, easier communication and collaboration, . 

    When people organize, they organize by race, class, culture, gender, religion and political association.  They organize by neighborhood, by type of work, and by professional association. In the USA, class and race have the most influential and visible biases.

    As consumers people do not organize in the consumption of commodity goods and services, but they do organize in the consumption of specialized goods and services.

    For people to organize by political association, they must desire either to change the status quo, or to resist change in the status quo.

    There are very big bureaucratic companies, that because of size, are politically antiseptic to the point where political discussion is taboo.  There are small and medium sized organizations where they actively select for political affilliation.  It is very hard for a conservative to be hired by a left wing non profit organization, and it is very hard for an ideological liberal to be hired or work in, a firm where every individual is personally accountable for financial results.

    This is because people with similar political affiliations have similar value systems, and in many companies subjective preferences are meaningful to how they get along.  Further, some industries are biased one direction or the other because of both values, and because of the signals associated with certain types of careers. 

    While most companies ostensibly have policies against hiring for anything other than skill and experience, the fact is that everyone hires for ‘fit’ into the culture. In most businesses this means fitting into  a business model that self selects: a tradesman (conservative) an entrepreneurial culture (libertarian), a care-taking culture (progressive) or a bureaucratic culture (postmodern). 

    I cannot see the logic of working within an organization that contains a lot of people whose views you disagree with. The job is at a very high cost in opportunity to you, and at a very high cost of friction to you and others.  THe only reason that makes sense is if you want to draw attention to yourself. And usually this is because your self perceived status is higher than other people treat you. Or that you have psychological issues outside of the workplace that you want to exercise within a workplace where people have less easy means of walking away from, or avoiding you.  If there is some place that you would very much like to work, then the question remains why you should impose upon those people your beliefs and desires that are arguably external to the work place.  And instead, it may be wise to work elsewhere.

    https://www.quora.com/Should-the-personal-socio-political-views-of-individuals-working-at-a-company-dissuade-potential-job-applicants-if-they-disagree-with-those-beliefs

  • Should The Personal Socio-political Views Of Individuals Working At A Company Dissuade Potential Job Applicants If They Disagree With Those Beliefs?

    REALITY:
    People organize.  They organize to their advantage. Especially where that advantage is mating preference, easier communication and collaboration, . 

    When people organize, they organize by race, class, culture, gender, religion and political association.  They organize by neighborhood, by type of work, and by professional association. In the USA, class and race have the most influential and visible biases.

    As consumers people do not organize in the consumption of commodity goods and services, but they do organize in the consumption of specialized goods and services.

    For people to organize by political association, they must desire either to change the status quo, or to resist change in the status quo.

    There are very big bureaucratic companies, that because of size, are politically antiseptic to the point where political discussion is taboo.  There are small and medium sized organizations where they actively select for political affilliation.  It is very hard for a conservative to be hired by a left wing non profit organization, and it is very hard for an ideological liberal to be hired or work in, a firm where every individual is personally accountable for financial results.

    This is because people with similar political affiliations have similar value systems, and in many companies subjective preferences are meaningful to how they get along.  Further, some industries are biased one direction or the other because of both values, and because of the signals associated with certain types of careers. 

    While most companies ostensibly have policies against hiring for anything other than skill and experience, the fact is that everyone hires for ‘fit’ into the culture. In most businesses this means fitting into  a business model that self selects: a tradesman (conservative) an entrepreneurial culture (libertarian), a care-taking culture (progressive) or a bureaucratic culture (postmodern). 

    I cannot see the logic of working within an organization that contains a lot of people whose views you disagree with. The job is at a very high cost in opportunity to you, and at a very high cost of friction to you and others.  THe only reason that makes sense is if you want to draw attention to yourself. And usually this is because your self perceived status is higher than other people treat you. Or that you have psychological issues outside of the workplace that you want to exercise within a workplace where people have less easy means of walking away from, or avoiding you.  If there is some place that you would very much like to work, then the question remains why you should impose upon those people your beliefs and desires that are arguably external to the work place.  And instead, it may be wise to work elsewhere.

    https://www.quora.com/Should-the-personal-socio-political-views-of-individuals-working-at-a-company-dissuade-potential-job-applicants-if-they-disagree-with-those-beliefs

  • Has Anyone Benefited Tangibly From Answering On Quora, And If So By What Terms Were These Benefits?

    I think this is an interesting question.  
    1) Entertainment of yourself and others.
    2) Promotion of yourself, others, or certain ideas.
    3) Assistance of others (which is theoretically the purpose)
    4) Experimentation and refinement of your arguments.

    (1) is obvious but isn’t very valuable to anyone.
    (2) is probably a misuse (free riding) and tedious.
    (3) is the target idea but the question is what percentage of answers meet this criteria (not many).
    (4) is the scientific approach to debate structures.

    Personally, how I benefit from Quora is that it provides a large body of questions that are asked by people who are curious, and arguments by a large numbrer of people with erroneous knowledge, and as such, it’s a great place to learn how to talk or write about a subject if you don’t really understand how ‘ordinary people’ think of a topic.  The fact that answers are often bad, is actually useful because it provides insight into why people arrive at poor conclusions.  Because it is one thing to state a solution, and another to provide a route to it, that corrects the erroneous assumptions of others.

    https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-benefited-tangibly-from-answering-on-Quora-and-if-so-by-what-terms-were-these-benefits

  • CELEBRATION! We have left the building for the night. We finished the last sprin

    CELEBRATION!

    We have left the building for the night.

    We finished the last sprint on the new UI features, and the pricing system, and have started on the incredibly complex task of resource management – a difficult problem that all Agencies and Consultancies face. And we have absolutely the best solution on the market – if you have to manage a lot of TRAFFIC in production work. And that’s before we even talk about having tickets, work orders, production, agile and WBS all in the same product .

    So we are going to celebrate.

    Actually, I had to tell the guys that no, I would not fly to Istanbul tonight and come back in tatters on Monday. We deserve a celebration. But my body can’t take that kind of insanity right now. I called them on age. These guys are almost half my age. So I asked for mercy. 🙂

    They were merciful but only to the extent that we must plan a party trip to L’viv.


    Source date (UTC): 2013-04-03 13:03:00 UTC