Why some tech CEOs [skeptical of their workers] are rooting for Musk (opens in new tab)

(platformer.news)

19 pointsberelig3y ago12 comments

12 comments

It seems like there’s a constant ideological battle between the financiers on one side who make remarks about “employees complaining about the quality of toilet paper” and on the other, tech workers who have been consistently highly valued in their companies not liking being treated as disposable.

I think we know how most of us on HN feel.

The counter argument to treating your employees worse seems to be well exemplified here:

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

ITB3y ago

Some people on HN were bragging during the pandemic about having multiple jobs and doing the bare minimum to stay employed. And many in HN often talk about the transactional nature of their jobs. In my view, the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal. PG would say the same. Whether that ultimate achievement benefits accrues financially just to you, or a larger corpo, is not that relevant. It’s about developing the sort of personality that works hard, always. Making it about who accrues the benefit ends up being an impediment to our own personal growth that comes from hard work. I do think the overall HN vibe has changed, and I do think we have lost something as a community.

ThalesX3y ago

Funny, I always thought hackers were supposed to work smart and belittle those that "work hard, always", especially those doing it for a "corpo". I don't consider myself an old-time hacker, but this comment makes me laugh at the expected servitude from one such person.

I also don't get where the hacker ethos comes in when you're surrounded by barely competent fools coming out of a 6 month bootcamp and banging a quarter of a million per year, because the suits in this "larger corpo" you believe to be irrelevant are banking on growth metrics to get money in this greater fool world.

strikelaserclaw3y ago

The hacker spirit is about curiosity and tinkering with stuff to understand how it works, it is about the beauty of imagining and exploring new ideas and building them (whether they be useful or not). The hacker spirit is not about writing crud apps to maximize business ROI for your company, it is not about trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find an idea (a social media app for X) to make yourself and your investors rich. As soon as money flowed into tech, everything changed, and PG was most definitely responsible for that change in part.

iancmceachern3y ago

Yes, the vocal overemployed folks that share their experiences widely say that they work the minimum possible at one or more jobs.

There is a whole other world of folks, folks that want to maximize their contributions to society during their working years, but for whatever reason (company politics and broken bureaucracy typicaly) aren't able to. These folks may be rotting on the vine in their jobs, unable to use their gifts to their fullest. Those folks also fall into this bucket. Not every "overemployed" person puts the minimum in on each of their jobs. Some of them are hiding in plain sight, excelling at one or more jobs. Some of them are tech engineers or executives by day and soccer coaches by night, or volunteer and run soup kitchens, or are active in their religious communities, some of them coach youth technology groups, etc. The folks that are bragging on the internet about putting in the minimum at anything aren't the norm, they're the exception.

Edited - typo

moistly3y ago

“Contributions to society” in the modern internet world being “targeted ad serving.” Hacker spirit my ass.

1 more reply

donmaq3y ago

> the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal. PG would say the same. Whether that ultimate achievement benefits accrues financially just to you, or a larger corpo, is not that relevant

This sounds like Boxer in "Animal Farm".

FooBarBizBazz3y ago

> the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal.

Hacking was always more about curiosity than about grinding.

istinetz3y ago

This article is extremely biased drivel.

"72% voted yes (of which some were bots)". Guess what, some of the other 28% were also bots.

The entire article is like this - extremely one sided, just cover any possible argument that Musk is bad, color him in the worst shades, see what sticks.

Ignore the fact that many of the bans have been arbitrary and politically motivated, ignore the fact that there has been no outages despite the massive cuts, ignore the fact that there are already feature improvements, ignore the fact that he slashed costs, ignore the fact that usage is at an all time high.

Instead, Musk bad, Musk unstable, tech-bros are racist, non-inclusive and transphobic, CEOs are bad and greedy, etc.

But at the end of the day, the results will speak for themselves. Nobody will care what this guy thinks is the proper way to run a company - if Twitter is successful, every bloated tech company will try the same.

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