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0 pointsstcredzero13y ago0 comments

> What you're discussing is the Credibility Drought. Companies define credibility so that only managers have it, in order to create an artificial scarcity that makes employees easier to control. That's what enables the managerial extortion that forces employees to serve local goals (the manager's own career) rather than the benefit of the company (or the growth of the individual).

Seems what Valve does instead puts credibility on the open market. This makes sense, as that one term, credibility, actually encapsulates a complex panoply of things, and markets are good at regulation even when faced with complexity.

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michaelochurch13y ago· 1 in thread

Valve starts you off with some basic credibility. You matter because you work there. You wouldn't have been hired if you weren't already credible. That's how it should be.

American corporatism is based on Original Sin (the so-called "Puritan work ethic"). If you're not "saved" by some rich institution (a job) then you're judged to be a leech and a failure. Most companies take advantage of this by continuing it into Credibility Scarcity-- you're worthless until told otherwise.

stcredzeroOP13y ago

> Valve starts you off with some basic credibility. You matter because you work there. You wouldn't have been hired if you weren't already credible. That's how it should be.

I've worked for "startups" that don't do this. You start out as an "idiot." The manager has to look over your shoulder every 30 minutes, and gets worried because you are programming using "blocks." You're dictated to in terms of which libraries you use. All this total micromanagement, yet the manager knows so little about iPhone development, he has no idea what "delegates" are or that they're the most common pattern in the SDK.

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