> People become corporate do-nothings because it’s easy to become disconnected from the act of creating when you’re at a big company. Even at the best big companies, employees can just do things that look like work that aren’t, and you wouldn’t be able to tell.
I’ve seen this at startups and big corporations. People seem to get fired for doing nothing productive with about the same frequency at both. What are some examples of do-nothingism that occurs at big successful corporations?
> Startups can’t survive blindly following buzzwords or whatever trend is hot because you actually have to know what’s coming in the future and be right. That’s all there is. If you chose the wrong market, or you’re wrong about what people want, then you’re toast.
In the age of the acquihire for failed startups, this is especially laughable. With plenty of money for early stage deals, and the likelihood of an acquihire or other soft landing if things go badly (followed by funding for a new idea a year or two later), it’s the best environment in years for startups to blindly follow trends and spout buzzwords.
Examples of do-nothing-ism at large companies— lots of launches of bad products. Huge advertising budgets. Large staffs of ineffectual people. Pointy headed bosses. Where do you think that meme came from? Big companies!
Obviously bad startups have this too. I never said it never happens at startups. Those startups die, though, which I do mention.
Re: acquihires, lets be frank. These do not happen with the frequency you may think, and they're not nearly as good as you might hope. It may seem like startups are just like the show Silicon Valley, but that ignores the fact that there is still real signal, real companies, real revenue. It's overly cynical to think that it's a winning strategy to play it like the HBO show. Do the buzzwords, the song and dance, look like a startup. It does not work, nor should it. It's a recipe for disaster. I see it every day.
A Googler I know claims he spends roughly 90% of his time playing politics and writing long cover your ass emails. Ditto people in other big places. Or just wait for stuff - like waste a month waiting for ops to give access to something.
If you are in a small company - you can spend half your time playing diablo and still be more productive. I also know people that bust their asses trying to do all the work, but have no idea how to get fired the entrenched politicians.
The latter example happens all the time to good people. Doing a lot of work in most organizations is anti-correlated with success because the only thing that happens is that even more work is pushed your way.
The number of startups that don't get acquihired vastly outnumber the few that do. "The age of the acquihire" trope is seductive grounds for argument because it plays to the crowd of folks who follow the tech scene but resent the folks participating in it, but it's invalid grounds for argument because it's just not true.
> People become corporate do-nothings because it’s easy to become disconnected from the act of creating when you’re at a big company. Even at the best big companies, employees can just do things that look like work that aren’t, and you wouldn’t be able to tell.
I’ve seen this at startups and big corporations. People seem to get fired for doing nothing productive with about the same frequency at both. What are some examples of do-nothingism that occurs at big successful corporations?
> Startups can’t survive blindly following buzzwords or whatever trend is hot because you actually have to know what’s coming in the future and be right. That’s all there is. If you chose the wrong market, or you’re wrong about what people want, then you’re toast.
In the age of the acquihire for failed startups, this is especially laughable. With plenty of money for early stage deals, and the likelihood of an acquihire or other soft landing if things go badly (followed by funding for a new idea a year or two later), it’s the best environment in years for startups to blindly follow trends and spout buzzwords.