It's not really skill level that determines whether you keep a job. Having a good network and being able to hustle for opportunities are far bigger determinants.
The quiet, 50th percentile engineer who hasn't had to look for a job in 10 years, doesn't know a lot of people, low-ish EQ, works for a company that's not well-known: most at risk of struggling to find a job if laid off or company goes under.
Someone who knows little more than HTML but is a young, hustler type, big network, sociable, puts more energy into finding gigs - likely to get at least some contract work to sustain him through the
Not surprising to me about Coinbase. A friend interviewed there and decided not to continue with the process as he was so turned off by their team. In particular he made a suggestion for improvement and they got very defensive.
Christian had time to write a book, but did not have time to update the blog.
I would suggest that in the interests of the OKCupid business, updating the blog would have been a better thing to do than write a book. The blog drew many users to OK Cupid. It's possible that writing a book was in Christian's interest.
If Christian was no longer working at OK Cupid while he wrote the book, then I understand. In that case the error is on the part of the New York Times for describing him as currently in that role.
No I didn't get my metabolic rate measured. I was using estimates based on my height and weight, which told me I should be burning X calories a day. I used the low end of the range (despite exercising I didn't count myself as active for getting that estimate.) I'm very curious though about measuring my official metabolic rate. Do you know where I could get it done in the bay area?
I did the same as you in terms of measuring calories, but mostly using scales or calorie counts on packets as I was cooking using raw ingredients. I recorded everything in a diary, using paper initially and then myfitnesspal app. I would also "cross-check" (e.g., after finishing a bottle of olive oil I'd look back at how much I'd logged.) I do think there's space for error and variation - e.g., a vegetable that's sweeter than average, or trying to judge how much fat (and therefore calories) is left on a piece of meat. That last one is the toughest because it can make a huge difference.
I agree that it's hard to make healthy choices, but I think it's a bit more complex than that...
I packed on an extra 20-30 pounds working in a catered, snack-heavy silicon valley company. I decided to change my diet completely. I slowly cut out all processed food from my diet, and then all snacks, so that everything that I ate was homemade by myself, typically "healthy" (similar to mediterranean diet), with no sugar, no juice, lots of vegetables and fish, some fruit, and relatively portion-controlled (eyeballed.) I lost 8 pounds but then plateau-ed - I continued to be overweight. I also exercised 4 times a week.
I started monitoring calories for a couple months and realized I was eating at a slight "calorie deficit" - I should have been losing a pound every week or two but I wasn't. Only when I cut my calories and STRICTLY portion-controlled my healthy food (to a calorie deficit where I should have been losing 2-3 pounds a week), did I finally start losing 2/3 pound a week. I'm proud to say I'm now a healthy weight but I eat FAR less and exercise FAR more than I should "need" to.
The journey really helped me realize there's something wrong with our food (not just the processed food but the ingredients themselves) and that there are some environmental factors involved (something in the water? the environment? pesticides? I really don't know. I'm not sure what it is.)
Thanks for responding. I actually made the account because I haven't commented on hacker news before though I read it all the time. I just feel strongly about it so I had to write a response.
This is just awful. There's owning up to mistakes, which is very "trendy" right now, and then there's being a straight up terrible, unethical, incompetent person. It's a bit gross to reference Ben Horowitz, to try to make this seem like a "classic" startup moment that every startup goes through. E.g., "most companies go through at least two, and sometimes over a dozen WFIOs in their lifetime."
1. "And so I learned that we hadn’t been paying payroll taxes for almost 3 years – a particularly painful thing given I believe in taxes as a means of giving back to society." It's weird and manipulative to throw in how much you believe in giving back to society here. You majorly screwed up oversight of how investment money was being spent to not notice the difference in financials given no taxes were being paid!
"This hurt even more because I’d been paying myself one of the lowest salaries on the team to maximize our runway and support our mission." Again, you're the founder. If you're going to make that statement, at least include that you have a much larger equity stake in the company - you're not sacrificing yourself completely!
2. "Mistake 3: Not being explicit about hacks" should be re-written, "Being Dishonest." Cloaking the language as "hacks" and again referencing PG to make your behavior acceptable - (he says it's ok, it's just really a grey area!)
3. "Mistake 7: Telling a half-truth" should be called "lying." If you still think it's a half-truth, you have NOT learned your lesson. It's not "rule bending." Everyone knows that when you say you dropped out of Harvard, the assumption is that you were some form of degree earning student. Seriously, it wasn't a half-truth if the people you're talking to were assuming something else - it was a lie.
Lastly, NOWHERE do I see remorse for the lives of your employees who you laid off. These people trusted and believed in you, and you let them down. Did these people find new jobs? Did you help them find new jobs? How did you structure their layoff packages? Are any still struggling? Were you able to support their next career moves in some way if not monetarily? Not really mentioned, which suggests you don't really care. You're much more focused on you.