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Comment Re:"Empire of the Rising Scum" (Score 1) 167

From a 1990 essay comes the insight "The ability to get ahead in an organization is simply another talent, like the ability to play chess, paint pictures, do coronary bypass operations or pick pockets. There are some people who are extraordinarily good at manipulating- organizations to serve their own ends. The Russians, who have suffered under such people for centuries, have a name for them-- apparatchiks. It was an observer of apparatchiks who coined the maxim, 'The scum rises to the top.' "

http://bobshea.net/empire_of_t...

It is as insightful in its own way as "The Mythical Man-Month".

What is so interesting is that in many (large) organisations, this is pretty much codified in their HR structures, so that in annual appraisals rather than being scored at what you've actually done in your job, it's all about how you have developed a network of trusted colleagues, attended negotiating and presentation courses, volunteered to run the sports club, and absorbed the company Mission Statement.

Comment Re:130 hour weeks and "people first"? (Score 1) 167

Anyone who claims to work 130 hour weeks is quite simply a liar. There's no way that person is producing anything resembling 'work' for more than 18 hours per day, 7 days a week. She may have been in the office for that long, but she sure as hell wasn't working. What is it with this fetishism about long work weeks? What's next, claims about a 170 hour week?

Goddammit yes, if it takes 170 hours a week to get the job done, then I expect my people to work 170 hours a week!

Comment Re:Criticism (Score 1) 167

all the other features and apps ecosystem of a modern smartphone

Porn in your pocket when you go for a dump at work is the killer app of the Smartphone, as far as I can see.

Apart from that, everything else is easier with a reasonable sized laptop.

Comment Re:Brain drain (Score 1) 167

Oh, and damn those people that want to insist that I get overtime for every moment I spend at the office after hours.

Yeah, I really hate getting paid for the work I do too. If it wasn't for my wife and kids needing to eat now and then, I'd probably pay just to be allowed to come into the office.

Comment Re:Brain drain (Score 1) 167

It seems like a good compromise might be to allow telecommuting three days a week: tuesday, wednesday, and thursday, and have mondays and fridays be in the office. That way you still get to interact with your team, and talk to the people you need to talk to, but you are spared 60% of the time and expense of commuting, and all the in-office distractions on those days.

Um, for most people it's on Mondays and Fridays that you want to be "telecommuting". You get a nice long weekend that way, ifyouknowwhatimean.

Comment Re:Brain drain (Score 2) 167

The problem is there are as equally unproductive amounts of people as your pulled out of thin air numbers in the office too.

Some of the lazy bastards even take time to read and post on internet forums while they're supposed to be working in the office. Un-fucking-believable...

Comment Re:Brain drain (Score 1) 167

flex time and telecommuting used to be part of the SV culture

Although it wasn't popular, Marissa was right to end the practice at Yahoo.

I STRONGLY believe that the greatest benefits of having a fantastic team is when everybody is in the same office and have all sorts of serendipitous interactions. Things that can't be scheduled on an outlook calendar. it doesn't happen when people sit at home in their underwear doing skype chats.

And I STRONGLY believe that anyone who unironically uses the word "team" when they're not on a football pitch is a person I dona't want to work for.

Comment Re:Nonprofit (Score 1) 143

Will they want a cut if the engine is used by an opensource project managed by a nonprofit/not-for-profit foundation?

Would a non profit have sales revenue? Because that sounds like trading to me.

Comment Re:5% Gross is a terrible deal (Score 1) 143

If you are a small-time indie developer, that is $12,000/year of revenue before you even have to pay for the engine you used.

For one or two man projects, that's pretty good.

If you are a big studio, well, your lawyers can likely shake out a better deal.

Unless you live in North Korea or something, $12,000 gross a year for two people is a hobby-with-benefits, not a business.

Comment Re:5% Gross is a terrible deal (Score 1) 143

And I think that Epic has been in the business long enough to know that the profit you declare is a pretty subjective number you can make be anything you want.

People always say this about "Hollywood accounting" but I seriously doubt that the tax authorities (for instance) just let film companies make up their profit figure.

Comment Re:Xbox Live and Windows Store (Score 1) 143

it should reflect the marginal cost to them of providing you with the service

You are saying that because you know full well that the marginal cost to them is effectively zero, and you would therefore get it for nothing.

In business, you don't offer your products for sale at their marginal cost, for the very obvious reason that if you did you would never make any profit.

If you use their game engine to make a game that sells millions and earns you a fortune, it seems entirely reasonable that they get a proportion of that fortune. You are not being forced to use their particular game engine, after all. There are others out there, or you could roll your own.

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