Comments on: Companies, Don’t Eat Your Brains http://foohack.com/2007/07/companies-dont-eat-your-brains/ Isaac Schlueter on Web Development Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:15:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Isaac http://foohack.com/2007/07/companies-dont-eat-your-brains/#comment-26 Isaac Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:16:10 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/07/companies-dont-eat-your-brains/#comment-26 You make a very good point. It would seem a bit inappropriate to discuss details of pay scales and such in as public a forum as this, but suffice it to say that no, I did not receive any cut of the money made on these deals. After a few of these sites, I did start to seek out greener pastures, and Yahoo! made me a retention offer I couldn't refuse, along with a promise that things would be moving in a better direction soon. (Which was not a lie at the time, but something that turned out to be incorrect.) I've got a rather large interest in staying with the company for now, but without the prospect of getting to that "game-changing" project that this was supposed to become, these sites had no appeal to me. It's interesting that you bring up the "someone with a software background at (or near) the top of the food chain." We recently had a change in top leadership, from a big media veteran to a web/software pioneer. Terry Semel *did* bring some much-needed business savvy and focus to the company back in 2001, but I don't think he has the software development insight or new-media vision that Yang has demonstrated as a leader already. Anyway, the point of this post was really to highlight that Yahoo! tends not to "eat its brains," or at least, not for long. The concerns from the team were taken seriously and acted upon fairly quickly. And, now I'm doing something else, a project that probably won't interfere with my personal life, and seems like it has a huge potential to be web-changing. You make a very good point.

It would seem a bit inappropriate to discuss details of pay scales and such in as public a forum as this, but suffice it to say that no, I did not receive any cut of the money made on these deals. After a few of these sites, I did start to seek out greener pastures, and Yahoo! made me a retention offer I couldn’t refuse, along with a promise that things would be moving in a better direction soon. (Which was not a lie at the time, but something that turned out to be incorrect.) I’ve got a rather large interest in staying with the company for now, but without the prospect of getting to that “game-changing” project that this was supposed to become, these sites had no appeal to me.

It’s interesting that you bring up the “someone with a software background at (or near) the top of the food chain.” We recently had a change in top leadership, from a big media veteran to a web/software pioneer. Terry Semel *did* bring some much-needed business savvy and focus to the company back in 2001, but I don’t think he has the software development insight or new-media vision that Yang has demonstrated as a leader already.

Anyway, the point of this post was really to highlight that Yahoo! tends not to “eat its brains,” or at least, not for long. The concerns from the team were taken seriously and acted upon fairly quickly. And, now I’m doing something else, a project that probably won’t interfere with my personal life, and seems like it has a huge potential to be web-changing.

]]> By: Geoff Moller http://foohack.com/2007/07/companies-dont-eat-your-brains/#comment-25 Geoff Moller Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:51:22 +0000 http://foohack.com/2007/07/companies-dont-eat-your-brains/#comment-25 It's very disappointing to see engineers at your level working nights and weekends on anything other than a completely "game changing" application. Your microsites are beautiful, well-crafted and effective, but I wouldn't dare reach to calling them web-changing. There is no more precious resource than time - we can't create it, we can never get it back. I'm fairly certain you're paid on salary, not hourly. If you were getting a performance bump based on the sites' numbers it might make sense - but the fact that you penned this post in the first place indicates to me that may not have happened. Sustainable software development rarely has anything to do with nights or weekends, but non-technical staff and executives rarely understand that - this is why the most pleasant and productive places to write code (usually) have someone with a software background at (or very near) the top of the food chain - since you are already working for one of those companies, it's safe to assume that even those companies can wreak havoc on your life with no payback. I guess it comes down to: "how much are you willing to give away for nothing in return, and for how long?" :) It’s very disappointing to see engineers at your level working nights and weekends on anything other than a completely “game changing” application. Your microsites are beautiful, well-crafted and effective, but I wouldn’t dare reach to calling them web-changing.

There is no more precious resource than time - we can’t create it, we can never get it back. I’m fairly certain you’re paid on salary, not hourly. If you were getting a performance bump based on the sites’ numbers it might make sense - but the fact that you penned this post in the first place indicates to me that may not have happened.

Sustainable software development rarely has anything to do with nights or weekends, but non-technical staff and executives rarely understand that - this is why the most pleasant and productive places to write code (usually) have someone with a software background at (or very near) the top of the food chain - since you are already working for one of those companies, it’s safe to assume that even those companies can wreak havoc on your life with no payback.

I guess it comes down to: “how much are you willing to give away for nothing in return, and for how long?” :)

]]>