What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

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Jccarlton
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Location: Southern Ct

What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by Jccarlton »

Asshattery from the Ivy Covered Snob Factory for the Mandarin Crowd.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/seven_r ... creat.html
Love the line about underpaying people.

MSimon
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by MSimon »

Jccarlton wrote:Asshattery from the Ivy Covered Snob Factory for the Mandarin Crowd.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/seven_r ... creat.html
Love the line about underpaying people.
I never expected to be fully compensated for my work. What I tell prospective employers is that I expect to produce for you 10X to 50X what you pay me. If it gets above 50X I expect a bump.

What does that tell them? Money is not my obsession but I will not stand for being robbed blind. It also gives them an incentive to be fair. If I'm worth 50X what they pay me they have to worry about poachers who will be satisfied with 25X.

I just hate guys whose main story in life is "all the money I made for THEM and look at what they paid me"
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

MSimon
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by MSimon »

They are right about "too much money" - read Feynman on the subject. Feynman said he would be inclined to get a mistress. And that would ruin his productivity.

I have seen projects ruined by too much money. Look at toks. And too little - Polywell.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

MSimon
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by MSimon »

My creative juice runs in the direction of making the complex simple.

Expressing in one sentence what it takes others three paragraphs to explain.

So they got the "complexity" thing wrong. At least for me. I also attack circuits that way. I do a design. And then start eliminating.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

MSimon
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by MSimon »

The first mate would tell you that this is a pretty good description of me:

Research confirms the stereotypical view that corporate innovators — intrapreneurs — exhibit many of the psychopathic characteristics that prevent them from being effective leaders: they are rebellious, anti-social, self-centered and often too low in empathy to care about the welfare of others.

I do care about the welfare of others - in the abstract.

And I can manage - small teams though. I have never gone above 10 people reporting to me. And I don't believe I'd care to. What do I do to motivate: "us against the organization". I like to work with cast offs and help them become top performers. If you can do that they will follow you to Hell.

My current employers

http://www.ecnmag.com/tags/Blogs/M-Simon/

have never had face time with me. And I insisted that I not be in the chain of command. Which is why I contract rather than being an employee.

BTW thanks for posting that.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

chrismb
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by chrismb »

The piece seems to be quite justified. Self-justifying, in fact.

There is only one thing a creative would shudder at, and that is the one about being paid less. Unfortunately, it is probably true, but not necessarily for the reasons given. As it says, fairness is about dealing with people in the way they deserve. It's not about 'more money', per se, it's about being the recipient of less money than others who are less deserving get.

MSimon
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by MSimon »

chrismb wrote:The piece seems to be quite justified. Self-justifying, in fact.

There is only one thing a creative would shudder at, and that is the one about being paid less. Unfortunately, it is probably true, but not necessarily for the reasons given. As it says, fairness is about dealing with people in the way they deserve. It's not about 'more money', per se, it's about being the recipient of less money than others who are less deserving get.
I do not care to run the business side. Those guys are worth what ever it takes to get good ones. Generally quite a lot.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

choff
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Re: What Our Mandarins think of the "little people"

Post by choff »

It amazes me that the manager factories have yet to discover the Dilbert Principle, it would be inconceiveable to the author that the creative employee's would read his own article, and possibly possess superior intelligence to managers. Also that these employee's could be gaming them, remember the programmer who outsourced his work to China for one fifth salary while he spent the day looking at cat pictures.
CHoff

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