This article was fascinating and insightful, I find this dynamic resonates with me as a developer. Instead of VCs fighting over funding, it's me trying to explain why something is not simple or why disparate pieces do not magically integrate without any human intervention.
the idea that you can trick developers into doing things they don't understand is offensive. we aren't just cogs, but tell that to some C level terrorist who lays off half his workforce before jetting off to vacation(s). he got a bonus for blaming this quarters failures of the business on the peons who did the work and in 6 months he'll fire the next batch when they fail to achieve his poorly articulated vision. Forbes will do a piece on his visionary technical management prowess.
I have ZERO respect for this grey area negotiation /management behavior. As someone on the spectrum the social challenges of understanding good faith / bad faith make life and business in general almost impossible.
If you cannot trust the people around you life is hard and terrifying. if you have people you are employing that you are not being honest with them: they hate you, and I hate you too.
Here's a heuristic on trust that will make you happy, straight from game theory: use the tit-for-tat method [1].
You assume a person is honest at first, and try to amicably cooperate. Then, if they break the trust, you assume they're simply a snake looking to maximize their personal gain at the expense of others.
The method works best when you can learn the lesson at first for cheap. If you cooperate a few times to get stiffed for a massive amount later, you'd be losing.
This is really what the acid test story is about - the lawyer is trying to find a cheap way to reliably test the VC for good faith
> The method works best when you can learn the lesson at first for cheap. If you cooperate a few times to get stiffed for a massive amount later, you'd be losing.
This is also known as the "long con" because you fully gain someone's trust before stripping their life down to the plumbing and leaving.
the idea that you can trick developers into doing things they don't understand is offensive. we aren't just cogs, but tell that to some C level terrorist who lays off half his workforce before jetting off to vacation(s). he got a bonus for blaming this quarters failures of the business on the peons who did the work and in 6 months he'll fire the next batch when they fail to achieve his poorly articulated vision. Forbes will do a piece on his visionary technical management prowess.
I have ZERO respect for this grey area negotiation /management behavior. As someone on the spectrum the social challenges of understanding good faith / bad faith make life and business in general almost impossible.
If you cannot trust the people around you life is hard and terrifying. if you have people you are employing that you are not being honest with them: they hate you, and I hate you too.