Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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Jan 7, 2012 / 9:04pm

This is why I don't give you a job

I will only give a job if:

  1. I can fire you, if I want to.
  2. If VAT goes down to at least 20%, better yet 15%.
  3. If the state takes away "only" 30% of your money.
  4. If higher income is not exponentially punished.
  5. If the state punishes corruption instead of decent companies.
more on andorjakab.blog.hu

An inflammatory post about realities of starting a business in Hungary, that made a splash on Hacker News. It's starts with some outrageous statements, but it's worth reading on till the end. The perception of the article seems to depend whether readers were coming from Eastern Europe or Western countries.

Filed under: Eastern Europe   entrepreneurship   startups  
 
Dec 4, 2011 / 5:52pm

Spare Me From “Product Guys”

So, “product guys:” nobody is going to believe you or take you seriously until you prove it. If you start talking about mobile local social software as a service (MOLASSES), you will be laughed out of the room. You are not, fundamentally, a product person until you actually build products.
more on techcrunch.com

Product people, viewed by programmers like me, often function in their own reality distortion field and thus are difficult to figure out. Sometimes they lead to a catastrophe, sometimes to a great product. I still haven't figured out the way to tell one group from another early enough. The delivery (or the lack of it) is the ultimate verification, but that happens quite late in a process. Not to mention the importance of pure luck and chance.

However, following the advice from the article to learn and understand how things work will at least give you some credibility if you want to be a “product person”.

Filed under: entrepreneurship   management  
 
Jul 31, 2011 / 9:34pm

A Billion Dollars Isn’t Cool. You Know What’s Cool? Basic Human Decency

Sarah Lacy has written about how many of the current breed of silicon valley wunderkinds have been conditioned to behave like the movie version of Mark Zuckerberg, eschewing humanity and decency for personal profit and glory. Nothing either she nor I can write will reverse the trend — there’s simply too much money and power at stake. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t loudly call bullshit on those who use words like “disruption” and “revolution” and “democratization” as cynical marketing buzzwords simply to line their own pockets, only to retreat behind the barricades when the going gets rough. And it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mourn a not-too-distant past where technology entrepreneurs created things to make the world a better or more interesting place, not just because they wanted to make a billion dollars.
more on techcrunch.com

TechCrunch preaches about ethics... But it's actually a good piece.

Filed under: entrepreneurship   ethics   internet