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Startup Equity For Employees
2020 PREFACE: I originally wrote this back in the mid-2000s and have resurrected it by request.
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What non-technical users don’t understand about your software
If you are writing consumer software you have to understand that you and your average user have a very different level of understanding of computers. When you first start doing support it can be a …
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Nuke’em Till They Glow – Quitting My First Job
I started working when I was 14 (I lied about my age) and counting four years in the Air Force I’ve worked in 12 jobs. I left each one of them when I was bored, ready to move on, got fired, or lear…
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How much startup stock options are worth
Startup pay kind of sucks. This is not a well-kept secret. A great startup with a dozen or so people will typically pay its employees about a third less than a big company. Some will argue that that’s because of the value of the equity that startups give you. I argue that that’s the price of doing something that’s…
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Here's to the Next 3 Years (Yehuda Katz Moves On)
I officially joined Engine Yard on January 1, 2008, about a week before we announced our Series A funding, becoming its twenty-second employee. I was Engine Yard's very first "Engineering" hire, and I would spend the next year working on Ezra's Merb project, finally releasing Merb 1.
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How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
I used to send a job candidate an email like the following after the person failed a phone intervi...
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My Favorite Engineering Interview Question
As Ning is ramping up recruiting again, I need to brush off my interrogation techniques interview questions. Sadly, one of my favorites is no longer so useful, as originally designed, due to technical advances in hard drives. I figured I’d share and discuss how I use it. Hopefully folks can give me some feedback on…
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Did your boss thank you for coding yourself to death?
Why programmers shouldn't work themselves into the ground for the company, told through the story of a brilliant developer called John.
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The Startup Diet: How I Lost 35 Pounds While Working Overtime
I recently decided to change the way I was taking care of my body. It should be no surprise that I am always on my computer – at least 12-15 hours per day. I am 5' 9" but used to weigh an undesirable 170-175 pounds. Most of this was brought on during my first years of college. I entered college as a
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Jeff Bezos: Regret Minimization Framework
I went to my boss and said to him, “You know, I’m going to go do this crazy thing and I’m going to start this company selling books online.” This was something that I had already been talking to him about in a sort of more general context, but then he said, “Let’s go on a walk.” And, we went on a two hour walk in…
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My zero-equity co-founders
One of the unusual aspects of my online backup startup is that I'm a sole founder. Despite such commentary as Gabriel Weinberg's Will single founders please stand up? and Ray Grieselhuber's The Royal We: Single Founder Startups , single-founder startups are still unusual and carry with them some stigma — Paul Graham…
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99 Out Of 100 Programmers Can’t Program – I Call BS
Why the claim that 99 in 100 programmers can't program says more about a company's job ads and interviews than about programmers.
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The interruptible programmer
I’m 37, and I’ve been a (professional) developer for 16 years. You would have thought that in that time, I’d have figured out an effective work style which delivered the desired outcomes (code cut, products shipped etc) without causing detrimental knock-on effects - but, sadly, you’d be wrong. I think the style in…
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Why I Quit A Six Figure Job
I had the best job in the world. My immediate team of ten people were all world class, and everyday I was able to work on hard and interesting challenges with them. Hours were flexible—many of us worked seven to four (by choice!)—and there was virtually never any overtime. It wasn’t unheard of to have our end of week…