WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]
top | item 4894526

Motivating posters for your startup

76 points| imdavis | 13 years ago |startupvitamins.com | reply

61 comments

order
[+] edw519|13 years ago|reply
Don't mean to rain on your parade, OP. Just having a little fun...

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |             |  |             |  |             |
  |   No room   |  |  Tear down  |  |   Posters   |
  |     for     |  | this poster |  |  & Posers   |
  |   posters   |  | and put up  |  |  differ by  |
  |   in your   |  |   another   |  |  only one   |
  |     MVP     |  | white board |  |   letter.   |
  |             |  |             |  |             |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |             |  |    If you   |  |   Objects   |
  | MOTIVATING. |  |  need to be |  | on posters  |
  |             |  |  motivated, |  |  are less   |
  |  POSTERS.   |  | you should  |  |  oriented   |
  |             |  | be working  |  |    than     |
  |   DON'T.    |  |  somewhere  |  |    they     |
  |             |  |    else.    |  |   appear.   |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00

  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+ 
  |   00110010  |  |    Stop     |  |  The less   |
  |   11001011  |  |   reading   |  |  you read   |
  |   10010110  |  |   this &    |  | Hacker News |
  |   10001001  |  |    get      |  |  the more   |
  |   10010011  |  |    back     |  | likely you  |
  |   01011001  |  |     to      |  | will be on  |
  |   01011001  |  |    work.    |  | Hacker News |
  +-------------+  +-------------+  +-------------+
   18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00    18x24"-$26.00
[+] brini|13 years ago|reply 

  > +-------------+
  > |   00110010  |
  > |   11001011  |
  > |   10010110  |
  > |   10001001  |
  > |   10010011  |
  > |   01011001  |
  > |   01011001  |
  > +-------------+
Hex: 32 cb 96 89 93 59 59

Decimal: 50 203 150 137 147 89 89

ASCII: 2 Ë [not defined]x3 Y Y

What am I missing?

[+] PhearTheCeal|13 years ago|reply
The last one is so true it hurts.

I think I might design a custom poster that says that ;-)

[+] philip1209|13 years ago|reply
"If we don't raise money soon, I can't pay you next month"
[+] Thieum22|13 years ago|reply
When I see those, I always remember the quote from Peopleware - DeMarco / Lister :

"These motivational accessories, as they are called (including slogan coffee mugs, plaques, pins, key chains, and awards), are a triumph of form over substance. They seem to extol the importance of Quality, Leadership, Creativity, Teamwork, Loyalty, and a host of other organizational virtues. But they do so in such simplistic terms as to send an entirely different message: Management here believes that these virtues can be improved with posters rather than by hard work and managerial talent. Everyone quickly understands that the presence of the posters is a sure sign of the absence of hard work and talent."

[+] seanstickle|13 years ago|reply
And echoing one of the items from W. Edwards Deming's list of deadly diseases (from "Out of the Crisis", 1982): "Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force."

Create better systems, don't decorate the walls with nonsense "motivating" junk.

[+] swalberg|13 years ago|reply
My first thought was of the more cynical http://www.despair.com/motivation.html

Motivation: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

[+] eitland|13 years ago|reply
I think the effect depends on who put these up, management or employees. Personally I like to keep a copy of the Cult of Done manifesto around. I have learnt to hate when my own perfectionism keeps me from shipping in time and that poster seems to help.
[+] bitcartel|13 years ago|reply
Peopleware is a great book to read, highly recommended and I hope DeMarco and Lister write a sequel as I'd love to find out what they think of balance balls and standing exercise desks.
[+] samspot|13 years ago|reply
I doubt that many people see these posters as a substitute for hard work and managerial talent. Why not put your core values on the walls? It is a reminder of what the company thinks is important, which is a step above what we often have at my job.
[+] Killah911|13 years ago|reply
Is there a motivational poster with this quote on it? I'd love to put it in my office!
[+] dickbasedregex|13 years ago|reply
I think the comments thus far have been a little harsher than is necessary. Sure, some of them are a bit cliched but that's fine. None of them seem as tacky as the traditional corporate motivational posters. Perhaps if I worked anywhere near the valley I might be more critical but given that I work in a city that is as far removed from start up culture as possible, I'm probably not as jaded (for lack of a better word) as most HN users.

I purchased one of these posters because the quote addresses one of my biggest repeated failings and the author, Jason Fried, is someone I have a lot of respect for. I wouldn't mind an attractive reminder to avoid my perfectionist, obsessive nature hanging over my desk.

Kudos on the site design and the idea. Best of luck to you. My only quibble is that the site name could be a bit more subdued on some of those posters.

[+] JoeAltmaier|13 years ago|reply
Agreed. These are more like a koan or kata. They help focus the mind in moments of distraction. Maybe like a haiku - simple words to stimulate a beautiful response in the mind.
[+] josscrowcroft|13 years ago|reply
To be perfectly honest I'd be pretty offended if a place where I was working put these on the walls.. The Holstee Manifesto (http://shop.holstee.com/?campaignid=446&mbsy=7pD) I understand, because it's great. But these are just trite and tacky, form over function kind of stuff.

I reckon I'd be far more inspired by, you know, pictures of the team. Or lolcats.

[+] ramayac|13 years ago|reply
Or some Dilbert giant comics poster.
[+] FuzzyDunlop|13 years ago|reply
I think your company should form its own culture, not try to synthesise one by propping up posters of vacuous bullshit that basically tries to tell you how to do your job.
[+] famousactress|13 years ago|reply
I think I agree.. but your own culture can be useful in this form. I dig the "Go fast and break things" posters hanging around the facebook office (dunno if they're still there). It makes sense to me that if your team finds some core values it might be good to commit them to paper and toss them up and a way to remind everyone, especially new folks that it's a hard-won tenant the team believes in.

But I think the idea of importing those values in the form of posters picked off of a website somewhere makes it easy to skip the important part of doing the hard work to figure out what your team collectively believes in.

[+] Zigurd|13 years ago|reply
I can picture the scene:

CEO seated at fusty mahogany desk says "Eagles, jet fighters, and crew shells aren't selling to these 'millenials.' Hire some hipster models and get some 'edgy' copy!"

[+] three14|13 years ago|reply
Anyone but me read "Experiment. Fail. Learn. Repeat." as "... Repeat failed experiment, even while knowing better?"
[+] malaporte|13 years ago|reply
So I'm going to buy a "Don't compromise" and put it right in front of a "Done is better than perfect".
[+] damienkatz|13 years ago|reply
Yeah, that's why motivational posters are usually a dumb idea. The words are almost always true, but very context dependent. Stuck on a wall like that they lose context and start to seem absurd, things start to feel like a Dilbert cartoon.
[+] joesb|13 years ago|reply
The poster attributes "Don't compromise" to Steve Jobs. Jobs probably demanded only Done and Perfect.
[+] jt2190|13 years ago|reply
I suppose it's possible that these posters can motivate a team, but only if everyone on the team knows and understands, on a deep level, what the slogans stand for. Unfortunately, it's very tempting to skip the part where you have a set of long, hard, emotionally draining conversations with the team, where the team puts measurements in place that help them see when they're not holding to their stated goals, where they get frustrated but keep trying to improve things anyway. Why go through all of that when you can just put up a poster!

(edit: My point is that these posters seem like they should be earned, not just purchased.)

[+] MrAlmostWrong|13 years ago|reply
I think what's getting people upset is that they are called 'motivating' posters. I would hang these up in my office for two reason:

1) They look nice and nothing wrong with having a nice looking off space. 2) They serve as reminders. Sure we all 'know' these sayings and try to apply them in everything that we do, but that doesn't mean we forget sometimes and stray off the beaten path. Just like saying we could all have someone tell us "do unto others..." every once in a while.

[+] abcd_f|13 years ago|reply
I just had a torn out page from a magazine with Audi RS4 on it framed and hung on the wall at the eye level. As dumb as it was, it did miracles during the crunch times.
[+] pastylegs|13 years ago|reply
This sort of stuff makes me cringe
[+] famousactress|13 years ago|reply
I like some of these, but for some reason they all remind me of the Portal 2 propaganda and I hear them in my head read in the Cave Johnson voice.
[+] stcredzero|13 years ago|reply
All you need are the regular motivational posters with an additional caption: Do you want to work somewhere management thinks this is a good idea?
[+] anotherevan|13 years ago|reply
Oh wow! New product idea! Print these 'motivational' posters on toilet paper! Now all I need is a technical co-founder...