vi-mode's comments

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: How to Kill a Startup Idea with Google Keyword Planner and AdWords: A Case Study

Just wrote a similar piece like yours which brought up another thought: Do you think disintermediation is solvable when it's a BTB (so all parties are businesses) and you put heavy penalties on disintermediation?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: How to Kill a Startup Idea with Google Keyword Planner and AdWords: A Case Study

A wall of text intended as smart content marketing to get some awareness for a rather unknown investment firm or incubator--Crunchbase didn't show any raised funds, so I don't call them VC. The long, over-polite text, the fake landing, the ad test weren't required in the first place.

Why:

The immediate answer every experienced VC would give is a simple 'no, this isn't a VC case' without all this fuzz and waste of time.

This market is useless for VCs because it's prone to disintermediation. Once people form a long-term business relationship, it's easy and reasonable to kick-out the middlemen (eg Homejoy). Marketplaces without long-term relationships don't face this problem (eg Airbnb, Uber).

Disintermediation is a hard problem nobody solved. 101 of investing.

Edit: Just saw another user posted the same. What is interesting, PSL didn't answer to that user's thread which could be interpreted as approval. So, PSL's post shows well that most investors are not per se smarter because they invest money. They're just humans like all of us trying to get free reach for a day with 'random' blog posts.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Tbh, this sounds you like are heavily micromanaging your people because you don't have any task yourself. Did you ever got into 360 feedback? How was the outcome?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

You think I meant 100 direct reports? Without any structure?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Um. Most people never managed many other people, how should they know what they prefer?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

> There is, in fact, fun to be found at every level

Yes, but we are not on HN for such generic advice.

Early in my career I thought that leadership is the end goal and just great, nobody told me that it's a bit more complex. My initial comment just says, guys, it's not getting easier, it's getting harder, much harder. Now we can do a philosophical debate what is fun, what is rewarding, that challenges are rewarding (YES they are) but it's about the fact the managing people is not easy and shouldn't be underestimated, the reward structure is very different than coding and much more complex than eg a k8s cluster.

I mean just check Glassdoor and how many people there hate their boss. It's so easy to f*ck up an org if you haven't any experience.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

You think so? I just disagreed with the things you wrote because I think some of your statements are wrong and/or mislead and they're altogether also inconsistent.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Managing people != dealing with people

This is the biggest misconception most have you have never led seriously. I like people, I like meeting people for a beer, for pair-programming, to date. Managing people is not about being with people.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Sorry, but what you write could come from any of the millions of self-help leadership books or blog spam from the net. Random, generic advice. This is too simple for my taste and I am not talking about what effective leadership is. Maybe you talk about a first leadership experience or managing two interns and find this rewarding. Yes this is def fun.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Wow, what's your stack?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Hm, how should this work? If I'd ask you, 'How many direct reports do you have', what would you say? You need to use the term 'direct report' again.

If you fuzzed around with 'my team' while I try to understand you team structure, your direct report count, their profile, which and how many reports they again have, you'd drive me nuts with a fake 'my team' humbleness.

Using the term 'report' is absolutely ok, you shouldn't talk all day long of your reports of course or trying to impressive anyone.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

And you have time to be on HN?

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Nice that you told us the story why you got into coding. I just tried to find an abstraction for the sake of simplicity. Of course we had all our triggers why we got into coding. And of course we had some specific end goal like you had but the actual activity of coding is about short feedback loops. Something which many professions lack. If you didn't like short feedback-loops you wouldn't code for 8 years.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

This is getting a bit too deep now. I didn't say that I didn't enjoy it. I like challenges, my initial notion was just to express that words like 'fun' are far away from what leadership is. Btw, you didn't answer the question if you led 100+ people for a longer time. Besides and no offense, military, authoritative leadership styles might not be the right approach in tech environments (like those where engineers work).

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Just reports. The ones directly reporting to you are called 'direct reports'. Latter also implies a bigger headcount and that the direct reports are managers themselves. So if you have a small, flat team you call your direct reports just reports.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: VC List

Yes, all non-top-tier investors and angels have currently a crappy deal flow. They read every email they get and they have a hard time to get into good deals right now.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: VC List

> it's still better than sending cold e-mail

Just not true. This topic is complex and yes sending a cold email to a random investor is worse than getting a warm intro but these are two extremes. There are many ways to raise significant funds without intros.

So, I have to click on a clumsy website around and don't get email addresses? No thanks.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Yes but the context here is coder transforms to manager. And coders got coders because they like short feedback-loops.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Hint: you should never frame your reports in such a way ('leaders under me'), 101 of leadership; but let's move on: I think we are not talking about the same; managing people has no short-term feedback loops like coding, it can be fun yes but many confuse this fun with the status involved; from a rational perspective and with the experience of heading larger headcounts (did you lead 100+ teams for a longer time?) paired with hitting ambitious org goals, I find it hard to call 'managing people' fun.

vi-mode | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I wrote a book for engineers that want to become engineering managers

Yes and no. You can move mountains with good teams, this is great and you will draw satisfaction from. But IDK if you had ever 100+ people in your reporting line for a longer time. Then you knew that it's everything BUT definitely not a lot of fun. It's super hard work and will push you and your mind dangerously to the limit.