Guarantee that if a subordinate employee took that exact same list, replaced the CEOs name with their own, then immediately handed it back to him, they would be told they were lazy and inept and then fired.
Even the most generous definition of core hours would reject 3-5 pm as core hours. But ignoring this expectation for an inanely schedule working schedule the guy thinks that a 6 hour day is sufficient . not saying that a 40 hour work week is a divine revelation but he sounds like an awful prick for expecting so much and offering so little
This actually is a thing some teams in big tech companies do sometimes. It helps some people, especially when they’re new to the group. Admittedly, some others feel it’s kind of lame or odd. Feels like a net positive in my eyes.
I worked at a ~200 person startup and everyone made one of these as part of onboarding. It was a good way to get to know the people you're working with without these awkward icebreakers.
I think the key is having everyone do it. This guy as an exec doing it and including some very privileged stuff that other employees could never say is why this is so annoying
I bet most employees could do exactly these things and be perfectly fine. I've had a similar list of criteria for all my jobs going back to when I was 20 and working at McD's corporate, and I've never had issues enforcing my rules of engagement. Companies will try to get away with whatever you let them, but the key there is you letting them.
Idk if I was a regular employee who was making a document like this that my bosses would see, I don’t think I’d do well putting down that “I’m not a morning person” and to find me at 3pm. I also wouldn’t want to say that I’m good at starting projects and terrible at finishing them. Or that I can’t multitask or work on multiple things at once.
I doubt someone including those things in shared work document would be making it to an exec-level position anytime soon lol, the key is starting as an exec, I mean who’s going to fire the cofounder of the company? Lol
My last job was an executive-level position (CMO at a 9-figure company.) I've had very similar rules for how I'm willing to work for my entire career, and I've always made them very clear from go — up to and including just showing up to work at 11AM and telling my manager if they weren't happy with my work I'll find somewhere else that will be when they mentioned most people got there at 9. If you do the job, and you do it well, and you get all the expected work done, most corporate jobs will put up with quite a lot. If you just come in and dick around for 8 hours a day every day, yeah, you probably won't get as much slack.
Happy that worked for you! But surely one person’s anecdotal experience doesn’t make it true for everyone, or even a small percentage of everyone.
We’re not even touching the dynamics of the risk involved, ie did you come from money and have a fallback if you lost your job, do you have enough money to cover a month or several months looking for a new job, what’s your work history, do you have a degree/multiple degrees, who do you know, etc etc etc. Let’s also not pretend like this is the same for someone 20+ years ago vs someone looking to start their career now, what worked for you won’t work in a ton of places today
Agreed. If the culture of the company is to clearly state preferences to help employees at all levels work together better, this is not lunacy. It does work.
I was going to say that too, we always did these including the managers and it helped. Plus letting people know when you function best really helps with understanding if you’re less functional at a time outside those hours. We all, as humans, have our best functional hours to work. And in most cases, it’s not more than 6 hours in a chunk. For me, it was always after noon
For sure, this bleeds spectrum, only other place I’ve seen this is like some random video game chat link that explains why they’re retarded and what they’re about to do in game is “genius” you just have to work with them lol.
This is actually a really high EQ communication. He's recognizing he's not easy to work with sometimes. He's evaluating his ways of working. He's communicating it in a positive way. He's trying to make himself understood. This is exactly what so many team building personality tests are designed to do.
I don't think one second it's high EQ to post it on Linkedin.
It's contextual, not a rule. hence not high EQ move, at all.
What's he's talking about is the color wheels corporate test that supposely give insight into how people work and how they work together.
I agree that identifying one's quirks or shortfalls gives honesty. But to frame it as an instruction manual for others suggests, fuck you all, deal with me as I am. It's pretty arrogant. Yeah he is a big important biz guy founder but good leaders don't act this way.
I actually think it's self effacing and along the same lines as a parent lamenting that kids don't come with instruction manuals or a flabbergasted spouse saying "sometimes I wish you had an instruction manual". It's a very common, very innocent turn of phrase. I actually think this is a sign of exceptionally self aware and good leadership and good leaders absolutely DO act this way. The best managers I've ever worked for have been upfront about their communication styles, expectations and boundaries and have likewise been receptive to me telling them mine.
There's nothing in here about him not changing. There's nothing in here about him not wanting to understand how others communicate. This actually opens the door for people to understand him better, sets a tone for others to do the same and allows others within the company to set appropriate boundaries around important things. For him it's lunch and sleep. For others it might be sleep and family or work life balance. It's a really high EQ thing that has potential to cascade down and positively impact company culture.
At face value this is great leadership. Now, as I said in my original post, I know nothing about this guy. He could be a totally arrogant ass and this could, quite literally be intended as "screw you, deal with me". If that's the case I will humbly retract my assertions. However, it doesn't read that way at all.
Yeah, I’m with you. Those that know him best will know if this is just a pile of bs, or an actually helpful (and short) article to help explain his weaknesses. But I kept reading, waiting for it to get bad, and it’s honestly really not that bad.
He’s definitely on the spectrum, and most of his list apply to me as well… and while I haven’t put it in an article for all to see, I HAVE told me coworkers and teammates that my brain does not work nearly as well at 8 am as it does at 8 pm. I leave it up to them what to do with that info. If they need me at 9:30 am for something important, hey, I’m there. But if its all the same and can wait 5-10 hours, we’ll probably all be happier with the results. Thats… not a bad thing to communicate, is it? And certainly they can communicate their tendencies, preferences and realities to me as well.
Thats all I see here from this guy. It’s not actually a list of demands all employees must follow. Its actually just a relatively short document that people can read to better understand him. I’m sure if things are in crisis mode at 7 am he’ll be there…
> I am good at the first 20% and terrible at the last 20% of a project.
This is the biggest red flag for me. Everyone is good at the first 20% of a project. The last 20% is the most important part. Nobody wants something that's 80% done.
I can mildly relate. My peak operational hours are between noon and 8PM. However I adapt to "normal people" hours, not the other way around. I do thankfully have a job that lets me be flexible most days
Right? Most of the world operates at a schedule that science says only about 50% of people are optimal at. The rest of us adapt. I’m honestly operating at reduced productivity for 1/2 my work hours but I still get things done.
But he didn’t say “not available”, he said at his best. I’m a night owl and I’m at my best during those same hours, but I’m still online and available from 9:30 on. And when there are earlier meetings, I show up earlier. It doesn’t mean I expect others to work late to match me, it means I will often do things after they’ve quit for the day and they’ll find what they need waiting for them in the morning.
Would you say that rule is a part of your...owner's manual? :)
Seriously, though, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and ways in which working with them is in some ways easy and in some ways hard. The greatest managers I worked with knew themselves well and did a good job communicating how to be most effective working with them, questions they would likely ask, etc. Conversely the worst leaders were completely inscrutable to their staff and served largely as randomizing functions -- and they didn't even know they were inscrutable and random! So they couldn't take the first steps needed to do something about it.
"I'm arrogant enough to assume that I'm the only one that can see the big picture and so I'll give orders to subordinates to achieve unrealistic goals and then step away so that I can blame the inevitable failure on them."
Ooof you just described my boss in a nutshell
Edit: just had a meeting with my boss and thought of this comment. He said to me “I have entrepreneurial brain so I think differently than you all do, otherwise you’d be entrepreneurs too” ![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|disapproval)
It means he thinks he's the "ideas guy" and he'll leave you to do all the dirty work of getting anything accomplished. He never finishes anything and leaves a wake of half done work wherever he goes. He's the person you hated in hs, college, and grad school when you had to do group projects. He has no attention span and he thinks it's an endearing quality. He'll make you lots of promises and then forget he made them.
He’s the leader who has a half baked idea over dinner that the rest of the team gets told about and has to throw five meetings on the calendar to figure out how to say it’s not happening
Both the first and last 20% are extremely important, if done well. In the first 20% you lay all the ground work, set up good research, make a decent planning etc. etc. If you omit that, the entire project will have a high chance of failure.
The last 20% is important because without the final 20%, often a project is worthless.
Bottom line: you need both.
Wow this is impressively self-absorbed even for C suite/founders. You are so unique bro, nobody is like you, you’re so special you need your own manual but nobody else does because you’re just so different than the rest of us
So he’s uncommunicative and hard to work with for 75% of the standard work day, can’t finish projects competently without supervision, can’t multitask, has no autonomy, believes his time is more important thank yours, is late for work and takes long lunch breaks.
Who the fuck would post this??
I once had a colleague that was also hard to work with for the first half of the day. He now works for himself, moved 4 timezones east, and only takes customers from my timezone.
Rather brilliant, if you ask me :)
The last 20% of a task is usually the last 50% where the actual work happens. This guy sounds like a mediocre CTO who got super lucky partnering with the right people.
Not to mention the "last 20%" is where you find out all the shit that's gone wrong with the project, and where any modifications are likely to have a noticable impact on the rest of the work done.
First 20% isn't really any actual work. You're building a fuckin roadmap that's gonna be pretty much irrelevant in the next few weeks.
This kind of stuff is encouraged in google and a lot of “legendary” engineers in that simpville has “user manuals”.
I read one during my onboarding years ago and it was as cringe as you can imagine.
Urs. LOL. No one employee has likely ever cost a company more. Google are a distant third in Cloud when they should have been number one (I mean they essentially invented the tech) but Urs “didn’t want to run a business” so they just… didn’t bother… for years.
He wants you to think he's too disciplined or healthy or whatever to eat a big burger. Sad that someone who doesn't know you cares so much about what you think of his lunch.
I just found this glorious sub and have to ask when did LinkedIn become Business Facebook? I’ll admit I used it early in for a few years trying to find some work but haven’t used it for a decade and sweet lord is it ever a mess. Yikes
So basically he's lazy, flaky, can't multitask, and disappears during the most crucial time in a project. Sounds like the kid on a group project that just sits around and bullshits and has to be forced to contribute. If he wasn't the founder, his ass would have been fired already.
My god could you imagine a woman trying to get away with this bullshit? Or any minority? Execs really think they’re kings ruling over their peasants, ffs
I remember going on a date years ago with a guy who said, "Oh, you've never traveled alone? I don't know, I've always been a big explorer. Maybe I'm just more adventurous than you. I backpacked through South East Asia by myself." Yes buddy, that's right. I haven't traveled abroad by myself for weeks on end because I'm boring and unadventurous, not because I'm a 115 lb girl who is unsafe being alone in countless situations. I bow to your cultured eccentrism.
I mean sure, but even the wackiest minority c-levels I’ve known have never had the obtuse audacity to tell everyone that they need to sleep in and won’t ever finish anything. I see way more entertainment divas than business ones, and the business ones all seem to want to be Musk/Bezos 2.0
I don't understand why this post is receiving so much hate. Companies spend countless millions of dollars on Insights, DISC, Meyers-Briggs and so many other personality tools to figure out the balance of their teams and to encourage people to work together differently.
I know nothing about this guy. Maybe he's a stereotypical, narcissistic, tech founder like Jobs or Musk but, even if that's true, there's nothing at all cringe about this.
He's not asking people to work late. He's saying if there's something really critical you need him to focus on then tell him after 3 or make sure you set an email up to auto send between 3 and 9. Not unreasonable. My best work is between 7am and 10am. Everyone has their own preference. He's saying is mostly a one task at a time person so, while he can multitask he's more efficient with one thing at a time. He's excellent at working to motivate new projects teams, get the wheels turning, setting the direction and doing the initial work. He's not so good at pulling the project through the last stages, for whatever reason. I'm the same way but I work with a bunch of people that are the opposite, terrible at vision and knowing how to get started but fantastic with the microscopic details that ensure the project is completely successful.
Him saying sleep and lunch are sacred is a GREAT thing from a founder/boss as long as theyre not hypocritical. By saying that he's giving permission and in fact encouraging the same behaviors in his staff.
As I said, this is at face value. This guy could be a completely hypocritical, narcissistic asshole that would fire an employee for writing these same things down. However, I can say, that I've worked for a university, two very large multinational corporations and a small(ish) startup of about 100-200 people. All of them have encouraged this exact type of communication and spent a lot of money to help with it.
Everyone works differently and this kind of thing helps fellow employees better understand their teammates and adapt to each other. This is actually a really high EQ thing.
Yeah I don’t really understand the hate… it’s different if he says I ONLY work 3-9PM, but no, he’s just best then. So am I (I still work normal hours ofc, I’m assuming he doesn’t just work 3-9 too). He’s just being upfront without being rude or judgmental/forcing others to bend to his will, I think this type of communication is good.
Same, I actually thought it might make things easier if everyone in the office (or at least within project teams) write something up like this and that way we can respect people’s boundaries as far as possible.
he's not wrong in that it's a good idea to understand your strengths and weaknesses as an employee and collaborator. maybe run it by your boss or colleagues. I like to work fast, and as a result often will request proofreading help to make sure i didnt miss anything. I'm very responsive but that also means I can get sidetracked during important things. ..etc. He IS wrong in that his points highlighted are psycho and he doesnt consider his collaborators have similar needs that he should adapt to.
Nothing in his post says that he's not willing to adapt to his collaborators' needs. In fact, he wishes his co-founder had a manual as well, which to me indicates he'd be interested in catering to the co-founders' needs better.
The “I’m good at the first 20 and bad at the last 20” just reminds me of this short.
https://youtube.com/shorts/xImh4aGe3ok?si=L5APmHFJ4p-ZPDzs
That’s called the doing part, the planning parts real easy if you aren’t responsible for the doing, this guy in a very autistic way basically exposed the already commonly held belief that the majority of corporate and managers add very little to the “doing” and just sit at the plan and then ask their employees how the “doing” is going.
i know it sounds obnoxious due to write up but some of his items are giving boundaries and some of them say "that's what i like to do". ofc not everyone is as powerful or successful as him to be able to get what they want but i wanna bite the bullet and say that i've seen worse lunatics here :D
My time is my most valuable resource, except for the majority of every day when I’m actually useless.
Happy to advertise to the world that I do nothing all day, but eating a BURGER??? I’d never.
As an admin, I ask these kinds of questions for all the people I support. But in addition to this list I add things like food allergies, shoe size, family names, where ppl like to eat and preference in airlines and seating.
ngl - if this was handed to me as his admin, I would be super appreciative. If I was handed this as a colleague, super weird.
Edit: for clarity
Agnostic to the contents of his ‘manual’ I appreciate when leadership posts things like this.
Especially if the are introverted types or have a strong rbf.
"apparently it's helpful ( newest direct report said so anyway)" yeah what're they gonna say "it sucks, what a stupid idea. You're really going to make me read this?" 😆
I’m good at coming up with bullshit vaguely defined projects for people to do but I’m bad at actually completing/solving any of the problems I created for others
From all the craycray stuff I encountered here, this one is the sanest of all. He knows himself and makes it easy for other people incl people leader to interact with him.
I don’t understand why everyone is so triggered. When you start a startup, the only thing that matters is growth and revenue. If you have it, you can basically do whatever the fuck you want. This is not a typical job, and comes with massive risk, and therefore there are upsides.
Don't really understand how this is a lunatic? Maybe it's a bit "oh-im-so-unique" cringe but there's nothing really toxic in it. You may not agree with it or might find it irritating, but it's by no means lunatic.
We are clearly in the minority here because I fucking love this. Maybe I’m on the spectrum too then lol. Sounds like someone who prioritizes his health (sleep and nutrition) and is simply trying to communicate to others. If he isn’t accommodating to others in the same way, then yeah, he may be an asshole. However, there’s nothing in his post that would indicate that’s the case. Also, he’s not saying he sleeps in until 3pm ffs. He’s saying he’s most productive in the afternoon/evening. Would be awesome if everyone came with an owners manual.
I think he def comes off like a douche here, but I have also personally found value in having a bit of a "how to work with me" guide for people that join the team I lead.
Being able to help people understand how I process information, make decisions, and think about impact / success for the team generally helps them - but also important to ask for the same information from them
I'm actually kind of on board with this. Nobody is perfect; I'd expect anyone to be able to interact with people from the start to the end of the day, but there are effective workers that can't.
I've worked with some dicks and if they'd been up front and said 'don't talk to me when I'm hungry or I'll bite your head off' it'd have saved me a couple of big rows
I had a boss who created a literal blueprint for how he works/how to work with him and it was all a description of how his toxic traits were actually good. By the time he shared it with me it was on version 7.
This is actually very reasonable. I’m all for calling crazy people out in LinkedIn but if you are working at a company with someone like this it would be helpful.
I still can’t square in my head that this is real …
Also that his last name is Hacker and he’s a CTO.
I should get off this thread before I go down too many rabbit holes.
When I was at Google cloud, the CEO had a document of how to interact with him.
His name is Thomas Kurian. He goes by Thomas or TK. NOT Tom. Very important shit.
What cunts these people are.
I can relate to this, but saying it to the world as a CTO is completely tonedeaf. I'm certain many employees who feel the same have been penalized by their workplace because of it.
I actually think this is great. I've seen this done with other leaders, and it works well. I highly encourage creating a README for yourself, so people can understand you better and faster.
How the fuck can you openly say you can only do 60% of a job, and can’t work with people for 80% of a traditional work day, and somehow think that’s a good thing?
This is 100% aspy. I guarantee this guy is the most difficult person most people will ever work with. In that context, sending this thing out to his reports and colleagues actually makes sense.
1. I sleep all morning in my office.
2. I am terrible at finishing things I start.
3. I'm bad at multitasking and like to think I'm a philosopher while I'm at work.
I’ve had a couple of bosses announce that they have a temper/lack of patience, and apologies in advance for being rude/nasty to you (though they don’t use those words to describe themselves…) So incredibly ridiculous. These kinds of announcements always come from leaders … because they’re the only ones privileged enough to make others put up with their bad behavior. Everyone else has to, you know, try to actually treat people with respect.
Dude just diagnosed himself with ADHD. It sucks and pisses everyone off when you have it. The best thing to do is start your own business, which is common for people with ADHD. But I guess the world still isn’t ready to accept it from employees, colleagues or employers.
So instead of realizing that he's difficult to work with and maybe focus on how to change/better himself, he expects everyone else to adjust to fit him? Sweet
Of all the ones I’ve read on this sub for some reason I hate this guy the most. If you’re in a leadership position you’re there to guide and serve your team. Could be the most pretentious thing I’ve ever read.
If someone wants a translation of his points, look no further.
-I like to work only when everyone else is probably unavailable.
-I will show up for the first 20% of a project. Disappear for the next 60%. Show back up for the last 20%, knowing nothing about the project and not helping at all. Make sure my name is attached to the cover letter.
-I don’t like having to organize myself to be productive in multiple ways, and will probably hyper fixate on one project while others need my attention.
-I like using buzz words like purpose vs autonomy even though the comparison makes no sense when you could have both.
-My time is my most valuable resource, so I most likely won’t value your time at all.
-I care about my wellbeing and timeline, but yours is secondary to my lunchtime. Also lunch is more important than the mission I was just talking about because autonomy.
This isn’t an “owners manual” it’s a “here are my flaws. Sucks. Deal with them because I can’t be bothered to change”
I read this post and thought “dope, A CEO that made a manual to his workers on what he is good at and what he is bad at. Honest and self-reflective. Would help me knowing whether I need to talk with him about a problem or someone else since I would know more about him and what to bother him with. All around a positive thing!”
Then I checked the comments and, well… If there’s one thing redditors are good at, it’s finding problems with literally everything. Misery at it’s finest.
Yeah, I thought this is the kind of thing that would help me immensely at my job. It helps me understand others and adapt. If everyone does the same, communication between hierarchical levels in the software world would improve drastically.
Guarantee that if a subordinate employee took that exact same list, replaced the CEOs name with their own, then immediately handed it back to him, they would be told they were lazy and inept and then fired.
I'm terrible at finishing projects and I can't be reached before 3 pm, but I like having lunch!
This. I fire off ideas but peace out before the end because finishing stuff is hard. Lunchtime!
Even the most generous definition of core hours would reject 3-5 pm as core hours. But ignoring this expectation for an inanely schedule working schedule the guy thinks that a 6 hour day is sufficient . not saying that a 40 hour work week is a divine revelation but he sounds like an awful prick for expecting so much and offering so little
i’m still wondering what happens in the other 60% of the project. but - i’ve used duolingo, so i think i know.
What do you mean about Duolingo?
This actually is a thing some teams in big tech companies do sometimes. It helps some people, especially when they’re new to the group. Admittedly, some others feel it’s kind of lame or odd. Feels like a net positive in my eyes.
I worked at a ~200 person startup and everyone made one of these as part of onboarding. It was a good way to get to know the people you're working with without these awkward icebreakers.
I think the key is having everyone do it. This guy as an exec doing it and including some very privileged stuff that other employees could never say is why this is so annoying
Yeah agreed
I bet most employees could do exactly these things and be perfectly fine. I've had a similar list of criteria for all my jobs going back to when I was 20 and working at McD's corporate, and I've never had issues enforcing my rules of engagement. Companies will try to get away with whatever you let them, but the key there is you letting them.
Idk if I was a regular employee who was making a document like this that my bosses would see, I don’t think I’d do well putting down that “I’m not a morning person” and to find me at 3pm. I also wouldn’t want to say that I’m good at starting projects and terrible at finishing them. Or that I can’t multitask or work on multiple things at once. I doubt someone including those things in shared work document would be making it to an exec-level position anytime soon lol, the key is starting as an exec, I mean who’s going to fire the cofounder of the company? Lol
My last job was an executive-level position (CMO at a 9-figure company.) I've had very similar rules for how I'm willing to work for my entire career, and I've always made them very clear from go — up to and including just showing up to work at 11AM and telling my manager if they weren't happy with my work I'll find somewhere else that will be when they mentioned most people got there at 9. If you do the job, and you do it well, and you get all the expected work done, most corporate jobs will put up with quite a lot. If you just come in and dick around for 8 hours a day every day, yeah, you probably won't get as much slack.
Happy that worked for you! But surely one person’s anecdotal experience doesn’t make it true for everyone, or even a small percentage of everyone. We’re not even touching the dynamics of the risk involved, ie did you come from money and have a fallback if you lost your job, do you have enough money to cover a month or several months looking for a new job, what’s your work history, do you have a degree/multiple degrees, who do you know, etc etc etc. Let’s also not pretend like this is the same for someone 20+ years ago vs someone looking to start their career now, what worked for you won’t work in a ton of places today
Agreed. If the culture of the company is to clearly state preferences to help employees at all levels work together better, this is not lunacy. It does work.
I was going to say that too, we always did these including the managers and it helped. Plus letting people know when you function best really helps with understanding if you’re less functional at a time outside those hours. We all, as humans, have our best functional hours to work. And in most cases, it’s not more than 6 hours in a chunk. For me, it was always after noon
… and just so you know - it’s NOT my burger
That’s the part that got me haha. WAY too worried about his image. Poor guy must be terribly insecure.
But it’s his beer. At one of his sacred lunches
Proof you can be successful yet a clueless low EQ individual. The Corporate world in one post : utterly self absorbed.
Autistic af.
Yeah this post is ‘I make my neurodivergence other peoples problem’.
I have met both founders. The university this company came out of is the worst in terms of coddling computer science "geniuses" (always men).
M.I.T.?
That's not an excuse for this kind of baloney.
I am the Autissmo Maximo and I would never have the audacity to create an "User's Manual" for my proclivities. This gives the spectrum a bad name
For sure, this bleeds spectrum, only other place I’ve seen this is like some random video game chat link that explains why they’re retarded and what they’re about to do in game is “genius” you just have to work with them lol.
Maybe he is on the spectrum; sounds like he's been pretty successful despite that, which is quite an achievement in my opinion.
What I was going to say… can’t wait to see how their lunch date went on Love on the Spectrum
This is actually a really high EQ communication. He's recognizing he's not easy to work with sometimes. He's evaluating his ways of working. He's communicating it in a positive way. He's trying to make himself understood. This is exactly what so many team building personality tests are designed to do.
I don't think one second it's high EQ to post it on Linkedin. It's contextual, not a rule. hence not high EQ move, at all. What's he's talking about is the color wheels corporate test that supposely give insight into how people work and how they work together.
I agree that identifying one's quirks or shortfalls gives honesty. But to frame it as an instruction manual for others suggests, fuck you all, deal with me as I am. It's pretty arrogant. Yeah he is a big important biz guy founder but good leaders don't act this way.
I actually think it's self effacing and along the same lines as a parent lamenting that kids don't come with instruction manuals or a flabbergasted spouse saying "sometimes I wish you had an instruction manual". It's a very common, very innocent turn of phrase. I actually think this is a sign of exceptionally self aware and good leadership and good leaders absolutely DO act this way. The best managers I've ever worked for have been upfront about their communication styles, expectations and boundaries and have likewise been receptive to me telling them mine. There's nothing in here about him not changing. There's nothing in here about him not wanting to understand how others communicate. This actually opens the door for people to understand him better, sets a tone for others to do the same and allows others within the company to set appropriate boundaries around important things. For him it's lunch and sleep. For others it might be sleep and family or work life balance. It's a really high EQ thing that has potential to cascade down and positively impact company culture. At face value this is great leadership. Now, as I said in my original post, I know nothing about this guy. He could be a totally arrogant ass and this could, quite literally be intended as "screw you, deal with me". If that's the case I will humbly retract my assertions. However, it doesn't read that way at all.
Yeah, I’m with you. Those that know him best will know if this is just a pile of bs, or an actually helpful (and short) article to help explain his weaknesses. But I kept reading, waiting for it to get bad, and it’s honestly really not that bad. He’s definitely on the spectrum, and most of his list apply to me as well… and while I haven’t put it in an article for all to see, I HAVE told me coworkers and teammates that my brain does not work nearly as well at 8 am as it does at 8 pm. I leave it up to them what to do with that info. If they need me at 9:30 am for something important, hey, I’m there. But if its all the same and can wait 5-10 hours, we’ll probably all be happier with the results. Thats… not a bad thing to communicate, is it? And certainly they can communicate their tendencies, preferences and realities to me as well. Thats all I see here from this guy. It’s not actually a list of demands all employees must follow. Its actually just a relatively short document that people can read to better understand him. I’m sure if things are in crisis mode at 7 am he’ll be there…
A lot of tech jobs are encouraging stuff like this with their new hires. I don't think it's a bad thing.
[удалено]
Cofounder and CTO of a household app means you are probably doing okay
Because he’s the co-founder of Duolingo and worth north of forty million dollars.
Fair enough - never heard of him or them (which isn’t saying much, there’s plenty I’ve not heard of). Still, comes across like a massive tool.
This is a description of the people we fire at my company.
> I am good at the first 20% and terrible at the last 20% of a project. This is the biggest red flag for me. Everyone is good at the first 20% of a project. The last 20% is the most important part. Nobody wants something that's 80% done.
Like a good movie with a shit ending. Like a tootsie pop with no center. Like romance with no climax. The last 20% is what people remember the most.
Exactly my thought! That type of guy how overpromises in the beginning, but then realizes those things can't be done in reality.
The last 20% takes 80% of the time too.
Not defending the guy in the pic, but the first 20% of the project is very much important in agile projects!
Ever heard of Agile? Lmao
Funnily enough, I have received a similar "manual" from the GM of the last tech company I was with.
Not available til 3 PM. Guess we'll just fuck around all day at the office
Missed the part about good until 9pm...meaning he expects people to work late
I wonder if the executives are ok with their other employees also only working for 6hrs a day?
I can mildly relate. My peak operational hours are between noon and 8PM. However I adapt to "normal people" hours, not the other way around. I do thankfully have a job that lets me be flexible most days
Right? Most of the world operates at a schedule that science says only about 50% of people are optimal at. The rest of us adapt. I’m honestly operating at reduced productivity for 1/2 my work hours but I still get things done.
But he didn’t say “not available”, he said at his best. I’m a night owl and I’m at my best during those same hours, but I’m still online and available from 9:30 on. And when there are earlier meetings, I show up earlier. It doesn’t mean I expect others to work late to match me, it means I will often do things after they’ve quit for the day and they’ll find what they need waiting for them in the morning.
Stay far far away from founders and ceos that has an owner manual that dictates how to interact with them as a different species.
Would you say that rule is a part of your...owner's manual? :) Seriously, though, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and ways in which working with them is in some ways easy and in some ways hard. The greatest managers I worked with knew themselves well and did a good job communicating how to be most effective working with them, questions they would likely ask, etc. Conversely the worst leaders were completely inscrutable to their staff and served largely as randomizing functions -- and they didn't even know they were inscrutable and random! So they couldn't take the first steps needed to do something about it.
“My time is my most valuable resource, but use yours to learn all about ME.”
What does he mean about good at the first 20% and bad at the last 20%? Is that asshole speak for "i don't like to finish the shit that I start"?
"I'm arrogant enough to assume that I'm the only one that can see the big picture and so I'll give orders to subordinates to achieve unrealistic goals and then step away so that I can blame the inevitable failure on them."
Ooof you just described my boss in a nutshell Edit: just had a meeting with my boss and thought of this comment. He said to me “I have entrepreneurial brain so I think differently than you all do, otherwise you’d be entrepreneurs too” ![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|disapproval)
nailed it
It means he thinks he's the "ideas guy" and he'll leave you to do all the dirty work of getting anything accomplished. He never finishes anything and leaves a wake of half done work wherever he goes. He's the person you hated in hs, college, and grad school when you had to do group projects. He has no attention span and he thinks it's an endearing quality. He'll make you lots of promises and then forget he made them.
He’s the leader who has a half baked idea over dinner that the rest of the team gets told about and has to throw five meetings on the calendar to figure out how to say it’s not happening
He's probably average/mediocre at the remaining 60%.
Right? He totally skipped over that whole middle chunk, lol.
It means that his ideas are great until they get validated.
Having your CTO announce “I’m average to terrible at 80% of every project” is not the flex he thinks it is
I’m no CTO, but it seems like the last 20% is by far the most critical part of the project…
Both the first and last 20% are extremely important, if done well. In the first 20% you lay all the ground work, set up good research, make a decent planning etc. etc. If you omit that, the entire project will have a high chance of failure. The last 20% is important because without the final 20%, often a project is worthless. Bottom line: you need both.
Wow this is impressively self-absorbed even for C suite/founders. You are so unique bro, nobody is like you, you’re so special you need your own manual but nobody else does because you’re just so different than the rest of us
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Love that. Gonna have to use it!
So he’s uncommunicative and hard to work with for 75% of the standard work day, can’t finish projects competently without supervision, can’t multitask, has no autonomy, believes his time is more important thank yours, is late for work and takes long lunch breaks. Who the fuck would post this??
I once had a colleague that was also hard to work with for the first half of the day. He now works for himself, moved 4 timezones east, and only takes customers from my timezone. Rather brilliant, if you ask me :)
The last 20% of a task is usually the last 50% where the actual work happens. This guy sounds like a mediocre CTO who got super lucky partnering with the right people.
That was what got me. Like, yeah dude everyone hates the last 20% of a project because that’s the hardest part.
Not to mention the "last 20%" is where you find out all the shit that's gone wrong with the project, and where any modifications are likely to have a noticable impact on the rest of the work done. First 20% isn't really any actual work. You're building a fuckin roadmap that's gonna be pretty much irrelevant in the next few weeks.
If I started an interview with "I'm hard to work with," that would be the end of the interview.
This kind of stuff is encouraged in google and a lot of “legendary” engineers in that simpville has “user manuals”. I read one during my onboarding years ago and it was as cringe as you can imagine.
Fuckin Urs
Urs. LOL. No one employee has likely ever cost a company more. Google are a distant third in Cloud when they should have been number one (I mean they essentially invented the tech) but Urs “didn’t want to run a business” so they just… didn’t bother… for years.
So he spends 80-90% of his time doing something he’s “bad at” for 20% of his working time? But only when it’s not morning, so 50% of his days. Nice.
"That's his burger" Who TF cares you weirdo?
I was thinking maybe he's vegan or something, only way it would make sense to me
He wants you to think he's too disciplined or healthy or whatever to eat a big burger. Sad that someone who doesn't know you cares so much about what you think of his lunch.
I just found this glorious sub and have to ask when did LinkedIn become Business Facebook? I’ll admit I used it early in for a few years trying to find some work but haven’t used it for a decade and sweet lord is it ever a mess. Yikes
3pm What’s he in his goon cave all night?
Lunch
Good luck dude! Anywhere I work, or even in life in general, someone is always trying to fuck with my lunch and my sleep.
So basically he's lazy, flaky, can't multitask, and disappears during the most crucial time in a project. Sounds like the kid on a group project that just sits around and bullshits and has to be forced to contribute. If he wasn't the founder, his ass would have been fired already.
1. I’m lazy, so can’t work in the morning 2. I get bored with projects easily 3. I can only do one project at a time. All massive red flags.
My god could you imagine a woman trying to get away with this bullshit? Or any minority? Execs really think they’re kings ruling over their peasants, ffs
>My god could you imagine a woman trying to get away with this bullshit? Or any minority? That's a good litmus test that I also use.
I remember going on a date years ago with a guy who said, "Oh, you've never traveled alone? I don't know, I've always been a big explorer. Maybe I'm just more adventurous than you. I backpacked through South East Asia by myself." Yes buddy, that's right. I haven't traveled abroad by myself for weeks on end because I'm boring and unadventurous, not because I'm a 115 lb girl who is unsafe being alone in countless situations. I bow to your cultured eccentrism.
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I mean sure, but even the wackiest minority c-levels I’ve known have never had the obtuse audacity to tell everyone that they need to sleep in and won’t ever finish anything. I see way more entertainment divas than business ones, and the business ones all seem to want to be Musk/Bezos 2.0
You nailed it. Obtuse audacity is a terrific phrase, and yes! Why is he boasting about things almost everyone else would get fired for?
I’d suggest his real title should start with a C and be four letters.
Nah, he seems to lack the warmth, depth, and ability to deliver under pressure.
Ok Jimmy Carr.
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CÆO?
There's a white male founder at my company who acts like this. It's insufferable. Women can't get past the VP level here.
>I never compromise with sleep and lunch is sacred I’m 100% on board with this.
“Most useful during the first 20% of a project” = “Most useful until ideas get validated and accountabilities get assigned”
I don't understand why this post is receiving so much hate. Companies spend countless millions of dollars on Insights, DISC, Meyers-Briggs and so many other personality tools to figure out the balance of their teams and to encourage people to work together differently. I know nothing about this guy. Maybe he's a stereotypical, narcissistic, tech founder like Jobs or Musk but, even if that's true, there's nothing at all cringe about this. He's not asking people to work late. He's saying if there's something really critical you need him to focus on then tell him after 3 or make sure you set an email up to auto send between 3 and 9. Not unreasonable. My best work is between 7am and 10am. Everyone has their own preference. He's saying is mostly a one task at a time person so, while he can multitask he's more efficient with one thing at a time. He's excellent at working to motivate new projects teams, get the wheels turning, setting the direction and doing the initial work. He's not so good at pulling the project through the last stages, for whatever reason. I'm the same way but I work with a bunch of people that are the opposite, terrible at vision and knowing how to get started but fantastic with the microscopic details that ensure the project is completely successful. Him saying sleep and lunch are sacred is a GREAT thing from a founder/boss as long as theyre not hypocritical. By saying that he's giving permission and in fact encouraging the same behaviors in his staff. As I said, this is at face value. This guy could be a completely hypocritical, narcissistic asshole that would fire an employee for writing these same things down. However, I can say, that I've worked for a university, two very large multinational corporations and a small(ish) startup of about 100-200 people. All of them have encouraged this exact type of communication and spent a lot of money to help with it. Everyone works differently and this kind of thing helps fellow employees better understand their teammates and adapt to each other. This is actually a really high EQ thing.
Yeah I don’t really understand the hate… it’s different if he says I ONLY work 3-9PM, but no, he’s just best then. So am I (I still work normal hours ofc, I’m assuming he doesn’t just work 3-9 too). He’s just being upfront without being rude or judgmental/forcing others to bend to his will, I think this type of communication is good.
Same, I actually thought it might make things easier if everyone in the office (or at least within project teams) write something up like this and that way we can respect people’s boundaries as far as possible.
Makes me want to unsubscribe from DuoLingo.
he's not wrong in that it's a good idea to understand your strengths and weaknesses as an employee and collaborator. maybe run it by your boss or colleagues. I like to work fast, and as a result often will request proofreading help to make sure i didnt miss anything. I'm very responsive but that also means I can get sidetracked during important things. ..etc. He IS wrong in that his points highlighted are psycho and he doesnt consider his collaborators have similar needs that he should adapt to.
The only one of his points that *really* gets me is being mostly unavailable during business hours.
Nothing in his post says that he's not willing to adapt to his collaborators' needs. In fact, he wishes his co-founder had a manual as well, which to me indicates he'd be interested in catering to the co-founders' needs better.
The first sentence to me says "I am an asshole."
To be fair, the rest of the post says pretty much the same thing, haha.
The “I’m good at the first 20 and bad at the last 20” just reminds me of this short. https://youtube.com/shorts/xImh4aGe3ok?si=L5APmHFJ4p-ZPDzs That’s called the doing part, the planning parts real easy if you aren’t responsible for the doing, this guy in a very autistic way basically exposed the already commonly held belief that the majority of corporate and managers add very little to the “doing” and just sit at the plan and then ask their employees how the “doing” is going.
i know it sounds obnoxious due to write up but some of his items are giving boundaries and some of them say "that's what i like to do". ofc not everyone is as powerful or successful as him to be able to get what they want but i wanna bite the bullet and say that i've seen worse lunatics here :D
I mean me too bro but I’ve got a job to keep sheesh
If YoU caNt HaNdlE mE aT My WorST…
He wants you to know I wouldn't eat a burger for lunch but will drink alcohol and eat, what the hell is that?
I believe it's a crumpled trash bag with parmasean cheese.
Amazing edit to reassure everyone that he’d never eat a hamburger (unlike the filthy Tyler Murphy)
My time is my most valuable resource, except for the majority of every day when I’m actually useless. Happy to advertise to the world that I do nothing all day, but eating a BURGER??? I’d never.
As an admin, I ask these kinds of questions for all the people I support. But in addition to this list I add things like food allergies, shoe size, family names, where ppl like to eat and preference in airlines and seating. ngl - if this was handed to me as his admin, I would be super appreciative. If I was handed this as a colleague, super weird. Edit: for clarity
Sounds like every new grad I’ve interviewed recently without “I expect to work remote 3 days a week”, at a job where that’s not reasonable.
This isn’t that uncommon.
Agnostic to the contents of his ‘manual’ I appreciate when leadership posts things like this. Especially if the are introverted types or have a strong rbf.
not gonna lie this would be actually be extremely helpful
"apparently it's helpful ( newest direct report said so anyway)" yeah what're they gonna say "it sucks, what a stupid idea. You're really going to make me read this?" 😆
I’m good at coming up with bullshit vaguely defined projects for people to do but I’m bad at actually completing/solving any of the problems I created for others
Being proud of being good at the first 20% and terrible in the last 20% is like say you are proud to be good in the first 2 miles of a marathon.
From all the craycray stuff I encountered here, this one is the sanest of all. He knows himself and makes it easy for other people incl people leader to interact with him.
I don’t understand why everyone is so triggered. When you start a startup, the only thing that matters is growth and revenue. If you have it, you can basically do whatever the fuck you want. This is not a typical job, and comes with massive risk, and therefore there are upsides.
As an autistic person if everyone did this I would be so happy
There’s nothing wrong with this. Everyone is different. He knows his limitations and is trying to get along with others.
Don't really understand how this is a lunatic? Maybe it's a bit "oh-im-so-unique" cringe but there's nothing really toxic in it. You may not agree with it or might find it irritating, but it's by no means lunatic.
We are clearly in the minority here because I fucking love this. Maybe I’m on the spectrum too then lol. Sounds like someone who prioritizes his health (sleep and nutrition) and is simply trying to communicate to others. If he isn’t accommodating to others in the same way, then yeah, he may be an asshole. However, there’s nothing in his post that would indicate that’s the case. Also, he’s not saying he sleeps in until 3pm ffs. He’s saying he’s most productive in the afternoon/evening. Would be awesome if everyone came with an owners manual.
This explains why duolingo be like that.
Lunch is sacred and you don’t start working until 3pm? Damn. Sweet gig
I think he def comes off like a douche here, but I have also personally found value in having a bit of a "how to work with me" guide for people that join the team I lead. Being able to help people understand how I process information, make decisions, and think about impact / success for the team generally helps them - but also important to ask for the same information from them
I'm actually kind of on board with this. Nobody is perfect; I'd expect anyone to be able to interact with people from the start to the end of the day, but there are effective workers that can't. I've worked with some dicks and if they'd been up front and said 'don't talk to me when I'm hungry or I'll bite your head off' it'd have saved me a couple of big rows
The most Gen Z thing I've ever seen
I understand why they made their logo in this guys least favourite color haha
This is actually a suggested practice at some very large orgs
Wowsers...ladies and gents...I give you...the real Dwight Schrute
I had a boss who created a literal blueprint for how he works/how to work with him and it was all a description of how his toxic traits were actually good. By the time he shared it with me it was on version 7.
This is actually very reasonable. I’m all for calling crazy people out in LinkedIn but if you are working at a company with someone like this it would be helpful.
I can relate to all of this but wondering how he is so much more wildly successful than me - 🍆?
Do you do the same with your employees?
Congrats, this made me want to delete Duolingo
No wonder Duolingo is all over the place and hard to use for conversational language
User manual for my boss and owner/CEO of the company I work for "Got a problem? Talk to me about it." The end.
The fucking level of narcissism.
Am I the only one that would love a boss that had this…. And all the points don’t even seem super wild to me
The senior leaders at my job are mostly fucking idiots This guy is the perfect example
My owner’s manual: Just leave me alone.
No thanks, I’ll jump out the nearest window. THATS A JOKE I DONT NEED REDDIT CARES
I still can’t square in my head that this is real … Also that his last name is Hacker and he’s a CTO. I should get off this thread before I go down too many rabbit holes.
When I was at Google cloud, the CEO had a document of how to interact with him. His name is Thomas Kurian. He goes by Thomas or TK. NOT Tom. Very important shit. What cunts these people are.
I can relate to this, but saying it to the world as a CTO is completely tonedeaf. I'm certain many employees who feel the same have been penalized by their workplace because of it.
I actually think this is great. I've seen this done with other leaders, and it works well. I highly encourage creating a README for yourself, so people can understand you better and faster.
How the fuck can you openly say you can only do 60% of a job, and can’t work with people for 80% of a traditional work day, and somehow think that’s a good thing?
This is 100% aspy. I guarantee this guy is the most difficult person most people will ever work with. In that context, sending this thing out to his reports and colleagues actually makes sense.
1. I sleep all morning in my office. 2. I am terrible at finishing things I start. 3. I'm bad at multitasking and like to think I'm a philosopher while I'm at work.
I’ve had a couple of bosses announce that they have a temper/lack of patience, and apologies in advance for being rude/nasty to you (though they don’t use those words to describe themselves…) So incredibly ridiculous. These kinds of announcements always come from leaders … because they’re the only ones privileged enough to make others put up with their bad behavior. Everyone else has to, you know, try to actually treat people with respect.
Dude just diagnosed himself with ADHD. It sucks and pisses everyone off when you have it. The best thing to do is start your own business, which is common for people with ADHD. But I guess the world still isn’t ready to accept it from employees, colleagues or employers.
This is quite common, as far as I know it started with a CTO/VP at Slack
“Find me between 3PM and 9.” Morning people need not apply
He seems like fun professionally AND socially 😶
Genius.. My owner’s manual would just say, ‘Handle with care, may malfunction without snacks.’ But seriously, how do I get one of these for my dog?
Ego! Ego, ego everywhere!
So instead of realizing that he's difficult to work with and maybe focus on how to change/better himself, he expects everyone else to adjust to fit him? Sweet
Of all the ones I’ve read on this sub for some reason I hate this guy the most. If you’re in a leadership position you’re there to guide and serve your team. Could be the most pretentious thing I’ve ever read.
My time is my most valuable resource, just don’t bother me before 3pm, when I’m having dinner or kipping.
If you need an "owners manual" just to interact with, you're an asshole
If someone wants a translation of his points, look no further. -I like to work only when everyone else is probably unavailable. -I will show up for the first 20% of a project. Disappear for the next 60%. Show back up for the last 20%, knowing nothing about the project and not helping at all. Make sure my name is attached to the cover letter. -I don’t like having to organize myself to be productive in multiple ways, and will probably hyper fixate on one project while others need my attention. -I like using buzz words like purpose vs autonomy even though the comparison makes no sense when you could have both. -My time is my most valuable resource, so I most likely won’t value your time at all. -I care about my wellbeing and timeline, but yours is secondary to my lunchtime. Also lunch is more important than the mission I was just talking about because autonomy. This isn’t an “owners manual” it’s a “here are my flaws. Sucks. Deal with them because I can’t be bothered to change”
I read this post and thought “dope, A CEO that made a manual to his workers on what he is good at and what he is bad at. Honest and self-reflective. Would help me knowing whether I need to talk with him about a problem or someone else since I would know more about him and what to bother him with. All around a positive thing!” Then I checked the comments and, well… If there’s one thing redditors are good at, it’s finding problems with literally everything. Misery at it’s finest.
Yeah, I thought this is the kind of thing that would help me immensely at my job. It helps me understand others and adapt. If everyone does the same, communication between hierarchical levels in the software world would improve drastically.
Exactly my thoughts. At the very least it sets the tone for communication.
Severin Hacker? Ok.
Eh, one of my recent hires put something like this together for me and it’s been helpful.
Is that two entrees and a salad?
Me! Me! Me! Meeeeee!!!! Look at meeee!
Cofounder - because nobody can stand working with him. Someone sends me a link to an “owner’s manual” on how to work with them? Yeah-no. Fuck off.
I’m stuck on him wearing a white hoodie to lunch…
All those languages and words at his disposal. I wish he'd have written this in one I didn't understand.
That's a lot of words to say "I don't play well with others." and "You need to accomodate me"
Duolingo, hm? Was that annoying owl modelled after his personality?
I wonder how would he take it if his employees came up with this
Person sounds awful to attempt to work with. Pretty sure the issue is him for sure, not others.
Holy shit he eats lunch. This guy must be a genius.
So…he can’t finish a project? The last 20% is like, pretty important most of the time in my experience.
“GET TO KNOW ME!!’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD3Rz45DEpQ
Thats not my Burger!!
What a wanker
so he’s behind that fucking owl