Comment by tiggybear | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tiggybear | Hacker News Reader

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I really, truly believe it is immoral to 'not care about money.' I really think all of this crap that employers shovel on us, care about the mission, changing the world, have passion for what you do every day, and take pride in trying to up your output, etc etc etc, is well, CRAP!

In a system that 100% revolves around money, it seems inefficient to heavily prioritize anything besides money.

Can you imagine going to a taco stand and saying to the cashier, "I really need 10 tacos, but before I hire you to make them for me I need to know how passionate you are about making tacos. Also, can you let me know where you see yourself in 5 years, I don't want to hire you to make tacos if you don't think you will be doing this in the future!

Additionally, I don't think the price you listed is fair. How about I give you 80% of what you typically charge, but you will also get the satisfaction that you are helping me change the world! I am building an app to automate business processes and I need to eat, the more resources you give me at a discounted price the more resources I can dump into accomplishing my dream."

I really wish all questions in interviews were illegal other than "can you do this job", "can you prove that you can do this job", and "will you accept this wage to do this job?" Everything else should be illegal and the employment laws should be changed to allow fast firing without detriment to the company.

I don't know why, but when I'm analyzing transactions within capitalism I like to frame them around a taco shop :)

> changing the world, have passion for what you do every day…

I have worked at a company that literally revolutionized modern tech. Luckily, I was also quite well compensated, but the qualities listed above were an essential component to the success of the project I was with. It can mean the difference between a half-baked product and a mind-blowing product.

Everyone I worked with was excited about what we were doing because we knew we were changing the world (it sounds hyperbolic, but history has validated our thinking).

Money is essential. Indoctrination is soul-sucking. There does exist a realm in between.

Good for you, but reality says that this is a very rare situation. Most people won't encounter it, even at companies that have departments that move the needle.

+1. When you are genuinely a part of "something big" and trust your leadership to pull through temporary setbacks - the "changing the world" vibe can be the difference between making it and not making it altogether especially in the startup environment.

It does get abused/overused though and shouldn't be a substitute for an adequate material compensation in the long run. "Vibe" don't pay the bills after all.

Yeah... the problem starts when you have owners or managers who think they can impose "vibe" rather than harness it where it emerges.

> Can you imagine going to a taco stand and saying to the cashier, "I really need 10 tacos, but before I hire you to make them for me I need to know how passionate you are about making tacos..."

Isn't that what you're doing when you go to a hip looking taco stand instead of to Taco Bell?

In my experience, no. I don't believe quality from a repetitive process has much to do with passion.

I live in SoCal, the land of taco shops, and most are manned by wage slaves. I'm sure most are completely happy doing their job, but passionate? No. That's the owners of the trendy taco shop, not the people actually doing the labor.

Well, kinda - but you're also nominally buying self-righteousness, classism, and maybe some better ingredient quality.

A taco shop is a nice thing to use as a frame, because there is no glamor around it to distract from the basic fundamentals of the exchange.

There's some video that puts those examples together. The Vendor Client Relationship in Real Life Situations? That sounds right.

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