Ask PG: Why dont you hire someone to run HN? | Hacker News Reader

Ask PG: Why dont you hire someone to run HN?

11 pointsComplete10 comments

Today, HN is slow as hell again.

I wonder: Why dont you hire someone who cares for HN fulltime or part time so it runs smoothly all the time?

Now, I can't profess to know pg's reasons for not doing that, but he definitely shouldn't! Why? This would start him on that long, slippery slope of becoming a manager, i.e. the sad metamorphosis from a hand-on, still living technology throughly person, to one who interacts it secondhand, through ideas only.

Look around in any large company, you will see these guys who were once brilliant engineers but now just don't have the time to code.

Unfortunately, with YC getting bigger and more prominent by the day, I think this may be inevitable.

Maybe pg considers HN essential. You don't outsource your main business.

Maybe developing and mantaining HN is one of pg's few connections to his developer side.

Then where would he go to do his share of procrastination for the day?

I tend to think that PG considers maintaining HN as his hobby, he enjoys keeping this knowledgable piece of work for himself.

What revenue stream would he pay this person from?

Well, YC does make money from their investments, so revenue stream likely isn't the problem.

My question would be what would be the benefit of hiring a person to run YC?

If it grows to the point that it needs a dedicated manager, I'm sure PG would have no problem getting a great person to do it.

But from the sounds of things, PG really enjoys the day to day operations of YC and keeping deep contact with companies in the fund.

The question is about hiring someone to run HN, not hiring someone to run YC..

Well, HN arguably accounts for a proportion of YC's deal flow...

I think the idea is that he's not gaining anything from running HN, so he should have someone else manage it since he can generate more income doing something else with the time he would spend managing HN to keep it running smoothly.

This begs the question that he's not gaining anything from running HN, of course.

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