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Comment by willio58 | Hacker News Reader

You have to toe the line a bit in startups, you want to use proven technology but leave room for the employees to feel like they are contributing to something new and unique.

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It's such a difficult line to toe. Especially because people like working with new technology and it does seem to help with recruiting even if it makes actually operating the business harder.

Very much feel you there. Guess it's all about testing and trying to find the right balance

Some people like working with new tech; in my experience most do it not because they like it but because of their resume. I like how I can get really good, cheap and experienced devs for ‘non hip’ tech because they do not want to work with new tech, they want to improve their skill on what they know; java/spring, c#/asp, django etc with jquery/bootstrap. Resume driven/recruiting forces them into all the new stuff but they rather take a pay-cut to work with the stuff they know and are good at. I need stability in software and my teams over the years; the continues race for the latest and greatest helps me do nothing for my business (making profit that is), including recruiting. Quite the opposite in fact.

> I like how I can get really good, cheap and experienced devs for ‘non hip’ tech

> they rather take a pay-cut to work with the stuff they know and are good at.

The question is, are your employees aware of this?

> they want to improve their skill on what they know for me it's quite the opposite.., after around two years of working with some tech I feel like I can do anything with it and it becomes boring for me making me want to try something new.

but yeah my mindset always was being the jack of all trades, which is very good for small startups and not a good mindset for corporations which I avoid..

Why? I would advise finding better employees who respond to contributing to a solid business, and in return their own paychecks and bonuses.

Because working at a startup is a pretty big risk and people who enjoy taking risks tend to also enjoy working with unproven technology.

I'd think that one of the advantages of working at a startup compared to a more 'corporate' company is the increased autonomy. If you don't get more creativity over the solution, working in bigcorp surely has more advantages.

I also think the "sense of ownership" part that comes with making decisions like that is important. With a startup, it's beneficial if contributors feel they're able to fix problems they see proactively.

But, yes, I don't want to work with hype-driven or resume-driven coworkers. Yes, I want the choices to be pragmatic and well-considered.

There are still near infinite amount of good ideas outside of the mainstream that are new and exciting to most people, that are still well explored, have long histories and are mature.

So true! Such a difficult toe :)

Wondering how you have/are managing to do it?

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