Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

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What mission did they focus on and how did it go? All I see here is "I wrote a controversial screed and many people tolerated it and kept showing up to work." That's great and all, but what sort of new things did it unlock? How do you compare it to the world where you didn't write the screed? It all feels like a heap of bullshit to me -- if you're in the right industry, you can be the worst manager on the planet and your company can still do okay. He's just saying that his household name company in a booming industry did all right last year. We all kind of expected that, it would be nearly impossible to not make money in Coinbase's position. (Like what if nobody merged any code last year and didn't launch any features? They'd still be doing great!)

My controversial opinion is that companies like Apple and Amazon did well in spite of their leaders' quirks. AWS would have been a great business even if Jeff Bezos didn't fire people recovering from cancer. The iPhone still would have been a hit if Jobs didn't bring someone to tears over a bug in their code.

I think you can make great products AND be nice to your employees, and maybe even let them discuss how black lives matter at work.

> let them discuss how black lives matter at work.

That is not how it works. In practice, there is a bigoted, mostly fresh from college activist group that considers themselves morally superior. Some Gen-X and Boomers join for their careers.

The group looks down on everyone else, treats them with suspicion. Gen-X, who wore Greenpeace and anti war buttons and helped introduce women quotas in the workplace is lectured by brats with $250,000 salaries (which for some reason the little angels don't give away to Black people).

The whole movement is deeply hypocritical and self-serving. It is NOT merely discussion!

What you are talking about is Microsoft in the Balmer years. No focus on delivery, no focus on perfection, churning out half assed products. See where it got them? Lost out on mobile, lost out on Cloud, Playstation is still a better gaming console, etc.

Leaders inspire, letting things slide is bad for the culture of succcess.

From GP:

> if you're in the right industry, you can be the worst manager on the planet and your company can still do okay.

Has Coinbase ever had a culture of success, or were they just in cryptocurrency during the cryptocurrency explosion where everyone made money?

Is that statement even falsifiable, or is it just an observation on the random nature of company success?

They're the most trusted cryptocurrency exchange in the US.

Low bar.

> what sort of new things did it unlock?

Talent: "it has allowed us to hire some of the best talent from organizations where employees are fed up with politics, infighting, and distraction"

Noisy echo chambers are uninclusive to anyone who doesn't hold that precise political viewpoint.

We both know that the program goes way beyond "black people shouldn't be indiscriminately shot", its driven by people who are addicted to social media and perpetually pushing for another rush of outrage. I'd prefer not to be around that, personally.

> We both know that the program goes way beyond "black people shouldn't be indiscriminately shot"

I say we call their bluff and stop shooting black people indiscrimately anyway. That'll show 'em.

How many people are you shooting?

It seems like Brian Armstrong is the only person using social media to push for fabricated outrage. Anyone complaining about “wokeness” is talking about an issue that only exists in the minds of true bigots. It’s a boogeyman that they use to punch down. No one is forcing Armstrong to say stupid shit constantly.

Even Google fires woke bigots now and then, so it is certainly a real issue.

I don't really use Twitter, but this is the first time I've heard of the whole thing since a year ago. If he's on there every day fighting with people, then yeah, he's an addict too. If he's just checking in after a year and saying "hey it's working out for us", more power to him.

You need to take your blinders off and get some reading glasses.

> What is the scope of our mission?

> Coinbase’s mission is to create an open financial system for the world. This means we want to use cryptocurrency to bring economic freedom to people all over the world. This is difficult and important work, and every employee at Coinbase signed up because they are excited about this mission.

More details here: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-comp...

The fact that you immediately jumped to calling it a "screed"—not once, but twice—despite allegedly not knowing this reveals your motives quite clearly. You are simply ideologically opposed to the message, not its form, and in favor of the imposition of a woke monoculture.

Your dishonest use of an obvious motte-and-bailey in your last sentence is just the cherry on top.

>What mission did they focus on and how did it go?

RTFA: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-comp...

So many words until this:

> Coinbase’s mission is to create an open financial system for the world. This means we want to use cryptocurrency to bring economic freedom to people all over the world.

Basically sounds like “mission focused” = “do your job”

Yes do what you are hired for. How does this not compute in the minds of many is baffling to me.

Well the mission seems inherently political (economic freedom), so coinbase is asking its employees to take a myopic mission focused approach while simultaneously finding the mission inspiring politically and not mentioning politics at work.

Ultimately employees want more than just to punch the clock and pay their mortgage, especially SF knowledge workers.

>Basically sounds like “mission focused” = “do your job”

That's fantastic! They're honest about the employment arrangement and straightforward about expectations.

If you could tell me what point you think I should be drawing from that link, it would be lovely.

Because all I see is the first half devoted to the sort of generic PR speak that any company does about having an aligned vision, and the latter half is about what they're not doing.

Where's the big reveal? What makes being a 'mission focused' company different than just... actually not making political statements? What did the big meta-political statement add to their company?

Did you read the tweets? He said that most stakeholders told him they were very happy with the mission focus.

I just want to know what the mission was.

Did they launch more features? Make more money?

The first tweet has a link to the blog post.

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