Hacker News Reader

Comment by ororroro | Hacker News Reader

The worker has muscular dystrophy and some complicated aquihire contract. Will twitter be solvent long enough for him to not get screwed?

View on HN

That is something he has openly stated that he is worried about. His disease is progressing and the aquihire was his retirement fund.

Haraldur's public persona (I know of him in no other capacity) can sometimes rub people the wrong way, but I believe his heart is wholeheartedly in the right place.

He moved to Iceland after Twitter aquired his design company specifically to be able to pay the maximum amount of taxes. In his own words, it was to pay his fair share to the system that helped his poor family when growing up, as well as had helped him medically.

And since he has also driven an initiative to have wheelchair ramps built at various buildings in Reykjavík, making accessibility for those who are wheelchair bound much better.

Neither he nor any other current or past employee of this dead husk of a company deserves to be stuck in the chaotic death spiral that surrounds Elmo.

His ramp initiative is very cool, he’s also setting up a cafe the past few months, but none of this is actually part of his work he’s paid for at Twitter.

If Twitter was his retirement fund then I don’t know what to say really, you bet on an unknown, needlessly burned money on taxes to feel good in the short term and then treated Twitter like a side gig.

I wish the guy well but just because his actions outside of Twitter were noble doesn’t mean Twitter should finance it just because he joins a few meetings a week. Should have been No.1 priority to keep that paying out, the cafe can wait till actual retirement.

Complacency.

Twitter was not some sort of rest and vest retirement scheme — he worked as a design director there for years. You should read his followup thread for more context. You should also be aware that you can't just fire someone because of their disability getting worse.

It's also worth noting that the design studio he founded, Ueno, was one of the dynamic, talented and in-demand agencies in the world pre-acquisition.

https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1633082707835080705?s...

>You should also be aware that you can't just fire someone because of their disability getting worse.

Never said that, don’t put words in my mouth. Just said if Twitter was essential to his retirement he should have had it as his main focus not tweeting about choosing tiles for his cafe in the same timeline he’s asking his boss if he has a job.

>he worked as a design director there for years.

What new design has Twitter shipped in 3 years? Sorry this all just looks like classic corporate complacency.

Twitter could both be essential to his retirement and also that he is fully fulfilling his job description while also choosing tiles for his new cafe. Part of acquihire is to make sure the people you just bought don't leave to start a competing company. Moreover, frankly, it doesn't occur to me that checked-out Jack or the chaotic Musk would even have the organizational capacity to ensure efficient use of the acquired resources, leaving the founder with free time. No doubt there's a significant clause in the acquihire that he can't leave for X time, and if his employment is terminated then he is owed Y money. That's just up to the buyers to ensure they know how to use their investment wisely, and I don't think they did, through no fault of the founder who made the excellent sale.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com