BrandonM

It's not quite that easy. Some marketing content, like blog posts, has long-term value that can't be easily measured in the same fiscal period it was created in. A huge task of marketing is to increase the awareness and value of a brand, getting better search result rankings and helping more people find and trust the company. These effects absolutely affect the bottom line, but they can be pretty hard to measure.

Marketing also generally has multiple touch points before a sale actually occurs. Maybe you see a Google paid result that you ignore, then a YouTube pre-roll that you tune out, and then you see their logo on a train ad during your commute. None of those result in a sale, but you finally see the company at a conference, grab some swag, talk to one of their salespeople, and become a customer. In this example, their revenue looks like it was generated by the efforts of the sales department, but in reality marketing had a lot to do with it, too.

If your company has all the right tracking in place, you can determine the path your customers took when they ultimately bought your product, provided that they bought it online. That still ignores their prior exposure to the product that helped convince them during the current session. More importantly, if you were to measure marketing performance based solely on those metrics, your marketers would have little incentive to do all of their other important functions.

I don't dispute that "extreme anger and indignation" can change the world, but I'm not convinced that it effects change that is long-term good. Anger and indignation often lead to rash decision making, hostility, vengeance, etc. The world isn't really better when we trade injustice against one group for injustice against another, and extreme anger has an unfortunate tendency to do just that.

When you say "overpaying", what is that number for you? For context, in 2011, Clorox and other established Bay Area companies paid marketing managers with a few years of relevant experience ~$120,000. Visa is starting fresh Economics grads at $70,000 for marketing roles.

If you're not in that neighborhood, good luck. Startups don't seem to value marketing as much as the big companies, and then they wonder why they need 4 people for one job. Offering under $100K for a Director of Marketing (sadly common in startups) is a joke.

A good marketing manager with a few years under her belt should be able to do this without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, like a non-tech company hiring programmers, non-marketers seem to be pretty bad at recognizing good marketers.

It's easy to close your ears and say "racist". Here's what AirBnB's new policy says:

> I agree to treat everyone in the Airbnb community—regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias.

This requirement cuts both ways. A woman who fears rape cannot prevent a young man from staying in her apartment. A Jew or black must accept someone into their home who looks like a skinhead. Someone from the Ukraine must allow a Russian to stay with them, even in spite of the ongoing conflicts. A host living in a 3rd floor walk-up must allow a guest in a wheelchair.

I would never have a reason to refuse someone for these reasons, but that in itself is a privileged position to be in. This policy doesn't only protect the vulnerable; it also puts the vulnerable at risk.

I thought the video was a good example of "designed for humans". Did you watch it?

I got the 1st gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and it didn't hold up great. The balance of weight, power, battery life, and Linux support were huge for a traveling programmer. By the end of year 2, though, I had replaced a broken screen, and the battery life was down to 30-60 minutes (from about 6 hours).

I decided to give them another chance on the 4th gen X1 Carbon, and I've been very happy so far. The build quality seems much better, and they've nixed some of the annoying "innovations" from the 1st gen one (ironically including a touch bar at the top; they reverted to normal keys). That said, I've only had this one for about 5 months, so I might change my mind by the time another year or 2 passes.

How does that apply in this case, in a job posting for "old geeks"?

There are other professional basketball leagues that don't have salary caps, and LeBron doesn't play for them. The NBA salary cap is close to or exceeds what he could make in other leagues. Additionally, playing for the NBA gives him greater exposure to the American market.

Do you have any countries in mind that are going to pay executives more per year than the US, even with a salary cap? My understanding is that the US is already so far above the rest of the world that it would have to come way down to lose out on a raw compensation basis.

IMO, a cap would mostly serve to rein in the well-networked, measurable-performance-leveraging aspects of CEO compensation. Compared to every other employee, CEOs have a far greater ability to extract money from a company, mostly independent of their contributions to that company. Is it any surprise, then, that they leverage that ability to earn far more than their coworkers?

I think professional athletes make an interesting parallel with CEOs. The majority of athletes are unarguably the absolute best in the world at what they do.

Superstars have a far bigger impact on their team's performance than an average player in the league. Many commenters have argued that good CEOs have large impacts on company performance.

The average NFL career is 3.5 years; the average NBA career is 4.8 years. Several commenters have pointed out that CEOs of failing companies risk this being their last CEO job.

Athletes are derided if they cannot save enough to ensure their retirement when they are making millions of dollars a year. Why can't we expect CEOs to manage their own finances responsibly and plan for a future where they aren't earning millions?

After their playing careers, many athletes choose to work lower paying jobs as assistants, coaches, commentators, consultants, etc. Why can't a CEO take a step back after a failure and be a COO, CMO, VP of Sales, etc.?

During their careers, NFL and NBA players' earnings are limited by a salary cap. LeBron James can't earn more than ~$30MM from his playing contract, even though he generates far more revenue in TV contracts, jersey sales, gate receipts, etc. Why can't we impose salary caps on CEOs?

I don't think that's a fair assessment (I'm not affiliated with YC in any way). I think that:

> Not using misleading, illegal or dishonest sales tactics.

> Keeping your word...

and:

> Generally behaving in a professional and upstanding way.

cover more ground than you imply. While it might not hurt for them to take a few more stands (e.g., "ensure the integrity of customer data", "don't be a net drain on public resources"), I think it would be a bit difficult to add a lot more ethical requirements without getting overly industry-specific and excessively lengthy.

As the spouse of a marketer, I think this is great advice! I only have three things to add:

> 11) When you interview give a 10min exercise before to discuss and cover up real-time actual skills. E.g. show them some relevant to role campaign materials (e.g. landing pages/EDM's) and ask them how they would improve.

Be very careful to keep an open mind when judging this one! If you are a non-marketer trying to hire a Director of Marketing, you are not going to be able to answer this question better than a qualified candidate. If their answer seems wrong to you, be sure to dig into their reasoning, past experiences, etc. to see why they answered the way they did.

If they omitted something that you thought was important, it's probably worth saying, "What about that big, ugly, magenta call-to-action button? Shouldn't it be green and fit with the rest of the design, perhaps?" You might be wrong! At least give them a chance to say, "I noticed that (how could I not?), but I've been surprised in several A/B campaigns to find that call-to-action buttons that stand out trump aesthetics in terms of conversion rates. If the design team wants to change it, I would certainly work with them to come up with a solution that looks good and converts. Otherwise, I have much more certainty that initiatives X, Y, and Z will have a real, measurable impact on discoverability and conversion."

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Secondly:

> 5) Avoid anyone that shows narcissistic tendency or is generally 'me' focused.

I totally agree here (but I'm biased because my spouse is not at all a narcissist). Be sure that your hiring process doesn't select against these people! If you're hiring for qualities like (over-)confidence, where you favor candidates who seem certain of themselves, you're doing it wrong.

In general, before writing off a candidate, try to dig into what you perceive to be their weaknesses. They may be stronger than you think in those areas. Again, if you think they're wrong about something, investigate that, too, as you may be the one who is wrong.

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Thirdly and finally, do NOT make the mistake of selecting for familiarity with your market. This is akin to hiring a senior developer based on what technologies they know. It is the job of a marketer to dive into a market with little-to-no prior knowledge and understand it quickly. A good marketer will join all the relevant forums, follow influencers on social media, etc. and understand your market better than you do within a few weeks.

If you see a marketing candidate with experience in several sectors, none of which include your own, that's an excellent sign, not a negative one.

Good luck!

He already took the code. It was definitely his since there was no formal agreement in place for assignment of IP. The company's domain (http://grabgas.com) just points to their Facebook page now.

Note that she was not a university undergrad, but a grade-11 high school student, probably 16 or 17 years old. In the US, each year is a grade, and grade-12 is the final year of high school (which precedes university).

That only makes the work and paper more impressive, IMO. In my high school, our math teachers had very weak theoretical backgrounds. I suspect that Britney would have received less guidance in high school than would be available at university.

Isn't that what the linked paper says? Its form suggests that the author had a similar insight to this one.

But did you consider the costs of rating it as a 1 rather than a 2?

Clickable: https://www.clicktime.com/company/jobs

I don't see any marketing listings on the jobs page? (https://rollbar.recruiterbox.com/)

When a program is shutting down, its threads are interrupted.

AFAIK this is still true of HBO.

You left out perhaps the most important part: "...in the most cost-effective way possible," where cost includes repeat offenses, taxpayer money, the opportunity cost of lost productivity, destroyed families (multi-generational effects), etc.

Near the end of that post, the commenter suggested a fix that includes the most qualified Useless Use of Cat entry[0] that I've ever seen!

   cat | sed ... > $INPUT_TEMP

[0] http://porkmail.org/era/unix/award.html#cat

Yep, a month and a half after the bug was filed. Not too shabby for OSS!

That example could be written:

    .then(getFoo)
    .catch(err => 10) //some default value
    .then( (foo) =>

Java 8 added default and static methods to interfaces.

Some people are vegetarians. Others are Muslim or Jewish and only eat halal/kosher foods.

Many groups are discriminated against (historically or presently), and members of those groups may not be too keen to open themselves up to unfair stereotyping. I've dated a girl who would never tell a prospective employer she was Jewish; she just wouldn't eat a pork dish and would probably seem evasive to you.

That doesn't even account for those who may just be squeamish or petrified of insects. Still others have embarrassing dietary restrictions.

It's hard to fathom when you have mainstream traits and limitations (it certainly was for me), but many people who consider themselves others are reluctant to give away information that could later be used to hurt them. Sadly, this reluctance is often justified.

Dating only has many meetings if you don't tank the first one.

I interviewed at Loopt (sama's YC company) 4½ years ago. When I went out to lunch with their tech guys, they joked about a guy who had come in before me in a suit, and how that really hurt his chances to get the job. Though I knew enough to dress casually, I was coming from a company in the midwest where I had to wear a suit every day. Both extremes seemed absurd to me.

I eventually turned them down in favour of another offer.

This is only true in a world where being an electrician, plumber, heating and cooling technician, etc. -- all jobs that are in-demand and pay $100K+/year -- have a negative stigma attached to them. Mike Rowe gave a great Ted talk about this: https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs

I would be in full support, too, if inmates received more than $0.21-1.23 per hour: http://drc.ohio.gov/web/drc_policies/documents/25-OPI-11.pdf