yangtheman

This is a list of information and resources for SF Bay Area fires. It's on a site I have been developing on and off for some time. I would appreciate any feedback you have.

I don't think that's true about Korea, and it is the core reason for the lack of vibrant startups in Korea.

Its corporate culture only allows the most cunning, politically savvy person to stay alive and move up the rank, and thus most executives (all if I limit it to small sample of executives I've personally met) fit that model.

And shit literally flows downwards, where goals/promises set by them would be pushed downwards and engineers have to take the burden.

It doesn't help that Korean society is very hierarchal and based on Confucius principles, where you don't usually challenge older persons and/or someone higher in the rank. This is one example that describes serious problem - http://thediplomat.com/2013/07/asiana-airlines-crash-a-cockp....

For those of you who are intrigued and have time, I suggest watching Misaeng with English subtitles (https://www.viki.com/tv/20812c-incomplete-life). Samsung isn't as bad, but the same hierarchy, verbal abuse, social dynamics, and strict rules on paper format exist.

The best outcome would be if they leave Joyent's management and culture alone. But I doubt it.

I also have the first-hand experience of their applying the same "consumer electronics" mentality to completely different business which required high-touch sales.

There is no denying success of Samsung - multi-billion, international corporation. However, Samsung is only good at generating quality hardware products at mass scale. There have not been success in any sort of software and services. Perhaps they are trying to expand beyond their strengths, and I applaud that effort and they actually do need it, since it's only matter of time Chinese companies will catch up and produce as quality products as Samsung, as Samsung did to Sony. I hope it bears fruits. I hope they can allow Joyent to succeed and thrive, and learn from that.

I will see what happens next few years.

First of all, it's not what SV can learn from them, it's US carriers and gov't who should learn from Korea.

Second, SV companies are doing just fine, creating products that are right for the market under given infrastructure. Should the market/infrastructure change, SV companies will adapt and create products/services fit for the market. I don't believe SV companies' products behind. They are just right for the markets they serve, as Korean products are right for Korean market.

Startup jobs are definitely more stressful, and co-founders have enormous impact on the company, but I would always take startup jobs, where I can work with and learn from smart people (as long as there is a good team chemistry and no one is an asshole), over "big corp" jobs.

AI that has personal information of 500M+ people, using it to manipulate people...(first to click on advertisements, and then much more). In the hands of government, I shudder to think what's possible. With NSA already snooping around, perhaps it's not all that distant.

I still think there is an opportunity to create an alternate video sharing site that's good enough.

Good job, though! I will be using your site instead of youtube as long as your site is live.

IMHO, such practice only allows them room to acquire non-prime (past-prime) companies. And their culture is largely not compatible with startups in the US. I would be interested to see what happens to Boxee team in 6-months to year down the road.

I also quit, about a week later, and I am so much happier. I really had to think about whether this is something I want to do or this is the company where I really want to work. Now I am free to explore many different options, and plus, I can concentrate on finding what I want, rather than trying to complete the tasks at work and look at the same time. It helps that I was able to get small severance pay.

Kudos, though. It's certainly not easy to leave without anything lined up. It wasn't an easy decision for me, either, when you have families to feed. But, I am definitely happier with my decision.

It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything ~ Tyler Durden

It's really tricky for the company... I don't think moral ever came back, and there had been continued attrition after the layoff. :(

Korea is mostly homogeneous society and not very open to immigrants, and thus their growth is limited. So is Japan, and their growth also hit the wall as well.

I also agree on money. So true.

It's just like mutation and evolution. I truly believe growth in homogeneous society will be severely limited. When you mix different ideas and perspectives together, you get stronger outcome.

Good for them!

I wish I heard that from the new RIM CEO.

IMHO, the move to the East is worse for Asian Americans than for Caucasians.

Why? Because they expect certain things from what they consider the same race than Caucasians. Over and over, I have seen Caucasians getting a lot of leeways and tolerance for their behaviors, as they look very different from Asian Americans. For Asian Americans, especially those Korean Americans who could speak the language in Korea, they expected the same behaviors as native Koreans. If you don't display what they expected socially, you get cold shoulders. It's even worse in business settings where everyone plays savvy office politics in ever subtle ways. If you can't read or play them, your career will not go anywhere. I've seen VP-level Korean American guys getting crushed, after moving to Korea to jumpstart their careers. I've heard the same from many Japanese Americans who moved back to Japan. I am not sure if it would be the same in China. But, I've also read about Chinese companies hiring Americans or Caucasians for nothing but to increase their credibility for being able to hire a Caucasian.

So if you are a Caucasian, yeah, it could be worth it. As a second or later generation Asian Americans, probably not so much.

Just be careful before you sign up.

- Own analytics. Don't trust qualitative stuff, but trust quantitative stuff. Track important metrics and monitor performance. One of the metrics should be revenue generation.

- Do many experiments on subset or all users. This is our way of finding out what customers want. First is intuition, but verify it with experiments.

- Own and prioritize specs and stories (in agile dev sense). This is where the cross with business part comes in and kinda obvious. Spec/story priorities should align with business objectives.

- User acquisition and retention. This part touches on marketing part. How to get new users? How to retain users? Social media? Email campaigns? Contests? Sweepstakes? Partnership?

- Etc., etc., etc.

But, ultimately, PM is responsible for success of product(s) s/he manages, and thus do whatever is necessary to make it happen.