Quantum Time

When someone accepts a job offer, our team is like

runningastartup:

I’m always dancing. 

“Has anyone in this startup even seen a chicken?”

Cheers,

Hong

On Time and Money.

I’m not some enlightened philosopher or ‘visionary thought-leader’. I’m just a guy who likes to think about things, simply. I think a lot about why people work. Mostly about why I work. But it’s my job, I’m a Recruiter. I waste a lot of time on Twitter, something I justify as ‘doing my job’ - but my wife doesn’t believe me. I saw this tweet from Hunter Walk and I had to chime in. He said:

“Many people value their money more than their time when it should be the reverse.”

I replied with something like, “It’s not that simple.” and “Usually people with money can say that.” I wasn’t trying to be a jerk but having seen it from both sides, it’s really a tough problem. Rich people buy time with money, and poor people spend their time to make money. If you have a job, you’re giving your time for someone else’s money. So basically we have two types of people, and yes, one person can move back and forth between both categories depending on the amount of time or money in question.

1) More money than time.

Usually if you make more than a certain amount, say $75k a year (which is barely middle class in Silicon Valley), it makes sense for you to pay for certain services like house cleaning, or car washes. Even buying lunch is a small luxury since it’s almost always cheaper to pack a sandwich and brown bag it. But at some threshold or break point, your time is worth more than your money, so you’ll gladly pay other people to do your dirty work. Like cutting the grass or cleaning your toilets. This is why startups like TaskRabbit, Zaarly and Exec exist. Rich people are willing to pay pretty well (like $25/hr which is equivalent to a salary of ~$50k a year at 40/hrs week) to have people do tasks and run errands for them.

2) More time than money.

On the other side of the transaction are the Execs, Rabbits or runners who are willing to do the grunt work for $15 to $20/hr - after the startups take their cut of course - and go pick up your dry cleaning, walk your dog or do other menial tasks that the Rich can’t be bothered with. The logic goes, why send a Programmer to do a Costco run when they’re being paid $150k a year! Obvious right? (btw, Costco delivers) And everyone’s happy right?

Well not so fast. This class-dynamic has always been around and will likely last well into the future. People get paid to do a job. The more valuable the work output, the more you get paid. The startups creating these marketplaces are saying they’re creating jobs for the unemployed, under-employed and stay-at-home Moms. But are people really doing these tasks as their first choice job? Not likely. This Great Recession has created an environment where people are taking on additional work - or even any kind of work - to make ends meet, pay rent or even be able to afford to eat.

Why do I think this? Let’s go back to 2002. The first dotcom boom had gone bust the prior year. I was paying ridiculous San Francisco rents and a $500 car payment and burning through my savings at a frightening pace. As a “business guy” in the startup world, I wasn’t worth anything and there were no jobs to be found. So when my friend called about a job opening, I took it. Working at the mall. Not one of those fancy floor jobs like the good-looking folks get, I was in the back, opening boxes. As a stock-boy, I was paid $15/hr and I was glad to have the job so I didn’t have to a) starve b) default on my loans and c) leave the Bay Area like everyone else. This was less than I made at my first job, with my fancy Ivy League degree (with a minor in box-cutting).

Now, 10 years later I charge ten times as much, though essentially I’m still the same person. The economy’s changed some, but startup recruiting is in high demand amidst this second talent war. And so I find myself on the other side, where I barely have time to sleep, I’m working as much as humanly possible and finding that my mid-thirties are not as productive as my mid-twenties. Now I need 6 hours of sleep a night when I use to work fine on four. ;)

But I don’t use TaskRabbit or Exec. I still wash my own clothes and do my own yard work. My job title when I’m home is Garbage Man and Dishwasher (most nights, sorry Honey!). I grew up in a poor immigrant family on welfare in Brooklyn in the 80’s, so maybe I have a different perspective. I still believe in an honest day’s work, and sometimes that means having a little ache in your back, a little soreness in your arms and a good night’s sleep from a job well done.

So why don’t ‘those people’ just do more valuable work you ask? That’s not so simple, and beyond my powers of explanation. How one’s time is valued by society, i.e. how much you make in your job, affects your views on time and money. It’s a very practical and logical mindset. Some call it the Poverty Mindset, and those get-rich-quick guys will tell you that’s what’s holding back your Inner Millionaire! There’s also the concept of Decision Fatigue, which may affect the poor more than their well-off brethren. When you’re worried about putting food on the table for your children, you don’t have the luxury of valuing your time more than your money. You’ve gotta use your time to make money, to keep the things that are most important, alive.

Cheers,
Hong

Bonus: Sometimes when you have more time than money, you get wonderful creations like this.

Yo! (person)’s #RapNameIs (Their Rap Name)

Here’s a little fun for your Friday. The game’s real simple, and the rules are few. It goes like this…

Yo! @twittername’s #RapNameIs (give ‘em a rap name)!

Got it? Okay, but a few ground rules of Rap Names.

1) You can’t give yourself a Rap Name, that’s just foolish!

2) You gotta give your homies Rap Names that are real. Please don’t start dissing people.

3) If someone gives you a Rap Name, you gotta give three more people Rap Names.

Now go have some fun!

Cheers,

Da @Quan

What do you want? What do you need?

John lilly:

Last week I got to spend time with a friend I’ve known & worked with more than 10 years. He’s trying to sort out some things about how to think about his job & career, so we spent a while getting caught up then he asked my advice.

I said something to the effect of, “Well, you know what I’m going to ask — it’s really the only question I ever ask when people ask me for advice, and it’s this: What do you want?” When I’m in advice mode, everything else follows from that question. It’s broad & vague, but you can dial it into near term or long term, and the answer is always telling and useful (even when you find you don’t have an answer — that’s important, too).

Then later in the week I was talking with an entrepreneur friend who’s learning how to manage a group for the first time, and I told him that little vignette, and he was excited because he’d written down in his notebook “What do you need?” — a question he’s found super useful as he builds his team and figures out how to make them even more awesome than they already are.

And then I realized that it’s really those 2 questions: What do you want? and What do you need? that I really work everything else around as I’ve led organizations and now as I work with entrepreneurs every day. (And the obvious follow up question: How can I help?)

Asked together: What do you need? What do you want? How can I help — those three questions are about all you really need to lead and manage people.

What do you need? is a question that’s really about getting someone all the tools and time and permissions they need to be able to do the work for the company. 

What do you want? on the other hand, is more about what a person’s longer term goals and aspirations are, and really fall along the lines of what a company can do for that person. 

How can I help? is useful for obvious reasons, but also because it helps you understand how someone is thinking about problems, whether they’re breaking them down into things they know how to do and things they don’t, and whether they’re thinking in terms of all the resources available to them.

Anyway, was a nice couple of conversations that helped me crystallize pretty well the main tools I’ve used over the years.

And for whatever it’s worth, they’re questions I ask myself pretty regularly as a way to reflect on where I am and what I should be doing, too.

What do you need? What do you want?

Fucking Recruiters!

Yes, I’m a Recruiter. But most of them suck. They suck so much, it’s beyond an Internet meme and I see people physically withdraw and roll their eyes as soon as I answer the standard dinner party/conference/wedding ice-breaker question.

Yes, sorry, I’m a Recruiter - but not that kind of recruiter.

Here are three types of recruiters and why they are rightfully hated:

1) Sexy Time Sourcer

I’ve noticed a trend of these young female recruiters using their modeling head-shots/suggestive pictures in emails to presumably horny, male and hetero Engineers. Now I like pretty girls as much as the next guy, but that just seems really inappropriate for a business email. And it certainly doesn’t help promote the right kind of Women in Tech! Or maybe I’m just upset because no one would want to see my old, bald face in an email! Here’s an *actual* email from a “Social Media Coordinator/Recruiting Assistant” (a wonderful combo of the two most useless job titles!) from ExpanXion:

But what if you’re just a homely technical recruiter running your own “boutique staffing firm for high growth tech companies in the bay area”? You went to Stanford! You worked at Google! Well the wonder of the web is that you can simply use anyone’s picture for your LinkedIn profile. Even a Hot Import Model… (what can I say, I’m really into cars).

2) “Specialist” Staffing Agencies

I love getting emails from these Staffing Agencies. It’s usually right after you announce your latest round of funding. These slime-balls crawl out of the woodwork and “would love to help you find top-talent!” (read: spend that money). They claim to have, “the ideal candidate for your open position”, you don’t even need to sign a contract, no obligations! You only pay if you hire our candidate. OK?! Right… And what do they specialize in? Everything.

But then they send you perfectly average Engineers who have never even heard of your startup. Or worse! They send you a candidate that’s already applied to your company! This happened to me recently, while working in-house at one of my startups. Ricardo Wanka (perfectly named by his parents) from Adecco claimed that he “carefully screens” all candidates, and makes sure they are a “perfect fit” for our company. Well, if you did actually do that Dick, you would have known this candidate applied two weeks before you “submitted” her to us. But it gets better, Wanka starts throwing his weight around (I’ll call your Manager!) and says we would still get charged his ridiculous fees, even though this candidate applied herself. It’s in the contract! (which it actually isn’t). I’ll never work with this douche-bag again, and I highly suggest your startup doesn’t either.

3) Hapless Headhunter

There seems to be a lot of new recruiters sprouting up. Even the most “well-respected recruiting firm” (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) is still staffed with a bunch of low-paid new grads or sales people to troll LinkedIn and spam you with as many Inmails as humanly possible. Why do they do it? Because it still works! As long as they manage to place a random Engineer at any random company, they get paid and they’ll keep doing it. These “Sr. Technical Recruiters” with a year of experience are cheap! Let’s get 30 of ‘em!

But it doesn’t stop there, because now you’re ignoring your LinkedIn Inbox (plus because it’s completely useless as a messaging system). Someone heard that a startup once hired a “Rockstar Developer” at a hackathon, startup weekend or Meetup. We must all do that now! Send in the Recruiters. So now when you want to go hang out with some fellow Coders and hack on some stuff together, you’re listening to a dozen duplicate pitches from “a hot new startup” looking to hire. You get a young recruiter using her womanly charm offering free coffees with anyone, because you know, she’s really interested in technology. And the coffee’s free! Not like your time is worth anything.

But the very best (and you know I’ve saved it for last) is if you put some code on GitHub or your website, shared a few designs on Dribble, or - oh, I dunno - have a profile on Working With Rails. Then you’re just asking for it! Some idiot Sr. Recruiter from a “super-charged start-up” will ask you if you’re interested in a Sr. Rails position at their wonderful Palo Alto office (aka San Jose). It’s super-charged! It’s the most innovative place for web start ups! You’ll get superior growth opportunities and a chance to learn from our awesome CTO, (see his LinkedIn attached!). Because David, even though you created the Ruby on Rails framework, you really need to come join our little shit startup to develop your coding talent.

If you’re a recruiter doing any of these things, just FUCKING STOP IT. You’re not helping anyone, certainly not yourself. I’m going to put you on blast and embarrass the shit out of you because you’re making my job one of the most hated positions in Silicon Valley. Startups should just stop using these Staffing Agencies if they want to recruit well. Most importantly, great Engineers, Developers and Designers should make a list, like Sam Soffes does with Awful Recruiters. And make the list public so these shady recruiting practices will finally stop. 

I love what I do. I help my friends find awesome jobs at startups. I call myself a recruiter because that’s the simplest description. But those of you who besmirch the title, you are not my friend and I’m not going to let this shit slide.

Cheers,

Hong