I'm the girl whose computer got stolen in the video. Thanks to all warm-hearted people out there who cared to share my story, my blog is down. Please check out my new blog post on Tumblr.
So glad that someone's bold enough to challenge the traditional management system and experiment with a new kind. Having worked at a mega-sized corporation, I definitely felt like there was a serious need to revamp/rethink the current command and control system. Most employees feel disconnected from the decisions made by the management and the managers have hard time earning the buy-ins from their employees. I actually entertained the thought about building a thriving company without central management, with every employee empowered to make their own decisions (also take the responsibilities for them as well). I asked that question to the founder of Hoovers.com at a guest lecture. His answer was, based on his experience, pretty strong no. Most successful companies of our current time are represented by strong leaders, take Apple with Steve Jobs. But Apple will not stay Apple after Steve Jobs. A great company cannot last after the strong leader/founder leaves the company. Can we create a sustainable success with great PEOPLE instead of a single leader? I think Holacracy seems to be a promising solution and I would like to see this system stands the test of time.
Don't we all make terrible choices both explicitly as well as implicitly? When faced with a choice between the moral rectitude and the livelihood of your family, it's very difficult to choose the former. At least this guy has courage to come clean and admit his wrongdoing.
I'm calling bullshit. Maybe this gentlemen would have taken some job that paid less(i doubt it), but it's hard to believe that a programmer, of all people, would be blackballed industry wide for refusing to implement some spying mechanism. Give me a break. If anyone is in a position to rebel against this type of system it's those of us in software. We have a strong community of anti-establishment minded people, we have a very strong job market and we make much more than a living wage.
This story indeed is very inspiring. I'm a business major turned front-end designer. I worked as a financial analyst for a semi-conductor company for two years and realized I want a career that fosters my creative side. Working with Excel, though I got very good at it :P, all day long made my day very dull and monotonous. I got my husband to teach me how to code (he's a CS major, working as a product manager for a SF company). Now I am fairly proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, CSS, HTML, and Javascript. Then I made a Python program which analyzes the proper excess inventory to keep for the semiconductor company I worked for, which got me a lot of recognition (the program was prob elementary level and messy but got a credit for being a financial analyst that can code). I quit my day job and I'm working on my startup, for which I'm doing all the front end coding and some of back-end coding as well. Also relocating to SF to pursue this new found passion. I wish the best of luck to Jennifer and other people like her.
I like the business concept behind Airbnb because it can apply to so many other industries - which suffers from the mismatch between supply and demand. It definitely helps spawn similar ideas that are set out to help eliminate inefficiencies in the economy. Now there are a lot of start-ups that help you share your car, vacation home, yacht and pretty much whatever you own that you would rather share with someone than let it sit rotting in your garage.
