

You only get rock star engineers if you treat your engineers like rock stars - ezxs

simple rule and a thought of the day
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dagw
Stop with the stupid rock star thing already. Rock stars are front men and
quintessentially style over substance, and only become rock stars by being
surrounded by a great team of talented musicians and promoters. Turning pretty
faces with a modicum of talent into super stars is the bread and butter of the
music industry.

Do you really want your top paid engineers doing coke in a hotel room while
your army of minions do the heavy lifting, clean up after them and run damage
control to sure the public still think the 'star' is the great talent he
probably isn't.

Sure some rock stars are genuinely really talented, but that is almost
incidental to the rock stardom.

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sjs382
You only keep really good and skilled engineers if you pay them like really
good and skilled engineers.

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angersock
Sure, whatever--but if you want to get _really good and skilled engineers_ you
don't treat them like rockstars.

You treat them like professionals who are well-compensated and given
interesting problems to solve, and then supported as human beings deserving of
understanding and respect. Oh, and you give them a real economic stake in the
outcome of the project.

This "rockstar" business is bullshit.

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rajacombinator
Simple yet untrue. Great engineers don't necessarily know or care to obtain
their market value. H1B indentured servitude also helps.

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dagw
Technically he said "treat" them like rock stars, not "pay" them like rock
stars. Lots of evidence points towards the fact that people respond much more
favorably towards being given $500 worth of perks than they would being given
a $1000 pay rise.

~~~
rajacombinator
fair enough, however you can also treat some people like crap and they won't
do anything about it. (I'm not suggesting you should.)

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gesman
Paying them well is mandatory.

Rock star treatment is optional.

~~~
mrits
Yeah, I put up with a lot more than I normally would because I keep getting
raises. It's funny how I look for jobs with a better title offering quite a
bit less than I make...Good problem to have I guess.

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kohanz
Last I checked, "rock stars" didn't have the attributes you look for in a good
engineer.

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blacksqr
File under /r/Showerthoughts.

