

The Type of Employee You Really Want: Porn Star - vlucas
http://pseudocoder.com/archives/the-type-of-employee-you-really-want-porn-star

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jrockway
The Type of Blog Post I Really Want: One With Some Substance

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gnufied
Have an upvote sir. I really don't understand, what an article like this is
doing on the front page of hacker news.

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coderdude
Perhaps 160+ people don't agree with what the rest of us believe is quality
reading material. That's a hell of a force to fight. That, or the "blind-vote"
bait of the title was too much to resist.

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redthrowaway
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Even HN isn't immune to linkbait.

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johngalt
Excellent satire. I think most startups would be better off managing a small
team of specialists rather than trying to get the rockstar. There are
exceeding few people that truely have end-to-end knowledge, and as systems
become more abstract that number will only shrink.

So don't look for a guy that "makes the computer do X" where X = infinity.
Just map out what the different major areas are and how they interact.

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ehsanul
Well, this really depends on the startup and what stage they're at. At the
early stages, where it's just the founders, it's probably for the best if the
founders are generalists and can handle almost anything. Once someone lands
the funding/revenues to actually hire, then of course it makes more sense to
get specialists at some point.

But even then, making your first couple employees generalists doesn't sound
like a bad idea to me at all. Of course, this is all speculation: I've never
hired anyone, hence everyone should ignore whatever I say here. But it's
definitely easier to work with people who can pick up new stuff quickly, and a
generalist is usually that type of person in my experience.

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jarin
The funny thing is porn stars DO get paid very well ($2000-3000 for an hour or
so of work). Well, the female ones anyway. The male porn stars get something
like $600.

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rudiger
Not true.

Generally, a female porn actress will make less than $1,000 for a standard
scene and a few $100 more if it includes anal. Male porn actors make around
$200-300 for a scene.

Also, it's not "an hour or so of work". A scene can take up to 6 hours to
shoot, and a full day never includes more than two or three scenes. There's
also time spent pre- and post-shoot.

Of course, the famous actor will make more, but just as in every other
industry, there are very few of them compared to the total.

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araneae
As someone who has actually done porn, I can confirm this. It optimistically
works out to more like 200 an hour (for women), or at least that's how it was
about 5 years ago. Obviously rates varied based on how rich the company was,
but you couldn't be picky because work was spotty. I once only got paid $200
for an hour of caning which left my butt bruised for two weeks.

The worst part is that it's a lot of work to find constant work unless you
have a really good manager or you're famous. Sure, the hours are short, but I
found that having stable hours and not having to live shoot pay check to shoot
pay check is preferable, even if it's a considerably lower hourly wage.

(Much like contract programming work!)

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yummyfajitas
While Jarin's estimate was a bit high, that's still a fantastically good
hourly wage. The average Goldman Sach's employee makes $520k/year.
Guesstimating that they have a 60 hour work week and 4 weeks vacation (fairly
typical for the big banks), that's about $180/hour.

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mediaman
Like contracting, there is a lot of non-paid work: finding the next job, doing
back-office stuff, paying a manager, etc.

This is why individual contractors charging $100-200 an hour are not actually
making $250-500k a year.

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jorgem
"pizza guy", "all girls catholic school", "server repair man"... sounds pretty
male-centric... you sure a woman couldn't do the job?

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dgabriel
I would definitely not apply for a programming job that included "porn star,"
anywhere in the description. I _could_ do the job, but I'm sure as hell not
going to.

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krakensden
On the plus side, HR departments will never, ever jump on this bandwagon.

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autalpha
I like humour and satire; but somehow, this one just didn't do it for me. In
the back of my mind, it feels a bit sexist and degrading. Perhaps it's the
stigma the porn industry had created. As a developer, I feel conflicted :/

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intellectronica
Almost as funny as "if airlines were operating systems".

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shadowspar
Clearly, folks who complain about the locker-room mentality of the tech
industry don't have a leg to stand on. >_<

What next, a blog post about fart jokes?

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iamleppert
You know, I hope they end up with some starry-eyed dumbass who doesn't know
his own hole. Maybe someone who just watched the social network and picked up
a book on facebook markup language?

What about the product? I'm a pretty talented guy and can get jobs easily.
What is going to make me quit my well paying job at a _successful_ startup and
jump on your bandwagon? The romantic notion of risking everything and working
at a coffee shop?

I'm sorry, but whoever else said the "ninja" and "rock star" metaphor needs to
die said it best. Please, please get rid of these things and replace them with
some substance!

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kgtm
I can't put my finger on what exactly turned me on about such a job listing,
but it did (no pun intended). Any places for amateur fetishist porn stars
(Perl)?

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millerc
After 30 years, no wonder I feel dirty.

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blahblahblah
This metaphor needs to die, stat (and hopefully take the ninja and rock star
metaphors with it into the dustbin of history). It adds nothing useful to the
discourse about programming and, worse, is demeaning to the profession.

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ippisl
Which profession?

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blahblahblah
The one that requires high-level cognitive functions. Any idiot with a
prescription for Viagra or Cialis can do the other one.

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rbxbx
Everything about this thread is awful. Please flag.

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kemayo
"will be compensated with tons of really enjoyable work"

From all I've heard, porn-sex is not terribly enjoyable.

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sixtofour
All he did was describe a rock star ninja, and call it a porn star.

Or did I just hear a "whoosh" go by my head?

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Steve_Baker
Obviously not for me. I finish all my programs in under 5 minutes. :-(

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cpeterso
Startups are always looking for coding rock stars and ninjas. Where are coding
pirates and zombies supposed to work? :)

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sukuriant
The Bay

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ErrantX
This describes an excellent employee (for some, anyway). But it doesn't
describe a porn star.

