
If you want to get rich, stop being a fucking joker - sthatipamala
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/if-you-want-to-get-rich-stop-being-a-fucking-joker?1
======
bermanoid
"Dear Sebastian, we quit, piss off. Best, Sam, Lee, and Jon."

Seriously, this is just ridiculous.

Is there anyone here that would actually put up with this ridiculous public
shaming at all, let alone from a CEO that's off in Asia staying up "20 hours"
to print flyers for one of his other companies, while he bitches that you're
not reneging on your teaching commitments (which I would presume he knew about
when he took you on...) so that you can meet his arbitrary (and from the
sounds of it, utterly unrealistic) timeline?

Fuck guys like this. I know them, and I'm even friends with a couple, and
sometimes they're decent people to hang out with and (on occasion, in the
right contexts) even learn from. But I'd never _dream_ of working for them, or
even usually _with_ them, because they tend to be neither very good
businessmen nor good employers.

Bitching about your people being "jokers" is not the way to speed up a
product's release: cutting features _is_ , and that sometimes requires a CEO's
involvement. Learn that lesson fast, or you'll be sorely disappointed in all
your future projects, especially when you're just the guy-in-charge-of-
negotiating-rates-for-business-cards...uh, I mean CEO.

~~~
lionhearted
A couple points -

They're partners, not employees.

Yes, I'll suffer at the printshop when I promised it. My colleague offered to
do it, but he just had a baby and it would be ridiculous to keep him all
night. No one else was available on Sunday night.

> they tend to be neither very good businessmen nor good employers.

My staff like me, I pay top of market (sometimes 10x market pay, if the person
is worth it but short-changed due to supply and demand), everyone is treated
great, we have a culture of radical transparency and honesty, have a book
club, there's no task management, and everyone is free to basically do
whatever they want whenever they want as long as they get their job done.

I want people to be their best and keep their word. And again, that email was
to business partners, not to employees, on what was supposed to be a very
short project that dragged on.

I don't know if you'd like working with me. Maybe not, it's not for everyone.
But I look for top performers, pay them extremely well, treat them well, give
them huge respect and autonomy, and push them to give their best and really
deliver. We tend to have fun, too.

~~~
exit
this doesn't sound like 10x to me

"I got a top creative designer in there working for a fraction of his normal
cost by being very fucking cool with him, and also working out a deal where we
refer him business, and he can use our office space to hold client meetings
during our off hours.

...

The designer came with me, working for peanuts compared to his normal rates
(he’s a top guy)"

~~~
hugh3
I'm also not sure why a "top designer" wouldn't have his own office space.

------
hristov
This should be a very good read for those of you that think that formal
education is not necessary for start-up success. I am not sure who the author
of this is and whether he went to college or not, but he clearly needs to take
a good writing class. He may actually have a good point about keeping
commitments but the whole thing is written so badly, in such a meandering and
repetitive way that it is a joke. And I doubt any of the recipients of that
email will take him seriously and will stop going to their classes to work on
his project as he requests.

The saddest part is that he most likely thinks he is working very hard and
being very productive. He is writing all these pages upon pages of stuff
repeating the same mantra, relating to his favorite history channel shows,
etc. But of course he is wasting his time and the time of the people that will
have to read the thing. Although I am sure the readers get some entertainment
as a side benefit. If he knew how to write he could have written a tight
passage of several paragraphs or so that properly conveys the need for
dependability and the urgency of the situation without making a fool of
himself or insulting his readers.

Writing is a skill and it matters. This is especially true for people in
leadership positions.

~~~
cop359
The repetition is obviously intentional (I'm surprised this wasn't evident to
you). It's written more as a speech rather then a pamphlet. Have you listened
to for instance Obama, or any other politician? Usually they have very little
to say(you could probably summarize in 5 sentences), but to get the point
across they use repetition. It's an effective communication tool.

~~~
DanBC
> _It's an effective communication tool._

...used really badly in this example.

------
angryasian
as an engineer I've worked for this type of douche idea/business guy. When
doing exactly what he says, he says "somethings just not right", then I ask
"ok what is it then".. he responds "I don't know its just not right". DOUCHE.

Then he tells me to take more initiative, and I do. Then I get an email like
this that says why isn't things getting done, and I say.. because I'm doing
things like setting up stupid accounts that he could be doing rather than
writing stupid blog rants like this. Or why are we using x service instead of
y service, "well you told me to do what I thought was best". He responds "Well
its not what I had in mind". DOUCHE.

He promised me trips to asia, bonuses, and days off when the product is a
success. He hasn't told me how much equity I have or vested, because he said
that another thing we will deal will when we are successful, but its been over
two years, and I'm still having to listen to his stupid rants and fake
motivational emails. DOUCHE.

People like this are poison, and working for people like this will kill you
inside because slowly as an engineer you'll dream, why can't I work with a
real engineering team that can just write code, solve tough problems, work
with cool tech and why do I have to deal with this bullshit.. when this douche
needs me more than I need him. But because people like this have money, and
there are always people willing to sell their services.. he may get a product
out and may bullshit enough people that he has is something useful, but thats
the way the world works.

~~~
illumen
Get out now. There's better people to work with.

------
commieneko
Spend whatever you need to get it done, but I'm not willing to pay a top
designer his normal rates even though I'm having him do a rush job at 2am. But
that's okay, I'm being very cool with him and I promised him I'd recommend him
to other big shots.

Well, the "top designer" is an adult, we assume, and can make his/her own
decisions, but I stopped falling for that kind of bull shit 25 years ago. A
good designer is worth paying good rates. Despite lavish praise as they walked
out the door with "my miracle", I never once had any of those "big shots" ever
show up again, much less provide me with any kind of value in return.

(Now on a side note, I've done spec work and/or above the call of duty rush
jobs for customers who've done well by me _in the past_. Or on very rare
occasions, I've pulled rabbits out of hat for new customers who were _refered_
to me by very good customers. Maybe that's what's inexpertly being alluded to
here. But I doubt it.)

------
onan_barbarian
Can someone provide me some concise explanation as to what Sebastian Marshall
has actually _done_ \- outside of lots of blog posts, Hacker news posts, and
travel?

~~~
onan_barbarian
LinkedIn has a stub page saying "I don't really use linkedin".

His 'About' page has this: "I worked as an entrepreneur from 2004 to 2008".
That's it.

From 2009 onwards, there appears to be a lot of stuff about travel, and
sleeping less, and "purifying my diet".

I have some friends with bios/resumes like this; these also happen to be my
"rich kid" friends.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I really dislike seeing comments like this on HN.

I've clawed my way from poverty to lower middle class, helped out as many
people along the way as I could, done some amazing things, written a lot of
brilliant code that's running the guts of a couple businesses and maybe even
an East Bay school district still.

But, I've never written about any of it, I don't talk about it much, and
honestly, I'd rather do just about anything other than write or talk much
about it.

I have some really fantastic clients that are the same way, too.

There are a lot of incredible people in the world whose name you don't know.
Just because they don't do PR for themselves the way that, presumably, you do,
doesn't mean they should be dismissed out-of-hand.

~~~
kitsune_
You've just written about it.

And so has this Sebastian, in fact, if anything, volume is certainly not the
problem when it comes to his writing.

I'm similar to you. As in I don't write blogs or do much formal "PR" or online
networking with my real name. I don't have a linkedin account, I don't use
google+ and I don't have a website with my real name. I however write comments
on reddit, hn and a ton of other lists and forums.

By the way, whenever somebody describes their own work as "brilliant", my
alarm bells go off.

~~~
skore
I agree - he writes quite a lot, but somehow it's mainly about his
aspirations. If somebody can link to a post where he talks about actual and
concrete success, that would be great. So far, all the aspirational rants make
it seem like he is mainly contract-hopping and astroturfing.

------
wisty
Dear Sebastian,

You worked 20 hours straight. Congratulations, want a biscuit? That's about 20
hours _less_ than what most people here have done trying to meet a deadline,
or squash a stubborn bug. And that's not counting the guys who do that for
kicks on Minecraft (I kid ...).

Hannibal nearly got his troops to Rome. Presumably, he knew where Rome was,
and so did his men. If you want people to MARCH, they need a destination. In
web apps, this is a wireframe.

So, break out a HTML editor, and get the wireframe up. Then tell the devs to
push it live, put the database behind it, and get it to scale. If not, it's
because you don't have a product in mind, and simply MARCHING is not going to
get you to Rome, or anywhere. When people are lost, or lack a compass, they
generally walk around in circles. Does that seem familiar? Of course, good
engineers use the time to check out options, so they know what to do when
there's actually a clear goal.

Most engineers live to fix problems. A creaky prototype that won't work is a
problem that needs to be fixed. A blank page is just a chance to make scribbly
notes.

------
enigmabomb
So let me get this straight. This guy is fronting the money on his credit
cards, can't do any of the work, and gets people to do things for him by
"Being very fucking cool with" them?

Yeah. Keep your money. Fuck your business cards. You sound like sales guys
scum trying to leverage the real makers in this project.

------
ianterrell
Stop being a joker! Don't make excuses! Everyone has reasons! Fuck reasons!

Also, I can't do it, because I'm otherwise engaged.

~~~
raheemm
If he was sipping margarita on a beach, your words would be right. But he is
putting in 17 hr days on another project, so I dont see why he cant ask his
partner/employees for greater commitment.

~~~
kevinalexbrown
Because his other employees are working other jobs or, as "Sebastian" points
out, in classes. That's why. He's not willing to sacrifice his other project,
but he's asking them to sacrifice theirs. If you're asking people you're
leading to make sacrifices you're not willing to make, you're a bad leader.
Period.

~~~
raheemm
Ok, that's the context you picked up on. I did not. What I got was that he set
a timeline for project A. But that timeline did not work out. Now Sebastian is
busy with project B. To empower the team on project A, he gives them a cc and
the decision-making authority to get the project going. He also throws in some
hannibal and "joker" stuff to rally the troops and make a point about sticking
to commitments, forging thru obstacles. This does not make for a bad leader.

~~~
anjc
All that stuff specifically does make for a bad leader.

------
llambda
I don't "fucking" understand where Sebastian gets off: "I had all the time I’d
need for this project if we met our original timetables. Now, I don’t have it
any more because I’m working 12 to 17 hours per day on something else."

In a nutshell, the CEO is saying, "Hey guys, listen, I'm really this one kind
of person who gets shit done, except for right now I can't be because I have
to take care of some other self-interests (no this isn't the same as being a
joker), so I need you to meet my crazy standards."

So he's unable to actually live up to the work ethic he espouses and purports
to be a paragon of and as a result wants his staff to fill in the blanks while
he works on "something else"; to just "get it fucking done" and not be
"jokers". This is contrived and manipulative. If I were working for this guy
that would be the last professional exchange we ever had. Horrible leadership.

------
spydum
I certainly don't understand the context of the email or the people involved,
but that seems extraordinarily douchey. Perhaps I'm the exception, but when
your primary focus is on being a multi-millionare, you are missing something
from your life.

~~~
raheemm
I don't think that's the main focus of the post - its more about sticking to
commitments and making stuff happen in spite of obstacles. Obviously money is
a financial reward but that's not what I picked from the post.

------
CoffeeDregs
This post represents subpop-management nonsense. People are complicated but
there are, in fact, things we can do to work with each other. "Commitments"
can be considered real things and we can hold each other to them. You either
fulfill on a commitment or you don't. If you don't, then fuck you and you're
RIFed. If you do, then you're part of the team. (An aside: why is fulfilling
on commitments part of being excellent?! Shouldn't it be a criterion?!)

If you don't consider "commitments" to be real things, then you run round and
round the what-are-we-doing-and-why-didn't-you-do-it circle... And then you
write a blog post.

Update: freeloaders/non-fulfillers are a real thing. I'm one of them.
Generally, I perform at a very high level, but I'll dial it back if I'm under
the gun and a client unintentionally indicates that they're not one to assess
slippages accurately. Unlike most freeloaders, I wake up at 3AM and think
about how to fulfill against a late commitment.

------
tikhonj
I can't help feeling that that was written by a cross between a motivational
speaker and a mafia don.

The letter had an interesting voice and was well written; however, it
immediately set off unconscious alarms in my mind. It was trying to influence
the reader too coarsely on too emotional a level; I do not like that sort of
thing very much.

~~~
Joakal
I agree, some people are shy, unsure, etc, and will get defensive when
presented with an angry person barking orders. It's not the military. They may
find these people won't even talk about their work because they don't want to
offend the barker.

That said, it really depends on the culture of the employees on which
motivational techniques to use.

~~~
tikhonj
For me it didn't feel like something from the army as much as a car salesman
trying much too hard.

Also, as a college student, I would be really suspicious of somebody telling
me not to go to class--I'm perfectly happy to do that of my own violation, but
anybody suggesting it immediately comes out as against my best interests.

~~~
Joakal
It's more of an analogy like this: You're a group leader for a group
assignment due Tuesday morning. You think it's great, they're the top 1% in
the class. They promise to do their sections of the topic by Monday meeting so
you can work together to compile it. Monday comes around, they said they tried
and didn't finish their sections. Now you're stuck all night fixing their
sections and compiling it together.

That's simplified analogy, and the author would angrily call them "jokers".

~~~
tikhonj
Except for the bit where you're doing other schoolwork instead, I presume?
Besides, I wasn't talking as much about the content of the letter as the tone
--that's what I found off-putting.

------
coryl
I can sympathize and understand with what he's writing.

I know it seems douchey and shallow to a lot of you, but when you work remote
with a team of friends, things tend to get far too casual and eventually
everything falls apart altogether. Suddenly everyone has an opinion on design
decisions, or a meeting needs to be held on whether we should use Mongo or
MySQL, and we should just think about it on our own time and get back together
next week for more discussion.

Complacency is really the biggest enemy of the side project / remote team. And
so making excuses becomes easier and easier as time progresses.

Someone has to step up and lead, so maybe a motivational speech is just what
the team needs. The points about partying and making money might matter to his
team, maybe its why they're working on the project in the first place. (And
none of us can say that the excitement of making money doesn't motivate us).

So the man makes it clear where he stands; step up and get shit done, or leave
and be a joker. Do you want to sell sugared-water for the rest of your life?
Or do you want a chance to change the world?

~~~
hugh3
_Someone has to step up and lead, so maybe a motivational speech is just what
the team needs. The points about partying and making money might matter to his
team, maybe its why they're working on the project in the first place. (And
none of us can say that the excitement of making money doesn't motivate us)._

Maybe, but if this was intended as a motivational speech (and motivational
_speeches_ work a lot better than motivational _emails_ ) then it's a terrible
one.

------
trotsky
Telling someone not to go to their university classes so that they can crunch
on your $generic_web_app should be a jailable offense.

~~~
jodrellblank
To say that is to miss the point completely.

He's not telling someone not to go to their classes, he's illustrating the
sort of behaviour change necessary between "I tried" and "I did it".

He doesn't "want a cookie" for working 20 hours on a Sunday night, he's
illustrating the attitude shift between "I tried" and "I said I'd do it, so I
did it".

~~~
anjc
This is such Americanized bullshit. There's no difference between the two.

~~~
jodrellblank
That's like saying there's no difference between manslaughter and murder.

The outcome may appear no different - success or failure - but the mental
state is different, and the path to the outcome may be.

------
jeffreymcmanus
You know who's a joker? The guy who "got a top creative designer in there
working for a fraction of his normal cost by being very fucking cool with him,
and also working out a deal where we refer him business". That's who.

~~~
MichaelApproved
You're missing the point of the email. He's asking his team to stop sweating
the small stuff and just get it done. He's pointing out that others are
busting their ass (the designer) while the team is trying to figure out
something basic like email providers.

Just pick something and go with it.

~~~
megablast
But it is a stupid statement. There are good reasons why things can't get done
sometimes, and no amount of shouting or motivational posters is going to
change that. Eventually when you are running towards a goal and not planning,
you realize you can't just continue, you have made a mistake and are heading
in the wrong direction. This get it done attitude ignores this face.

~~~
jodrellblank
_This get it done attitude ignores this face._

Except it doesn't. The post clearly and repeatedly says "if you can get a goal
done, do so. If you can get a good enough substitute, you don't need to ask
me, I trust your judgment. If you could do it but you need money, here are my
card details, I trust you to spend money carefully. And if you are doing the
above and get stuck _tell me and we'll fix it together_.

------
thiagofm
that guy is full of shit

check out the REAL JOKER:

[http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/hey-you-yeah-you-you-can-
be...](http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/hey-you-yeah-you-you-can-be-an-
entrepreneur)

In the comments section of this post, he mentions that he's going to finish
the editing process of his book by 30 september

Now check this post:

<http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/why-isnt-my-book-done>

He's a fucking joker!

~~~
megablast
Even in the post he is making excuses why he can't mail out a newsletter.
Surely he should just get it done, not come up with excuses. That is classic
Joker behavior right there.

------
shouteagle
This incoherent rant should convince Sam, Jon, and Lee to cut their losses, if
they haven't already.

Spending 20 hours over a weekend to bang out marketing materials is supposed
to be impressive? How about planning ahead and using something like
Crowdspring and VistaPrint to get these distractions completed.

Promising to make $10K in the first six months is supposed to motivate? You
didn't share how you plan on doing that except, "I will make it happen." Have
you demonstrated in any way in the past six months that you can deliver on
this promise? Promises, wishing, wanting, pleading are hollow gestures.

A grand vision and clear plan on how to achieve it, a track record
accomplishments and successes: these are the things that make a good leader.
They are the qualities that inspire others to do great things.

~~~
cellis
Is 10k/6mo really that impressive, even on a shoestring budget in Japan (where
I assume Sebastian is)? I mean, that's a 5th of what you could earn as an
engineer at jrandom startup in the bay. Even biz-dev/product types like him
(not engineers) are probably getting close to 100k now, if not more.

------
JonnieCache
WTF is all that stuff about S3 doing in the middle there? Setting up S3 takes
about 10 seconds. Hardly worth invoking _Hannibal._

Sebastian: please seek professional help before you hurt yourself or someone
else.

~~~
tezza

      Sebastian: please seek professional help before you hurt yourself or someone else.
    

Yep, I agree. Sebastian sounds like he drives himself too hard and has
variously 'lost it', 'gone mad', 'gone off the deep end' or is in the early
stages of a massive nervous breakdown.

Not too many people would put up with even a fraction of his bile in real
life, so Sebastian may be very very lonely or surrounded by other mal-adjusted
people.

So yes, Sebastian if you're reading this, please seek counseling ASAP, the
world is not how you imagine it and you are in dire risk of going mad.

------
jen_h
Coffee is for closers or something.

We like to think that having money fixes things and we can just throw cash
wildly into the air while making definitive exhortations and all will be well.
We will be Gods or something! But unfortunately, it doesn't, not usually.
What's pretty broke without cash doesn't typically get fixed when you shove
its gullet full of coinage. Every once in awhile, throwing money into a
whirlpool works, and when it does, you should totally record that shit. Put it
on YouTube. But not what preceded it, no way.

~~~
nickand
He never mentions how much money he's will to pay to 'get stuff done.' In fact
it sounds like he's not willing to pay anything other than satisfaction. I
don't have these mommy and daddy issues anymore.

Sincerely, The guy who's work ethic is directly proportional to how much money
you throw at me.

~~~
cellis
Au contraire, he makes the incentives quite clear: in the short term, parties
at beach houses in Asia; in the long term, being rich and "RISE IN THE WORLD
FAST".

------
dschobel
Good for him for getting shit done and empowering his troops but unless their
financial incentives are as strong as his, he's just another psychopathic
manager for asking them to sacrifice for him ("skip your classes", etc).

~~~
vacri
That's the point where I was irrevocably lost. Skip my classes for a possible
trip in asia if we happen to do really, really well?

Made me think of the 'Screw you, pay me' guy.

~~~
tezmc
That's not really a good analogy. The 'F you, pay me' guy was talking about
being assertive and sticking up for yourself in the face of clients who are
trying to get you to do work for free/not pay their bills etc. (that's if
we're talking about the same person)

A better analogy would be that the OP is more like the client of the 'f you,
pay me' guy.

------
mcav
Write these kinds of rants. Get your anger and frustration on paper. Then,
throw it out. Revisit your thoughts later. Repeat until your thoughts are
coherent and your course of action is clear.

~~~
ryan-allen
I agree. I read somewhere years ago (in my early 20s) about how Abe Lincoln
wrote a disappointed letter to a General when he failed to continue fighting
to win a battle (they had been fighting for days on end and were exhausted).

That may or may not be accurate but the point of it was he was upset, took it
out on someone and then did not send the letter, and the advice was to take
things like this and put them in your drafts and sleep on it.

This may have been in the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

Effective immediately, I started refraining from sending annoyed or angry
emails. I'd file them in drafts and sleep on it.

I can't recall ever sending an email of this sort since. In hindsight there
was always a better and more effective way to deal with the situation.

I think some people just love the sound of their own voice (and the sight of
their own words) that they feel compelled to 'ship' after they've produced
something like this. Some things just shouldn't ever be sent.

I think he'll regret doing this this in time. I certainly would.

------
rwhitman
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disord...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder)

~~~
danneu
He's self-admittedly bipolar.

>I’m cyclothymic too. Like Nieztsche and Byron and those guys. Albeit, much
less talented; I’m just saying I got the same affliction. [...] What’s a
cyclothymic? It appears that we feel emotions more strongly than other people,
and cycle through them. I’m fucking awesome when I’m manic, I can rapidly
invent, experiment, implement, advance science, build systems, recruit and
hire people, and just massively do unhumanly large amounts of stuff.
Cyclothymic mania is when the SPIRIT OF GOD is within you.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressured_speech>

------
tsunamifury
<http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/about>

The guy seems to be a bit of a self styled guru selling his lifestyle brand
which is abstractly focused on 'victory'.

~~~
meric
"I’ll work to make this an excellent use of your time." Followed by his life
story.

------
nickand
The guy who wrote this article sounds like the kind of person who wants to get
everyone to do his work for him. His personal problems are leaking into his
work life. He probably needs a vacation or to change lines of work. He's not a
joker, he's a bitter old bastard (regardless of his age).

Advice for the inexperienced doer: Don't listen to this guy. Pace yourself. Do
what you need to and make time for yourself. This guy wants to smoke a cigar
in his office while you kill yourself. This is his attempt at being 'the boss
man' and it's transparent. You will never be happy making people like this
happy. If this kind of verbal abuse makes you feel bad then seek therapy don't
work late every night. Stand up for yourself.

------
larve
he's manic, and one of his friend should take him to a therapist. he's
comparing himself to nietzsche, hannibal, byron. he's making crazy plans of
self-improvement. he's swearing, cussing, incoherent, ALLCAPS in every blog
post. he's not sleeping. he's not focusing on anything of real value. I really
hope he has someone that takes care of him.

~~~
hugh3
I've always found manic depression fascinating. I recommend the book
"Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania" by Andy Behrman. He talks primarily about his
manic phases, how he would rush out and buy things he couldn't afford, get
into weird sex situations, fly round the world for no reason, and so forth,
and how he eventually wound up involved in art forgery, before getting caught
and deciding to submit to electroshock therapy.

This Sebastien Marshall guy really sounds exactly like him.

------
dspeyer
Are they really jokers, or were the tasks unreasonable in the first place? The
only way to know is to understand the tasks in detail, which I suspect the
author doesn't.

The whole "just get it done" thing sounds impressive, but it doesn't hold up
in reality. Just cure AIDS. What are you waiting for? People are dying! Get
that cure finished by Monday.

Also note that there's a large border zone where things are possible but
require sacrifice. They could get it done by sacrificing their leisure, their
health, their social status, their unrelated duties, their morals.... It's up
to them to decide how much of that is worth it. This is not a decision to take
lightly.

~~~
jodrellblank
_The whole "just get it done" thing sounds impressive, but it doesn't hold up
in reality._

Yes it does, you're just not reading it properly. Assume you're being attacked
by a wild animal, which attitude is more helpful out of the following?

1) I will do anything to overpower it and kill it, or any acceptable
substitute such as distracting or trapping it, or escaping in any other
fashion.

2) Well, it might be too powerful for me, and maybe I'm too tired, and if it's
getting dark I can't see it as well, and I guess I'll try, but it's
unreasonable to think I can win, and in this situation having precisely
accurate beliefs _is_ my highest priority, so I'll start off by assessing how
energetic it looks and estimating how powerful it is before I start doing
anything, if it's too big I won't bother.

It's "duh" obvious that in a survival situation, the former might get you out,
the latter might not. It's "duh" obvious that _you might not win, whatever you
do_ , but that's _not relevent_ because you don't get _points for trying_ ,
you either survive, or you _die_.

Now, comparing a survival situation to a project, or a company, or any
everyday life situation, isn't really a fair comparison. But comparing the
attitude you hold _can be_ a fair comparison.

By your reply you are implying the OP is so dense they don't understand that
some things can't be done. Do you honestly think that's true? You're giving
zero credit to their intelligence at all.

The "just do it" attitude is not _supposed_ to be telling you that "you can do
anything rah rah just will it and it will happen, laws of physics and human
limits be damned".

It's _supposed_ to be telling you that hurdles are OK, you will meet them, and
you can jump them, or go round them, or plough straight through them, or move
them, or pay someone else to move them, or rent a car and drive through them,
or burn them down, or argue the race to different track with different
hurdles, or setup your own athletics federation and recruit athletes and
viewers for races without hurdles, they're all fine, but doing nothing won't
help, nor will giving up. If you want to solve a problem, getting points for
trying won't get the problem solved.

"Just get it done - you can" isn't meant as a literally true fact you have to
_agree with_ , it's a helpful attitude to hold and act on _even while knowing
it's not literally true_.

~~~
dspeyer
So why haven't you cured AIDS? What in your argument (or the OP's) changes
when the difficulty of the problem is raised to absurdity?

Some problems are easy. Some are hard. Some are too hard to be worth solving.
Some are essentially unsolvable. When someone argues problems are in category
2 by _ignoring_ categories 3 and 4, they lose credibility.

As for trusting the OP's intelligence, he appears to be a marketer ranting at
engineers. Even if he's extremely intelligent, he doesn't have the knowledge
to judge if what he wants is possible or not.

~~~
jodrellblank
Not sure if you're being deliberately obtuse or if you really don't see the
point.

Compare:

Problems involved in curing AIDS: Needs a biotechnology background, a medical
background, a chemistry background, an understanding of disease processes and
treatment processes, FDA approval trials, pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Problems mentioned in the article: two people disagreeing on how Amazon S3
should be setup because they aren't happy which account to use or who should
pay. Asking the leader to make "stupid nitpicky decisions" which they could
make, but don't. Not deciding which email/newsletter program to buy. Not
proceeding with what they agreed and instead generating ideas for other kinds
of possible business model.

I haven't cured AIDS because _I literally can't_. They haven't registered an
Amazon S3 account because ... what?.

 _As for trusting the OP's intelligence, he appears to be a marketer ranting
at engineers._

And if he was saying "I asked you to have this facebook killer done by last
week. Lee, where's that scalable S3 backed website I ordered you to write?
Sam, your friend with the content industry connection, I need a film licensing
agreement for streaming, come on, I expected better of you. Jon, I told you to
sign up some people, Google Plus had millions of users in its first weeks, how
many have you cold-called?

Then I'd be right behind you calling him a clueless PHB and a pox on all
right-thinking people.

But he _isn't doing that_. These people agreed a project on a rushed timescale
that they voluntarily comitted to - presumably they were all confident it was
a solvable problem.

------
GotToStartup
I had a different take on the article than most of the comments I've read.
It's about keeping your word. If You say you're going to do something then DO
IT. If you don't want to be seen as a joker then you just have to keep your
word.

I see it like this. If you make a timeline yourself and find you won't be able
to keep it then you have 2 options. 1) Let the person you promised know right
away or 2) "find a way. Or make one" - do what you got to do to get it done.

Sebastian is highlighting the second option because it's already passed
deadlines and shit sounds like it's getting serious.

If you want to be respected, loved and an effective leader. Keep your
promises. Every single one of them. (Or, in true Machiavellian form, at least
make sure it's perceived that way.)

------
laurent-LB
If this guy was my friend I would look for a therapist for him. This is the
second time I come across this blog and the tone sounds more and more
delusional and manic.

~~~
forensic
Yeah he's definitely manic and probably co-morbid with other issues. Manic
people often develop inflated self-images to compensate for their repressed
feelings of inferiority.

Just an all around neurotic. Generally miserable to be around and incapable of
enjoying life.

He doesn't need non-jokers he needs a therapist.

What is sad is that guys like this have NO CONCEPT of how other people view
the world. They do not realize that we can all sit calmly and enjoy life, that
we can enjoy smalltalk, that we can relax with our family and not stress over
the fact that we're "not wealthy".

He takes his business so seriously because he is mentally ill and he must
excel at business (not just excel, but conquer) to appease his neuroticism.

------
wglb
This is the same dude who ripped into patio11 for not living up to his
potential.

Personally, I would feel that HN can do without this tone-deaf self-
importance.

~~~
jodrellblank
There's a world full of people ruined by thinking like this.

Our language, our culture has "self-importance" as a _negative_ attribute.
It's ridiculous.

 _Like_ yourself. Feel that you are important! What are you living and
fighting and dieing for, if you feel unimportant and think everyone else
should too? That's no way to be. :(

~~~
scott_s
You're taking the definitions for the word "self" and "importance" and just
assuming that "self-importance" is the concatenation of those definitions. It
is not. It means an _exaggerated_ sense of one's own importance, or outright
arrogance: <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-importance>

------
trout
For what it's worth, this attitude is valuable in certain positions. Many of
the sales reps I work with have this attitude and it works for them. Basically
- they will go to hell and back to get something done for a customer. They
will dictate engineering schedules, beg and steal equipment, relentlessly war-
dial, and make generally unreasonable requests.

What happens with their requests? People find it easier to bend to the will of
the determined than convince them otherwise. It gets stuff done. It also
wrecks havoc on the 'balance of things' which may or may not have an inflated
importance. This is why people hate sales reps.

Conversely - customers generally love this. Customers love making demands,
feeling like they're the only customer, and having faith they'll get the best
they can get.

The balance is burning those cycles, because there are limits; hell or no
hell. If business cards are worth destroying your sleep and weekend to have
them by Monday, so be it.

~~~
stevewilhelm
In the long run, the best and the brightest won't work in that kind of
environment and the customer will ultimately get a substandard product. Good
sales reps set achievable stretch goals and customers reap the long term
benefits.

------
ootachi
I really really hope he loses his best employees for this rant. We shouldn't
encourage this kind of behavior. Receiving this email would be enough to make
me immediately start looking for other work.

------
xarien
Reminds me of this quote: "For a rough approximation of your valuation, circa
2004, you can also use Kawasaki's Law of Pre-Money Valuation: for every full-
time engineer, add $500,000; for every full-time M.B.A., subtract $250,000. "

------
rglover
I dig the anti-joker sentiment, but this is a bit much. It's good to keep a
team motivated, focused, and dedicated to their work but this reads like the
author got a sign from god that he and his team were inventing the "next
Facebook." The big problem here, though, as others have pointed out: there's a
glaring desire for money. Money is the keyword throughout the entire email.
"I'll foot the bill," "I want to make us rich," "we can rent a beach house."
What happened to "this idea is really cool and even if we don't get rich, I
want to make sure it sees the light of day." Joker...

------
kevinalexbrown
This guy kind of seems not necessary to the whole project, aside from small
amounts of funding. If he's spending 12-17 hours a day on something else
entirely, what is he personally doing to advance the project?

Did he just have an "idea" and hire a bunch of engineers "find a way or make
one?"

------
mhewett
Makes some good points, but finishes badly. The best part is where he is going
to reward his best employee with an all-expenses paid vacation
with....Sebastian Marshall!

~~~
rhizome
Second prize is two vacations with Sebastian Marshall.

~~~
tkrajcar
What, no steak knives?

------
tomelders
From the comments.

“A joker is someone who says they’re going to do something, and then doesn’t.
A joker always has excuses.”

\-------------------

Hannibal you’re back! Did you conquer Rome?

Erm no. Had no siege weapons and my men would… Oh well, I tried…

No, I don’t give a fuck that you tried. Did you do it or not?

Could have.

DID YOU DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU’D DO OR NOT?

Erm no.

Hannibal you’re a fucking joker and we’ve got problems.

\-------------------

priceless.

------
jes5199
I really, honestly thought that this guy was showing us a parody of a letter
from a desperate, clueless manager on a failed project. I guess this
demonstrates some startup-kool-aid varient of Poe's Law.

------
chubs
Reminds me of the story of steve jobs, when he dropped the original ipod
prototype into a fishtank to force the engineers to make it smaller: 'See?
Bubbles? That means there's air in there. Make it smaller.'

------
kevinalexbrown
"Find a way. Or make one."

V

"I’d do it myself, but I can’t, because I’m doing something else that takes
all my time."

~~~
sdoering
I read this guy relatively often. I even could understand his latest post.
but, after some closer inspection -> you just nailed a point.

On the other hand: Maybe this posting is his understanding of making a way.
Could that be possible?

------
ervvynlwwe
What did I just read?

~~~
joezydeco
I'm with you. No clue.

When it got to him and a designer in a print shop at 2:30am, I was expecting
the punchline to involve crystal meth or something.

~~~
danbmil99
Yes, he definitely has a Jesse Pinkman vibe going on.

------
jarin
I actually think this is brilliant. I'm just going to pretend this email was
written to me and act accordingly.

~~~
vacri
Make sure you're responsible with his credit card.

------
skurry
Maybe this says more about me than about the author of that blog post, but if
I got an email like this from my "friend and boss", I'd be thinking hard about
my future with this "company".

------
16s
The advice he gives about keeping your word is good advice. I try to keep my
word, and I enjoy working with others who do. However, committing to do
unreasonable things in an unreasonable time and then not being able to finish
them is not so much about "keeping your word" as it is about being realistic.
No matter how great you and your team are, you have to set realistic goals and
doing that is not being "normal" or "average" it's being reasonable and having
a work/life balance.

------
alexwolfe
I think the author of this fails to realize that you can teach a lot of things
but not attitude. You can't convince someone to be passionate about your pet
project, not gonna happen. All the begging and reasoning in the world is not
going to change their mind. If your so fired up about whatever it is that your
doing, find other people that are fired up about it too. If you can't find
those people then be more reasonable with people who are building your dream.

The whole, if you want to be rich is really strange too. How about being
successful, I think that is a better goal. Success is not having a ton of
money, no life, and being a slave driving prick, its about being good in all
areas of your life. Believe it or not there are many people out there that
would pass up the chance to be rich if it meant they would be absolutely
miserable at work everyday.

And finally, no matter how hard you work, how many hours you put in, you can
still fail. Its tough to realize that but it happens every single day in the
tech world. Once you realize being overly consumed, frantic, and obsessive
doesn't guarantee success, you may discover a different way of working, a
better way. Be happy with your life dude, that's something you can bank on no
matter how much money you make. Otherwise the joke is really on you.

------
exfilmexec
Not sure what to think of that. He should hire an editor. Most people would
not respond positively to that letter so his whole philosophy is meaningless.

Though I can sympathize with trying to avoid distractions and delays with
simple problems. Micro-managing horrors.

And I also hate excuses. As someone who is on the verge of failing, I
absolutely loved the Hannibal quote. Do anything to succeed mentality is good
if applied to being self-critical. I believe that increasing work ethic,
knowledge and skills with overall hardcore discipline is the only thing I have
to logically and spiritually continue to use to fight the constant failure
I've experienced.

In other words, as I was often told growing up "don't be sorry, be correct".
Stop making excuses and do it. There's some chance, some method, some
concerted effort that will yield an eventual probability of actual success
which is only achieved by being self-critical and then improving.

EDIT - I didn't write this very well. Valid excuses are actually very good and
effective. Logical reasons why something can't be done lead to ways it can.
I've worked with too many people who avoid "negativity" out of some law of
attraction thing. So I like when people say, "I'm stupid, your stupid, we're
all being stupid but we can and should be smarter by doing X, Y and Z".

------
pnathan
I work my arse off for my company/manager when the heat is on.

I know that when I commit to get something important done by a time X, I get
it done or have put in all the time I could on it. So do other people on the
team. My manager doesn't ask me or other members of the team to stay late
unless it's important. We keep the pressure on and keep working away every
weekday all day.

My manager never written anything like this to the team while I've been there.
And for that, I am pretty glad.

------
DanBC
It's very sad to see someone with such clear MH problems and no support in
place.

([http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-
and...](http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-and-
schuester-ceo-carolyn-reidy))

~~~
clark-kent
wow this guy has really lost it. The worse part is that he has fans that cheer
him on.

------
npersson
This type of rant is insane to me, I would never work for a guy like this. But
thats just me, for others it might be prefectly fine...

Generally it sounds like he needs a hug or something.

~~~
hugh3
A hug, or possibly medical treatment for his bipolar disorder.

------
mbreese
What was that? Does anyone have any sort of context to this? Who are these
people?

Why do I feel like I'm missing a punch line?

~~~
artursapek
It's meant as a glimpse into someone else's project. I like it because it lets
me compare it to my own with no preconceptions.

------
frobozz
If I were Lee, I'd be scratching my head wondering exactly what it is he's
asking of me.

If I were Sam, I'd wonder why he's decided to dick me about without apology,
explanation or reward, then spend the next three paragraphs apologising to Lee
and promising to "do something cool" for him.

------
softbuilder
How does this guy have time to blog about it?

~~~
klbarry
He just posted an email, with ctrl+f replace of names. So probably not too
long :)

~~~
softbuilder
Even "simple" posts like that took a lot longer than you'd think. At least if
you take the time to make them read well and look good, which he did.

------
newston
Why does this article get so many comments ( so much attention)? I try to read
it but it is so poorly written, even the profanities doesn't work. I've tried
to find out more about his achievements, but couldn't find anything
impressive. What do I miss here?

~~~
Semiapies
Because it was written by this goon:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lionhearted>

His biggest accomplishment known to folks at HN is...getting a lot of karma at
HN.

------
joshu
i would like to slap the author.

------
jrockway
Jumping from topic to topic, bold, and capital letters = too badly written -
did not read. What happened to normal prose, where you use words to describe
things instead of bold phrases and random fragments? Seeing this has made me a
bit ill...

------
Maro
"Interview" with Sebastian Marshall:

<http://www.whohub.com/sebastianmarshall>

------
callmeed
The thing is, you can follow all the advice and platitudes given here _and you
still_ may not get rich.

And, sometimes the joker gets lucky.

------
keeptrying
When I first became a manager, I used to push people like this. The sad truth
is that finding just one more person with this kind of intensity is hard. I've
only known a few people with this type of intensity.

After moving to SF I now realize maybe its unnecessary. People get burnt out
working at such high intensity. If your a really effective manager then you
can ensure success by figuring out what is important and asking your engineers
to deliver that instead of them slaving away on shit that might not be useful
later.

------
mattadams
tl;dr but I got a kick out of the bit on his about page that says he aims to
get between 4-7 hours of sleep a night and insinuates that 8 is too much. The
way he's going he'll be dead at 40. Sleep is important, don't skip it.

------
malloreon
The insightful part is this: "What’s a joker? A joker is someone who says
they’re going to do something, and then doesn’t. A joker always has excuses.
“Oh well, I tried…” -> No, I don’t give a fuck that you tried. Did you do it
or not?

DID YOU DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU’D DO OR NOT?

If not, you’re a fucking joker and we’ve got problems."

To summarize: don't talk about it, be about it.

~~~
Tichy
A problem might be that "it" in the mind of the manager is a clear cut, black
and white thing, whereas in reality it might turn out to have more facettes
and nuances. With a bulldozer manager (get it done or get out) it might be
difficult to adapt to reality.

I also dislike that kind of speeches because it sets up a power hierarchy from
the start. Not a good basis for cooperation.

~~~
jodrellblank
He doesn't say "get it done or get out", he says "get it done or tell me".

As distinct from "think about it, then ask me, then try it, then ask me, then
get stuck"

------
treetrouble
The term is slacker, not joker.

------
drawkbox
I know when I finish a project I call up the 'forces of hell' on my side. It's
needed for that last 10%=90%.

------
dasil003
Maybe this is what people need. I don't know because I don't know the people
involved. I can say that what he's saying resonates and the words have
poignancy because I remember times where I wasn't clearly enough focused on
the end goal and such a speech might have been the right motivator. On the
other hand when I'm really procrastinating it's usually because something is
not right on a deeper level, either the goals, or the people, or something
else is rubbing me the wrong way. It's not easy. Sometimes deep introspection
is necessary. When you're talking about others it's even harder, but that's
where the art of management comes in.

------
BenoitEssiambre
outch, this reads like the author is about to breakdown 'bi-winning' style.

------
circuitbreaker
Am I the only one here that actually liked the article? Regardless of this
guy's resume, or the grammar, or the presentation, he has a point! This...

"You’re all highly highly skilled, top 1% at your craft. You’re all highly
highly intelligent, top 1% of the population. You’ve all got excellent social
skills, top 1% communication skills. And yet, you’re middle class. Have you
reflected on that? You’re the top 1% IN EVERY CATEGORY THAT MATTERS, and yet,
you’re relatively poor.

Do you know why? Because you haven’t stopped being a fucking joker like the
rest of society."

~~~
vacri
They're middle-class because they're working for a salary. That's obvious. You
can be middle-class and rich - $200k/year will do that to you - but you won't
find a lot of upper class people drawing a salary as their primary income.
Perhaps some doctors and lawyers might at the upper end of the scale, but in
tech? No.

------
ericflo
Compare this to the blog post written by Kicksend last week:
<http://blog.kicksend.com/kicksend-is-hiring>

There is no comparison.

------
nickolai
The caps/profanity to content ratio is way to high for my taste. Weird:
usually there is interesting stuff on that blog, and the writing is Okay too.

not to self : never drink and post.

------
oper1
Tell me this guy doesn't wear a gold chain and stink of aramis. Ever hear of a
psychic vampire? Feel sorry for the people under this guy and is hard on for
jokers.

------
artursapek
This reminds me of "Stop doing stupid shit," [1] one of my favorite articles
of all time. This was a great read. The intensity and the trust he projects
onto his friends is a good role-model for anyone working with their friends on
something and making less progress than they'd like.

[1] [http://jinfiesto.posterous.com/how-to-seem-good-at-
everythin...](http://jinfiesto.posterous.com/how-to-seem-good-at-everything-
stop-doing-stu)

------
christkv
I read this as fiction then I realized he was serious. Obviously in need of
some counseling. Delusional ? He reads like a carbon copy of "The Secret"

------
mattbaker
Why the fuck is this on HN? For the comedy?

~~~
Semiapies
Because the blogger used to post on HN very frequently. He's good at
synthesizing bold yet vacant rhetoric that plays well here, but resonates
especially well with coders who secretly think they're better than everyone
else.

He usually doesn't sound so bug-nuts, though; maybe this was an early draft he
hadn't cleaned up.

------
farms
Freaking ace, guy's a legend!

Having said that, I'd rather get myself strung up in a Judas cradle than work
for or with him :D

------
noonespecial
Its parody right? The author is actually demonstrating the point by being the
"fucking Joker" himself?

I thought this with absolute certainty through the first 3/4 of the post. What
a strange feeling as it dawns that this guy is serious.

This made my morning much more surreal. Its like long-form xkcd.

------
gavingmiller
As someone who is partnered with 2 other people in business, I can really
appreciate what's being said by Seb: If you make a commitment - hold to it.

We had the same situation come up this week for us. A job went sideways that
was worth a month of expenses and then some. The client gave us a deadline to
fix it, and if it wasn't they weren't paying.

I told my partners I would do whatever it took to fix this issue because
that's too much money to lose. Long story short, our team had it fixed in two
days; including contingency plans B, C, and D lined up if our first solution
didn't work.

Complete trust has to exist in a partnership, otherwise it doesn't work. And
this means sticking to our commitments.

------
wr1472
I'm sorry but this guy sounds like such a douche to work for.

------
bprater
Where does the "forces of hell" reference come from?

~~~
mh-
The middle of the letter..

    
    
      The Romans thought Hannibal had the FORCES OF HELL ON HIS SIDE. Why?
      Because of that quote: “We will find a way. Or make one.”

------
blader
Those who can, do. Those who can't, blog about it.

------
vog
Since most commentators seem to have missed it: Please read the very first
paragraph!

 _> Get a coffee and some popcorn ready before you read this one. Love it or
hate it, either way you’ll be wildly entertained. Names and details changed,
for obvious reasons._

In other words, the whole article is _not_ meant seriously.

~~~
jnorthrop
I'm not sure why someone down-voted you, although I disagree that this was
some sort of satire. I hope it was, as it reads like a harsh, chest-thumping,
insulting diatribe, like some over enthusiastic high school football coach --
and one that won't accept responsibility and just blame others when they
loose.

------
harrisreynolds
This guy expresses a lot of confidence in his developers and is just trying to
motivate them. This is a good thing. It is so so easy to be a joker.
Everything in nature needs energy to move forward, including startups and
software developers.

------
ditojim
i predict the credit card maxes out in 2 weeks.

~~~
prawn
I predict the other guys bail and ignore the credit card.

------
malik
This guy sounds like an utter penis.

<http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/about>

------
mathattack
Are we sure this isn't a spoof?

------
cafard
Yo, Hannibal, use the ring.

------
petegrif
What a douchebag.

------
danbmil99
Haven't we all been there though?

------
rkon
At first I thought this was posted by one of the email's recipients as a form
of revenge on its douchebag author. Then, I realized it was posted by the
author on his own blog... how embarrassing.

The whole letter/blog simultaneously reeks of desperation, egotism, conceit
and condescension. He clearly craves validation and doesn't hesitate to dole
it out to himself. "I picked you guys because you're the best! Now quit
sucking and start being awesome like me! Money money money!"

Sad.

~~~
megablast
Surely this guy is joking.

"A joker is someone who does not complete something, and has excuses. Don't be
a fucking joker."

and later

...Hannibal is his greatest hero, the guy who ALMOST conquered rome, but had a
great excuse for not doing so.

and

"Now, here’s the score. I had a very fast, but totally possible timetable. At
first, we were on it, and killing it. Then, one of us slipped. I don’t know
who slipped first, it’s irrelevant. Now, we’re all slipping. "

Right, so the timetable doesn't include any latitude for delays.

and

"I can do marketing campaigns, but I need product and tech set up first. I
mean, it’s not optional, it’s a core dependency. All of this shit was supposed
to be done weeks ago."

Sounds like an excuse, sounds like he should stop being a joker and just GET
IT DONE. No excuses.

This guy is deluded, lives in a separate version of reality where he has
excuses but no one else can. Excuses can also be reasons why something is not
going to work.

~~~
vog
He's joking for sure. Just have a look at the very first paragraph! (see also:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3246869>)

~~~
npersson
Hard to believe it's a joke. In that case the whole blog must be a joke. Just
read the about page on his blog. Same degree of douchebaggery

------
nirvana
I can identify with what sebastian is experiencing here. Its easy to work with
friends, or be friendly with your employees. Its easy for things to get
casual. Its easy for people to start running everything by you.

Its VERY easy for the sense of urgency to just go away. Its very hard to get
people highly motivated about time. It's easy to kill an entire day with BS,
and let things just stretch out. Especially when you're an employee, and
you're working for options. Options are so intangible. You're theoretically
motivated, but on a day to day basis, do stock options get you doing 6 things
in an hour instead of 3 or 4? Especially if your boss isn't there? (And if
your boss is there then you're likely to be inhibited.) It's really easy to
kill time by running everything thru your boss too... it lets you cover your
butt, and you can read HN while you wait for him to make a decision.

I don't know how you teach initiative... but this is a good attempt.

Find a way or make one. Good advice.

Its a shame most of the comments on this seem to be reddit quality. Almost as
if the people making them have never been in this situation. (and this was the
situation I found myself in at my very first startup-- when we all felt we had
no clue what we were doing, and tended to wait for direction, rather than take
initiative.)

~~~
rdtsc
2 things:

* If you are always running your business with a sense of urgency, you are going to burn out. You are going to burn out your employees. You've might have bitten more than you can chew. Some things are not possible and you need to have realistic expectations. It is fine to have stretches of busy time, but that can't last forever.

* > Its very hard to get people highly motivated about time. -- Ok so it is crunch time. Try communication & openness. Put up a whiteboard, show how many days left, how much money is left, the list of unfixed bugs, and whose name is next to it. Update frequently. Detect problems and slips early and try to fix. Don't yell at them or talk about fucking Hannibal, because you know what? You look like a Joker then.

~~~
nostrademons
"If you are always running your business with a sense of urgency, you are
going to burn out. You are going to burn out your employees."

That's not really true. If you're always running your _life_ with a sense of
urgency, you're going to burn out. But your life doesn't have to be your
business.

I'm a big fan of the "give me six good hours a day" school of thought. You're
not at work your whole life (or maybe you are, but you're not doing urgent
stuff your whole day). You don't expect your employees to be at work their
whole lives. But when you are at work, you focus on the tasks that need to get
done, and you finish them. If problems come up, you figure out a way around
them, redo your plans, and adjust your schedule accordingly.

------
funkah
This sounds terrible. I would be very unhappy with my life if my job involved
regularly receiving emails like this.

~~~
hugh3
If your job involves regularly receiving emails like this, you need to run,
not walk, away from that relationship. This guy seems like one of those
poisonous people who will inevitably screw things up (through some combination
of ego and ignorance of the way the world works) and then blame you for it.

------
kahawe
Could someone enlighten me what this is about and what is the context because
while I can understand the point he seems to be trying to make (just make it
happen) I have no idea who he is and what that was written for...

Oh and: he equals being "only" middle class with being a "joker" who hasn't
risen to their potential but the wealthy people are the not-jokers and the
ones to admire? Seriously??

> _99% of people you interact with in life are fucking jokers._

99% of all humans think that 99% of people are jokers, idiots or just dumb...
very trustworthy figure.

~~~
DanBC
> _what is the context_

The context is someone with a severe mental illness (bipolar disorder) going
through a phase of mania.

Here are some links to information:

([http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/bipolar...](http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/bipolar_disorder_manic_depression))

> _When I'm in a manic phase, I feel as though I am capable of anything and
> everything. This can be an amazing feeling, but I sometimes get frustrated
> and angry with people. Ideas flow constantly and quickly, as if my brain is
> on fast-forward. Everything happening in the world has significance in my
> life._

([http://mentalhealth.gov/health/publications/bipolar-
disorder...](http://mentalhealth.gov/health/publications/bipolar-
disorder/complete-index.shtml))

([http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/problems/bipolardi...](http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/problems/bipolardisorder/bipolardisorder.aspx))

~~~
kahawe
Well, this fits in with my own armchair-psychological evaluations of OP...

------
shareme
I once was CTO to an idiot like this..

I walked out after 30 days of these con games..

This author is poison

------
jc-denton
"Stop being a fucking joker." It is quite funny how people come up with the
subjects they have the most problems with. For example we had a professor also
teaching project management who had a hard time keeping his meetings, work,
teaching, etc organized ;)

------
cnxsoft
Sorry, but I could not read it all... I got bored after 5 minutes of reading.

------
jc-denton
But I somehow agree with the non-joker argument. Ever heard somebody who
doesn't write code, arguing about how great open source software like Ubuntu
is?

------
raheemm
I loved it!

------
NARKOZ
A rich man walks into a bar. The barman says "Is this some kind of joke?"

------
gavanwoolery
I don't mind swearing, but the persistent f-bomb really adds nothing here...

~~~
newston
Exactly. I think the primitive language contrasts with his high expectations.

------
derrida
TL,DR. Started out with an email that looked like it was written by a scammer,
got bored, moved on.

------
masterponomo
I'm confused. I'm trying to get rich writing jokes, and you tell me to quit
being a joker and just get it done. But "it" is being a joker. Seb, are you
going meta on me? Am I supposed to consider my professional joking to be
something else, in the same way bank IT workers in the 80's were told to think
of themselves as bankers, not programmers? OK, man, BAM I'm not a joker. Welp,
back to work!

------
ale55andro
If you want to be BIG then this is how you do it. You stop being a fucking
joker :D

FIND A WAY. OR MAKE ONE! great stuff on there. This is an excellent
motivational post.

------
rakkhi
Can't help but wonder if this is going to start all the pro vs cons for
swearing in posts again. It would be great if everyone did everything they
said they would to the deadline but in reality the unexpected happens and if
you get this draconian people just will not commit to anything

