

GitHub and Emergent Culture By Design - alexknowshtml
http://alexhillman.com/the-power-of-something-bigger-than-one-person

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jmduke
Not to be rude (everything I've heard about GitHub makes it sound like an
amazing place to work), but the entire point of a company culture is that it's
'bigger than any one person.' Culture that's the size of one person isn't
culture, it's just that person's personality.

This is a fluff piece that says literally nothing more than 'hey GitHub is
cool' -- it doesn't explain GitHub's 'unique culture' beyond the fact that
every employee is working towards a common goal, which is hardly unique.

Honestly, I expect more from Svbtle-branded blogs.

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alexknowshtml
You're being pedantic about the definition of culture. Many companies
"cultures" are held together by a single personality, or a select few. When
that person or people leaves (or stop beating the drum), the "culture" dies.

GitHub - much like the tool chain it's built around - has done a remarkable
job of decentralizing culture. Far better than most companies of any scale,
even ones much smaller than it.

You seem to have read past the connection between their goal as a company -
which is easy to say but hard to practice consistently, otherwise more
companies would succeed at building a culture that attracts an retains like
GitHub does.

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tomblomfield
> You're being pedantic about the definition of culture.

Not at all. We're trying to encourage HN posts that provide insight or
information.

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tomblomfield
I'm a huge Github fan, but this blog post is complete fluff.

"[Github] helps people build software together... it doesn’t do this by
accident - it’s by design. It’s intentional. It takes work. And it pays
dividends."

Ok....

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captaintacos
Yep, also Github fan and user here, but truth be told, it felt like reading a
corporate advertisement on an in-flight magazine. As they said, at least it
was short.

