

The Obligatory WePay “Company Culture” Blog Post: Part 2 - sophmonroe
http://blog.wepay.com/2010/09/the-obligatory-wepay-%E2%80%9Ccompany-culture%E2%80%9D-blog-post-part-2/

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sahillavingia
Reading posts like this always gives me this startling thought: there are way
more companies than not where people don't work to work there, devoid of the
"fun" you mostly read about on HN. How saddening...

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cies
i too believe company culture is extremely important.

after contemplation i've requested that the 'company' i'm starting a friend
will be a vegetarian company, in a sense that the company will never pay for
taking sentient beings.

i'm consciously extending personal culture (i'm veg), to company culture.

anyone who thinks this is a good/bad thing for a founder to do?

~~~
Evgeny
_anyone who thinks this is a good/bad thing for a founder to do?_

From what I know so far - by reading, including scientific works, and studying
biochemistry, it appears that the humans evolved to obtain at least some of
their diet from animal sources (Vitamin B12, Omega 3 fatty acids come to
mind). So I would consider this sort of culture as destructive for my health,
even if it is only mildly destructive and the results may not be obvious for
years and sometimes decades ...

It is easy to find nations/tribes in history who enjoyed excellent health on a
variety of diets, but not so easy to find ones who did that on a strictly
vegetarian diet.

~~~
code_duck
This just isn't the case these days.

Who cares about 'tribes'? We understand nutrition, we have access to a
complete and vast range of fruits, vegetables, grains and processed foods year
long, unlike any other group of humans in history. Take a vitamin for b12 and
there is NOTHING a vegan/vegetarian diet does not provide. It is vastly
healthier than the average person's diet, really.

~~~
Evgeny
_We understand nutrition_

No, we can not say that. Nutritionists can not even decide on the reasons for
the obesity - some say people just eat too much and exercise too little (aka
"calories in, calories out"), others point to more complex reasons. Not to
speak about more complex issues.

 _It is vastly healthier than the average person's diet, really_

To that I agree. But "better than X" still does not mean optimal.

~~~
code_duck
Of course, but we have a much clearer idea of what sustains health than
ancient civilizations.

I agree, a variety is your best bet.

But if better than X is not optimal, where X is the standard diet and the
varied vegetarian diet is the alternative - what's the other option?

~~~
Evgeny
_Of course, but we have a much clearer idea of what sustains health than
ancient civilizations._

I'm not so sure about that. I usually offer two of my favourite links that
describe well how the human health deteriorated when agriculture became widely
adopted.

[http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/paleopathology...](http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/paleopathology-
at-origins-of.html)
[http://www.environnement.ens.fr/perso/claessen/agriculture/m...](http://www.environnement.ens.fr/perso/claessen/agriculture/mistake_jared_diamond.pdf)

I think that paleolithic diet is more natural - one can eat pretty much all
fruits and vegetable but does not have to avoid animal products. The idea is
to avoid 'neolithic' foods - those that came into human diet less than 10-20K
years ago: processed foods, sugars, grains etc.

