Was a fun read for sure, and I have to disagree with him on some points. I believe he’s missing the greater picture of the “Startup world”.
Many startups realize that they need 100 hours a week from their employees. How do you do this without breaking labor laws? Well, you make work as awesome as possible. Sure, this has gotten out of hand in some places, and to great joy for the media. But the truth is, in order to sustain the output required to get a proper business going on a tight budget you need people working constantly. And to get people to work constantly they’ve got to be happy.
What we are seeing is a fundamental shift in how business is ran and how employees spend their time. Where once people would “Go out for drinks” every Thursday, and party on the weekends, now we have office spaces conducive for such leisure activities. Employees are apt to stay in their “work” environment for far longer, connecting with their team mates and likely working on projects while engaged in leisure activities. I know I still enjoy constructive conversation outside of “work”, and I’m not the only one.
We have small teams that, for better or worse, have to spend a vast majority of their waking hours together. This is the reality of a company in its “Startup” phase. To sustain this close comradeship, you need some “fun” shit to do.
Sure, fuck all the companies pretending to be a part of this trend. But for all the companies that are creating some of the closest knit hardest working groups of people since the times of ships sailing to the new world, by all means keep a keg on tap in the office. You’ll probably need it.
In order to be different, you have to be different. Not everyone is capable of foregoing a “normal” life and spending ~all of their time on self development and the building of a company. Sounds to me like the author is someone who enjoys a normal life, which is completely warranted. Or perhaps I only am more interested in the “why” of the aspects of the Startup Culture the author spending their effort discrediting.
TL;DR Author may be missing the underlying shift in the startup culture, and the “why” behind many of the things he’s bawking at.
