Ergh... Probably the worst places to find work. A saturated market of freelancers that will accept any price to do any work. OP you're better than this!
I've been a mentor on Codementor for almost a year now, and it's the opposite of what you're suggesting. I have very professional mentoring sessions solving interesting problems, and getting payed really good money.
Some people honestly just need 4-5 hours of sleep. I used to work for Zillow and their CEO Spencer only sleeps 4-5 hours a night. It's all he needs and all he's ever done, according to people who have worked for him for a long time.
But these people are the exception not the rule. I think the reason they tend to be successful is because they are up before everyone else and have time to get a lot accomplished before they are thrown into the day with everyone else's schedules pulling on them.
> I think the reason they tend to be successful is because they are up before everyone else and have time to get a lot accomplished before they are thrown into the day with everyone else's schedules pulling on them.
Whenever the daydream talking point "what superpower would you have?" comes up, my answer is to not require sleep. I love sleep and I get seven to eight hours of it every night. But imagine what you could do with another eight hours of waking activity every single day. I think you're right that people who can get by on less have an advantage. But I'm not one of 'em.
I'm not experienced in this but from what I've read you could just take stuff like modafinil and sleep way less while being productive longer so it's not really a daydream scenario - there will probably be trade-offs but it's achievable.
The "4-5 hours a night" story is so prevalent among government and business leaders that I've always assumed that they are A) lying, or B) medicating to reduce their sleep needs.
President Obama was reported to have regularly taken Modafinil to reduce jet lag while on international trips. He's also reported to only sleep five hours a night. Why not just medicate to increase your productivity for a few years?
Because Modafinil is a Schedule IV controlled substance, and "I want to be a productive superman like President Obama" probably won't fly with your doctor?
Modafinil is not a long term solution. Sleep deficit that you would build up would have to be "paid back", or it would become detrimental to your health.
I'm not sure it's a 1:1 relation, eg. say you cut 12 hours of sleep during the week but sleep extra 6 hours on the weekend or something along those lines - cycling on-and-off according to your schedule.
As I've said I haven't tried it yet will do some research before I do, right now I'm trying out other stuff and it wouldn't be wise to mix so many unknowns.
> I can't necessarily say whether they had inefficiencies in their company structure, but they certainly over hired.
Yep, we are seeing this time and time again with startups in the Bay Area who went on a landgrab for talent a few years ago and now realize they can't support them as the VC money dried up. I actually wonder if Medium was trying to raise more and they were unable to, therefore they have to do this and are trying to spin it positively.
I respect Ev a lot. He revolutionized blogging and publishing on the web. And I want Medium to do well. And maybe I'm too cynical about the startup and SV world (I moved away from SF in October), but this smells of the same old same old to me.
> I respect Ev a lot. He revolutionized blogging and publishing on the web.
Serious questions: why and how?
I both write a blog and read blogs. I have never had any desire to move my blog to Medium, and ask myself "is it really worth it?" before clicking on any Medium link.
Blogger was just another LiveJournal, BlogSpot, or WordPress (StudlyCaps IntEntional). Twitter (i.e. "public SMS") has very little to do with blogging.
Yeah that's insane. We use a local one here in SF (Sudzee) though it also can take a day or two to pick up and a day or two to return, and on weekends that's a bummer. And it costs $45 each time for over 40lbs of laundry.
I miss my days of $12 wash and fold in Brooklyn :-/
Before I flew back home from NYC (a 24-hour+ odyssey), I had my stuff laundered at some shop local to where I was staying. It was pricey for a backpacker, but definitely worth it - it came back so neatly squared off and pressed that it was basically a small brick of laundry and packing was a breeze :)
I value stock options at zero. There is potentially a huge upside if you are an early employee at a company that gets enormous. Even then, you have to be top 20 or 30 to get f-you money, and even then it might not even be that.
I had stock options (not RSUs) at BigCo where I worked for 2 years. At one point, had I been fully vested, I was sitting on about $240k worth of stock. After a 3x1 split and the company going back down to almost the strike price I was granted stock (and most of it was worthless because was given it as part of a raise at a high strike), after I parted ways with the company and sold my options (had to as part of the severance agreement), I walked away with $2000. Basically a $1k/yr bonus. I would have gladly taken extra salary instead of stock. Lesson learned.
Routine corporate actions will adjust the option count and strike price equitably. (A 2:1 split will typically double the number of option shares and halve the exercise price.)
