First, Let’s Get Rid of All the Bosses
A radical experiment at Zappos to end the office workplace as we know it
https://newrepublic.com/article/122965/can-billion-dollar-corporation-zappos-be-self-organized
The acme of anarcho-capitalism
a nightmare. the poor employees sound miserable.
So it comes as no surprise that the atmosphere Hsieh has created around himself in Las Vegas, where he moved the company from San Francisco in 2004, is aggressively festive. “South by Southwest meets TED meets Burning Man,” he told me. “But as a lifestyle, not a festival.”
Although Hsieh did not found Zappos [...] he encountered the same sense of connection and tribal identification in running the online shoe company that he had once felt at raves.
[...]
That “tribal” focus remains strong today, and the company’s culture is decidedly wacky. An unofficial dress-code of T-shirts and sneakers predominates in its expansive open-plan offices; large tattoos, high-fives, and hugs abound; severed neckties, liberated from stuffed-shirt visitors, adorn a wall behind the lobby reception desk. Conventional job titles hardly exist, and top executives are referred to as “monkeys”; assistants, on the other hand, are “ninjas.” Stuffed animals, toys, and murals decorate most surfaces. Upbeat music blares from speakers in the headquarters’ courtyard.
Williams, whose job title was “fun-gineer,” spotted my beer, told me I had the right idea, and got one for himself.
Work was fun, which is good, because people never really stopped working. Meetings might be scheduled at 10 p.m. on a Sunday, in the middle of what appeared to be a party but was really just an extension of the all-encompassing Zappos corporate culture.
Oops, just noticed that was Reagan's Berlin Tear Down this Wall speech. Still, that was his second best moment. Bowie effectively paid tribute in his 89 West Berlin concert performance, which I know for a fact is one of Droid's favorites...
tell us more?Silicon Valley tech-bro utopianism in general is fascinatingly horrible.
The next buddha will not be an individual. The next buddha will be a community.
Since time immemorial, humans have lived in tribes, clans, and villages. We are a social species and community is our natural habitat. Coliving is nothing new- it’s simply a modern way of living well together.
We see coliving as a platform for your life. For becoming your best self by being part of something bigger. For sharing space, skills, resources and dreams with other inspiring and creative people. For living a life on purpose.
The fact that the Negev is a converted SRO was certainly not disclosed to the group of about 30 supplicating applicants. Gathered uncomfortably in a circle in a large lobby area (with a house member and part-time DJ spinning, quietly, in a corner) the assembled group introduced themselves to a few current house members, who dropped vague descriptions of their backgrounds and careers, invoking Google and Harvard with scant elaboration.
Hoping to occupy one of the 70 total spots that house members claimed would become available, when one shy applicant took his turn, he described his job as a physical education teacher. Current house members were visibly bored and moved quickly to the next applicant who seemed a better fit with a job in the tech sector.
But the tour, not the group chats and interviews (a taped video from each applicant was also requested) was the real showstopper. I've seen some pretty cramped housing before, but nothing like this at the requested price. All quarters in the Negev looked to be under heavy construction, with about half of a giant kitchen complete.
Has anyone else found themselves wondering whether Shrekli is the final result of Gek Opel's overidentification strategy?