Are Europeans Too Lazy to be Software Entrepreneurs?
Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis caused a blogostorm with his candid treatise on making every startup dollar count. The controversy is not especially surprising when his list of tips for thrifty includes such items as “fire people who are not workaholics” (which provoked so much ire that he felt compelled to change it to “fire people who don’t love their work”). Some went as far as to label Calacanis a “prick“, with the obligatory observation that they’ve never heard or his company, but love to death the products of cooler companies who pay for their employees to go backpacking.
I’ve seen both approaches in action in my day. More than one startup founder has told me that they keep the hours reasonable because they “don’t want to burn out their staff.” Sorry, but what I heard was “I’m too lazy to work long hours so I can’t expect my staff to.” Of course, it depends to some degree on your ambitions. If your goal is to earn a good living with a bunch of smart, like-minded folks tackling some not-too-intractable problem, with plenty of free time to bungee jump from helicopters or make erotic origami, that is doable. But if you want to create a world-beating company, Mike Arrington has it nailed: your odds of succeeding are long enough without four-day weeks and ambling trips to the local juice bar five times a day.
Besides which, software geeks don’t have the same view of life/work balance as most people. In their response to Jason’s post, 37signals explain that:
Working with interesting people is more interesting than just working. If all you got going for your life is work, work, work, the good team-gelling lunches are going to be some pretty boring straight shop talk. Yawn. I’d much rather hear more about your whittling project, your last trek, how your garden is doing, or when you’ll get your flight certificate.
Probably the guy who wrote this is a graphic designer or something, since for all the real programmers I know, the most interesting subject imaginable is the software project they are currently working on. That’s why our social skills suck so bad. When we run into someone who isn’t a geek, we have no idea what to talk about. Naturally this gets old eventually, and even the pocket protector set ends up settling down, getting a dog and starting a family. Ever wonder why most startups are populated mainly with 20-somethings?
Which brings me to my real point: in light of this state of affairs, does Europe have a chance in the software biz? I’ve been working in European software startups for 15 years (and running them for 10). Having grown up in America, I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of obsessiveness when it comes to driving the company’s success. Programmers on this side of the pond work a lot harder than, say, post office clerks, but traditionally it’s still been a far cry from the mattress-under-your-desk workathon of the American startup nerd. When Arrington mocked the idea of “three weeks vacation” I had to smile. Over here, the big question is whether we can beat our staff down from five to only four weeks.
The good news is that the situation is changing. I’m seeing more and more startups built up around the American model. Globalization, more awareness of “cool” company cultures like Google’s and a few European home runs (such as Skype) are helping to reshape attitudes on this side of the pond. Lack of precedents for success, paucity of venture capital, stifling regulation and excessive risk aversion have conspired with our generally sedate work habits to lock Europeans into second-class citizen status in the software world. As we overcome these obstacles, I expect we’ll mount a much more credible challenge to America’s technological dominance.
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Great, now the unhealthy (and unsustainable) American obsession is spreading to Europe.
I’m sorry but when I was 22 (or even 28), working like a dog 80 or more hours a week was doable. I was even married then (the first time…) for a while. When you’re 35, 45, or 55, do you really think the best use of your life and talents (not to mention, the most productive for the company) is being a workaholic?
Comment by Al — 3/9/2008 @ 11:59 am
My professor (he used to work as an engineer and consultant for IBM) said this to me:
“You can’t be a super successful CEO and a super successful Dad, you’d have to pick either one. Decision making is what the Business School taught the students”.
At that moment, I understand a little bit more of how “Life” works.
That’s why most startup founders are single anyway: their company is their only thing in life.
Now, on the topic of Software Engineer being geeky. To be honest, Software Engineer these days don’t fit the “geeky” generalization anymore. Software Engineer these days go to night-club and have some fun.
If you think that everyone has to be the “Software Engineer” of your description, you’ll see more decrease in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and IT majors all across the university. At the end of the day, you’ll be forced to offshore your development team or pay premium price for developers.
Please, enough brainwashing us (Software Engineer) with the concept of “We only talk in software code”. That is so ridiculous. Especially when you’re talking about “oh, I write this in Java”, “last night I was coding .NET in Windows”, “I’m doing some iPhone app”.
Please… all of your tools are broken. Java… poor. Windows Vista… absolutely poor. iPhone… good from the outside, stupid on the inside. Ruby… is handicap.
If all you do is talking about these stuffs, I pity you.
I’m a software engineer. I’ve been in this industry for couple years. Every time I saw “geeks” like that, I always told them to read non-techie books and tell them to socialize.
I’ve had enough with blogs and articles saying that “the state of IT is broken because the MBAs are stupid”. Don’t blame just on one side. Look at yourself: you’re part of the problem. You think you’re smart and all that because you can code? if you only talk in “geek”, this is what happened.
This is why IT industry is f-ing broken: the players themselves are destroying it because they’re ego, selfishness, and the concept of being “geek” is planted on their heads.
I agree with the first commenter that most people can work like mad when they were 22-28. But once they have family, they would prefer work-life balance. Please don’t call them lazy, they’ve been through many stupid ideas that have failed and placed them in not-so good situation anyway.
The point is: us, as a software engineer, would work for one or two startups and get rich quick. If we can’t get rich quick, why should we work more for the glory of YOU, the founder. There’s no economical and emotional benefit for us.
The story of “American programmers sleep under their computer desk” is highly exaggerated. Not to mention that these stories came from the dot-com bust. Yeah, you got that right, the dot-com bust. Yup, the one and only nightmare… Maybe that’s why they call it the “nightmare”, the “bust”. What was the result back then? People went from millions to zero in an instance.
Don’t blame software engineer for not wanting to take the risk. Been there, done that, got burned.
If you want to have the “ideal” startup the “American way”, I’d suggest you NOT to HIRE anyone else except all of the founders. Seriously. Take a look at those YCombinator companies. They live in one apartment together and code whenever they like. All of them are equally passionate about the product that they’re building because they take NO COMMAND from the Boss. There is no Boss. They’re the Boss of themselves.
As long as there is The Boss in a company, there won’t be an “equal” passion. At the end of the day, “My boss told me to do this”, working at a startup that is owned by someone else is no difference than working 9-5. It’s your idea, not mine. It’s your company, not mine. It’s your decision, not mine. More importantly, you’re the one whose going to get rich, not me.
Please put a figure how much a Software Engineer can get after the company is being bought-out or after IPO. Only two companies have made their early engineers filthy rich so far: Microsoft and Google.
Comment by Ted — 3/9/2008 @ 7:08 pm
Al - well I did say that the startup lifestyle generally works best for people in their 20s.
Comment by Matt — 3/10/2008 @ 12:31 pm
Ted,
I was being semi-sarcastic about “us nerds” (I actually consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded individual). But it’s true that I would be wary of any programmer who wasn’t happy talking for hours on end about his projects with another smart programmer.
Comment by Matt — 3/10/2008 @ 12:32 pm
Well well well
You’re young and you lack vision in life. Did you wanted to become Google? I’m not sure to understand.
If Einstein was applying for a job in Allpeers, you’ll have laughed at his face. This guy was a lazy average student. Gandhi was a shy little man and look.
You haven’t come to the point to appreciate No and failure in life and apparently life itself.
Yes Allpeers was down because of its creator.
Comment by Meg — 3/10/2008 @ 5:52 pm
This isn’t an excuse to bag on AllPeers, from my point of view. That’s childish.
Comment by Al — 3/10/2008 @ 7:22 pm
Yep
This guy wanted to become googly rich. First Start Up and already so much knowledge. I’m impressed.
I’m 55 and therapist. People who work n work n work well either they have a kind of cancer or heart attack or try to avoid them buy coming to my place.
Don’t be so sure. Mr start-up I KNOW.
And take care of your health.
Comment by Kalou — 3/12/2008 @ 1:30 am
I was being semi-sarcastic about “us nerds” (I actually consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded individual).
Comment by John Dovel — 4/17/2008 @ 11:13 pm
That’s why most startup founders are single anyway: their company is their only thing in life.
Now, on the topic of Software Engineer being geeky. To be honest, Software Engineer these days don’t fit the “geeky” generalization anymore. Software Engineer these days go to night-club and have some fun.
Comment by online pharmacy — 4/17/2008 @ 11:15 pm