News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students. Parent comment

Re:‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Comp... by cortesoft on Thursday November 15, 2018 @11:14PM (#18466344)
I am not going to argue that mission statements are not bullshit, but I don't think your argument is persuasive. Just because you will compromise some values when push comes to shove doesn't mean those values were completely meaningless... it just means they were not as important as another value that they came into conflict with.

For example, I value pacifism. I think non-violence is almost always the right choice, and feel we should work towards a world of peace.

However, if I saw someone attacking my daughter, I might use violence to stop them if I felt it was the only way to protect her.

This doesn't mean that I don't value non-violence, or that my non-violence stance is meaningless. It just means that my value of keeping my daughter safe is more important to me than non-violence.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Comp... by smaddox on Thursday November 15, 2018 @11:47PM (#18466497)
If the mission statement is superceded by other implicit values, like creating shareholder value, it's not much of a mission statement. The whole point of a mission statement is to make your primary values explicit.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Comp... by cortesoft on Friday November 16, 2018 @10:22PM (#18473737)
I mean, you might think that is what mission statements SHOULD be, but that doesn't mean that is the definition everyone agrees on. I think a more reasonable definition is "what our company stands for besides the things that every company stands for"
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Comp... by hn_throwaway_99 on Saturday November 17, 2018 @12:05PM (#18476318)
Then the mission statement should just be "Our goal is to make as much money as possible." That's what the goal always ends up being, at least once a company becomes public.
[ Parent | on HN ]