The Product is the Byproduct

This is perhaps the first slide I've seen by Holman, but despite having seen what feels like a million slide decks this year, this one resonated to me like no other has.<p>In an older job, I was constantly battling my program manager's desire to have everybody "come in on time". It was a great offense to her if somebody came in so much as five minutes late. Despite being the managing developer for the team, and hence, ultimately responsible for all the engineering work that happened, I refused to care, so long as the work was getting done. I had a great team of talented guys that were always down to knock out a problem, whatever the problem was.<p>My boss wouldn't see the hours they put in working from home ("How do I know they're <i>working</i> if I can't see them!?!?"), or the hours they stayed late when the work wasn't done.<p>I tried the age old arguments "So long as the work is getting done..." or "They can come and go whenever they want so long as I'm meeting deadlines..." etc., but none of it flew. I regret not trying harder to change the culture before ultimately giving up and going somewhere that 'got it'. As a result, I have less responsibility, work from home, work more than I used to, and am happier to do so. I also can't imagine giving up the team that I have now for any reason, and I honestly think they feel similarly.<p>I usually poo-poo all over 'company culture' lectures, but this one completely hits the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned.

&#62; "increases in masculine wording were sufficient to decrease women's job appeal ratings and their anticipated belongingness in specific occupations"<p>&#62; People in Silicon Valley are dicks<p>&#62; Hire those bothered by suck<p>&#62; [random butt statue]

Yo. There's no proof that a great by-product produces a great product. Read the memo by Marc Andreessen about product-market fit. You can nail by-product and still miss the product. But of course, like Marc Andreessen said, it's popular for employers to champion "we care about our hires" (because who would do the opposite?)<p>Update: This post suffers from a cause-and-effect fallacy, and hindsight bias. More: <a href="http://times.jayliew.com/2012/10/12/cause-and-effect-fallacy-the-by-product-does-not-make-the-product/" rel="nofollow">http://times.jayliew.com/2012/10/12/cause-and-effect-fallacy...</a><p>So many developers are falling for this. Wake the F- up.<p>The irony: Zach doesn't realize he's talking like a pretentious Steve Jobs. Until you can prove cause and effect, please stop tricking developers. Yo.

My favorite slide:<p><pre><code> Worry more about *building* the damn thing Worry less *about* the damn thing </code></pre> Many startups have a habit of being obsessed with themselves and their "culture" more than actually <i>building</i> the product.<p>There are so many things that are admirable and awe-inspiring about Github, and how they've gone about building their business. From my perspective, all of these things are a byproduct of one core value: building.

This slide deck is deeply ironic. It is Zach Holman's presentations (full of macho posing and aggressive language - including this one) that give the impression that github is a macho and aggressive company on the inside. Perhaps it isn't, but the spokeman is terrible.<p>"I hate brogrammers" - but if I was asked to name a famous one, Zach be it. Excessive swearing in talks, "people on the internet are dicks", "OAuth will murder your children". If Zach Holman was holding a work barbecue, would people take their children?

I'm really curious if github's culture is the cause of their success or a result of it. I'm doubly curious if their bootstrapping was critical to this. My suspicion is that when outside investment arrives, the clock starts ticking, the pressure mounts on the founders, and this may result in a greater motivation to "manage" people's time, for fear of "wasting" time.

I think Github has nailed it in terms of culture. I've been trying to get my company to adopt the Github ways for a while and I can't wait to share this latest gem with everyone.<p>I do have some questions though. What is Github's structure like? Is it completely flat? Are there project managers? How do you 'manage' remote workers? I feel like there has to be a little structure to the chaos, or at least some techniques and tools that make things work smoothly, especially with a company that's growing so fast.

Please pardon the imminent condescension.<p>Zach, this is the first of your slideshows that has left me with a lifted feeling, the feeling of reassurance that not all popular hackers are dicks, narrow-minded, or naive. Thank you!<p>I should probably be less judgmental, but I'm so tired of the facebook-rockstar-ninja vocabulary. Glad to see I'm not alone.

Nice read.<p>I had a hard time taking Mr Holman's work seriously at first because of his choice of self portraits. They scream "brogrammer" to me.<p>I'm a convert now, though

<i>"Nothing great was ever not shipped"</i><p>That's gold.

You know, I don't think any new ground was broken here with regard to content and message, but aesthetically, Holman's slide decks are invariably great.

Love the slides, they don't even need a soundtrack. Was going to leave a FU comment, but it was too obvious.<p>I'm in a BigCo and every time we acquire a LittleCo I get massive culture envy. I think you nailed how great product happens.

FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUU

Holman's slides are always top notch.

Transistor was a byproduct. Bell labs was a place where great/smart people and their ideas and thoughts were simmering for ages. Transistor from what I read almost didn't happen, but by accident it did.<p>Isn't pivot is a synthetic replacement for the essence of 'happy' accident?

Anyone who made it to the "people on the internet are dicks" and wondered if that HN post is real and was too lazy to type: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4583" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4583</a>

'Nothing great was ever not shipped."

I wish people in my company prepared slide decks like this.

The only reason I went thru his slides was his starting sentence. "People in Silicon Valley are dicks." Amen to that.

News FLASH: Microsoft doesn't create software, despite all appearances [VMS++, Spyglass etc.] -- neither does that Italian restaurant make its living off of pasta [capo dei capi!]. VW doesn't make cars. It creates car factories. The cars are just byproducts. Intel doesn't make CPUs. It makes fabs [<i>fab</i>rication plants]. CPUs are byproducts (they were RAM, and could also very well be ...well FLASH).