upvote

points

by phtrivier5 hours ago |
comments
upvoteby engeljohnb5 hours ago|
next
[-]
I'm a healthcare worker, so I'm not immersed in this world at all. I can only speak as person who has to use the oven, but doesn't get to pick which oven is purchased.

My bosses don't buy the ovens that are the most dependable, the most efficient, nor ones that are even compatible with the other steps in the cooking process.

They're impressed by the AI oven that cooks the pizza mostly right 30-40% of the time. "It'll be more consistent if you let the oven decide how long to cook." But we ignore that because of how stupid it is.

They buy ovens that suck because sales people impress them with baking jargon they don't understand. At least, that's how it comes off when they talk about it. I'm sure getting a good deal is a much bigger factor than they say.

They don't eat pizza. They can't even tell whether it's burnt. They tell me "soon the oven will do everything for us and you won't be needed."

They don't seem to comprehend that an oven can't knead dough or mix ingrdients. And that's even ignoring the fact that the auto-cook features are wrong except in the best of conditions.

The ovens break constantly because of the humidity levels needed to keep the dough nice. They spend more on repairs than they ever did on the ovens. We keep telling them to get the moisture-resistant ovens. They say it's too expensive.

reply
upvoteby ryandrake4 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
It's amazing how much of the world runs on confident CEOs convincing gullible investors to give them money and confident salespeople convincing gullible customers to buy their junk. I wish I re-did my character creation and put all my skill points into charisma.
reply
upvoteby simpaticoder4 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
No. When the chips are down and your back is to the wall, I don't want the charisma guy, I want the indefatigable reality guy.
reply
upvoteby fwipsy3 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
"Aren't those dead as dodos, by virtue of not having any customer to pay the bill ?"

Not if they're building inverting ovens for another big corporation. If you do one truly worthwhile thing better than everyone else, do you still need to chase after marginal opportunities to stay afloat? I'm sure there are many, many small companies (not "startups") who are just quietly filling a niche.

reply
upvoteby Tactile67003 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
Seller here. There’s no justifying the sales fails in this story. It’s strictly cautionary.

In this story specifically they needed to bring technical stakeholders to Mallorca.

reply
upvoteby dirkc4 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
For me the worst scenario is when a kitchen sink of non-existent functionality the customer never asked for was sold. And in all likelihood it will never be used. But some project manager is hellbent on getting it through the pipeline and checked off!

I (maybe idealistically) believe that when you give the people building agency and connect them with the end-user, you get better outcomes.

reply
upvoteby mepiethree3 hours ago|
prev|
[-]
from my friends in sales, sales perspective could be: going from meeting to meeting just getting yelled at.

- previous customer yells at you for not delivering required features. You ask the engineer about the status of that feature

- engineers write a manifesto on #general complaining about you for asking them about the status of the new feature

- PM calls you in to yell at you for trying to jump the roadmap

- you start prepping for weekly call with the CEO. at least doubled your numbers this quarter!

- while you're prepping you get a response to one of your cold emails from the day prior, someone calling you "gauche" and "annoying"

- go into CEO meeting. CEO yells at you for being 80% under the quota, because the psychotic quota was set to 10x last year's numbers.

- long day! go home. husband yells at you for working late

etc.

reply