https://tomhickerson.com/en/tags/failure/Recent content in failure on Tom Hickerson's SiteHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usCopyright 2023-2026Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2016/2016-05-27-therohnos-who-really-gets-hurt-when-startups-blow-up/Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2016/2016-05-27-therohnos-who-really-gets-hurt-when-startups-blow-up/“The real losers are the employees. They are investing their time and their careers without access to any information. Unlike a fund who may have a portfolio of dozens or hundreds of investments, an employee can only make one investment at a time. The cost of a mistaken investment can be unemployment and the opportunity cost of foregone opportunities. Unlike investors who are making their investments after meeting with the company and performing due diligence, interviews don’t tend to work like due diligence sessions…”https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-02-24-all-interviews-suck/Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-02-24-all-interviews-suck/Like most of you, I have a job. Like most of you, I had to pass an interview to get that job. Like most of you, I failed many interviews before passing the one that got me here today. If it were up to me, I’d never go to another interview ever again. I’m sure many of you feel that same way – otherwise we’d never do things like YCombinator.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2006/2006-10-20-friendster-failure-boo-hoo-hoo/Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2006/2006-10-20-friendster-failure-boo-hoo-hoo/Signal vs. Noise posted some of the highlights from a recent article about Friendster and how it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. After turning down a $30 million bid by Google, Friendster founder Abrams took on outside VC investment and only now, only now, does the article say it has its performance problems licked. I remembered hearing this tune before, and sure enough, Philip Greenspun ran a usability analysis in his class on Friendster in 2003.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2006/2006-06-15-more-finger-pointing-about-vista/Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2006/2006-06-15-more-finger-pointing-about-vista/Some of the things I have written about in the past have been about software failure. It should be no surprise then that I am linking to this detailed post about the Windows Vista slippage and the circumstances that the poster claims to have made the “largest software project ever” becoming “also the longest”: They knew months in advance that the schedule would never work. So they told their VP. And he, possibly influenced by one too many instances where engineering re-routes power to the warp core, thus completing the heretofore impossible six-hour task in a mere three, summarily sent the managers back to “figure out how to make it work.