And founders/managers complain about not being able to hire talent.

I believe that's referred to as a "market disconnect."

Imagine it's the year 1997. Aliens from the planet GNU have gone back in time and provided us with bittorrent, and technology making dial-up modems a million times faster (but they still drop their connection if your mom picks up the phone). You just torrented and watched the latest Seinfeld episode, "The Muffin Tops", and have forever changed your muffin-eating habits.

While watching, you saw ads for Apple's "Think Different" campaign, McDonald's Arch Deluxe, and that "Da Da Da" Volkswagen commercial (which is now stuck in your head). You go out and buy the car, buy a Mac, and buy a Big Mac because the Arch Deluxe tastes like crap.

In 2007 you watch The Muffin Tops again. The old ads from 1997 are still embedded in the file. Apple's ad seems weird since the logo is all rainbows. You drive to McDonald's to get an Arche Deluxe because now you're an adult and it'll taste good, but they don't have it anymore, so you cry and drive home to sign a petition website to bring it back. Nobody ever reads it. Along the way your Volkswagen breaks down and you remember how that terribly sounding ad tricked you into buying such an unreliable piece of junk. You get a lift from the aliens, but they charge you one anal probe for the ride. Now you hate Apple, hate McDonalds, hate Volkswagen, and hate that the aliens didn't have the common decency to at least warm up their metal tools before use. Ouch.

In 2009, I remember reading a resignation later by a guy who made his "F* you money" betting for a housing collapse. He blasted the big banks, ivy leaguers, and old boys network.

I bought complex derivatives (SRS, SKF) but lost betting against the market.

I read http://calculatedriskblog.com for a while and educated myself about the macro factors in the markets.

Through "calculated risk", I learned of Jim the Realtor http://www.bubbleinfo.com/ who videos (vacant) casualties of the housing collapse. Seeing it made it real for me.

Over time, I've realized that the further from reality that decisions are being made, the more likely we are to make destructive decisions.

When soldiers kill people with drone aircraft in video game-like conditions, it removes the reality from something that would be extremely traumatizing when done with bare hands.

In our wonderfully complex world, we sow complexity, and reap disaster. Im not sure what the answer is, but there is something terribly wrong when destruction is more profitable than creation.

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My parents had the exact same experience as in the article.

- A few years ago, they didn't really know what yelp was, but a customer was surprised that the reviews up there were pretty bad, mostly just from customers who were upset we had to send them letters after they didn't pay their bills.

- We encouraged people to review the business on Yelp. Despite numerous people (including a couple Yelp Elites) writing positive real reviews, interestingly, none of the reviews showed up on Yelp.

- Customers told us their reviews had not shown up, and when we called Yelp to find out why, a few reps either claimed there was no way to put the reviews back or they denied their existence. The one thing they did have in common was they promised things would be "fixed" if we advertised with them. I'm pretty sure that's closer to extortion than smart business.

- Last week, my dad finally caved and placed some ads on Yelp.

- Within an hour, there were suddenly dozens of additional reviews on there for the business, and the rating had shot up from 2 stars to 4.5 stars.

So let me ask you, if Yelp really thought those hidden reviews were trying to game the system, why were those reviews placed back when we agreed to spend some ad money? Yelp can't argue that their reviews are unbiased when stuff like this happens.

+ who gets diluted

+ vesting schedule

+ does vesting accelerate with an acquisition?

+ liquidation preferences

+ how large is the employee option pool

+ what happens to your holding on a down-round or restructure (this is hard not to get screwed on if this is the intention)

+ not checking that the options agreement has been signed by the company

+ not signing an options agreement and taking the company and/or founder at their word that you have stock

founders usually give themselves a sweet deal. ask to see their agreement and compare it to yours.

while you are at it, check the structure of the board and if the board are able to block an acquisition. you may be working for a company who can't exit unless the investors get at least 4-5x, and if they don't, you get nothing

there are probably some things that I am missing, which is why it is worth paying a lawyer for 3-4 hours of time to go over it (not the company lawyer - see 'the social network')

I'm disappointed to hear that this person got such negative feedback from the companies they contacted. It probably sounds cheesy, but I fixed quite a few bugs related to accessibility and to this day I get a happy feeling remembering the feedback we got from the customers for whom this support was critical to their ability to earn a living as a software developer.

I like to think I'm smart. Two years ago, prior to HNducation, many common-as-dirt features of cap tables like e.g. liquidation preferences would have been a totally successful ambush on me. (If you can't explain three ways why 2% of $40 million is zero, consider carefully whether your best interests are being represented in a negotiation with someone who can.)

So why hasn't that happened? Because of libel laws, for one thing. RICO for another. Best answer would be a class action to subpoena Yelp for the IP & personal info of the posters of questionable negative reviews that had survived the removal of legitimate positive reviews, and file a lawsuit against the authors and Yelp for libel. A few thousand of those and they'll be pushed back into their corner.

2+2 Poker Forum has been doing this in the online casino industry for awhile... but they're real criminals anyway: http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/poker-complaints/45662-2...

It seems likely that Diginotar will be going out of business shortly, and rightly so, but I don't think this should stop there. Their lack of communication is very troubling. Not sure what their contractual obligations are, but when supplying trusted SSL certs trust seems pretty important, so maybe it's possible to sue for damages since that trust was obviously broken?

To fix things, you first need to hear about the process, to learn intricate details about it, how people end up in these situations and what's at stake. Only then you can become passionate about solving issues that don't involve screens, keyboards and mouses. Do we know it's rough? Yes. Do we understand their issues and have ideas how to fix this? I doubt many of us do.

In my country, if you're late for 90 days with your mortgage payment, one specific bank transfers your debt to another entity which sends you a letter requiring you to pay the entire debt within 1 year or they'll foreclosure on you. I wouldn't have found this today if it weren't for this article. And maybe in the future, the dots will connect and this information will help me improve the lives of such people in distress.

You are not making a valid argument, not in any way, shape or form. It’s pure, irrelevant bullshit.

It’s possible to be completely unable to color grade yet still notice trends and write that you think they are horrible.

But you are not even talking about the author’s ability to color grade, you are talking about fucking web design which is a tenuously related field at best. It just makes no sense at all.

Critics do not have to be good at what they criticize in order to be good critics. Would Roger Ebert be a good director?

It’s astonishing really, a complete non-sequitur.

Yelp will never make it as a public company, which means that it should technically fizzle and die sooner rather than later. What they do isn't illegal, but it should be; its revenue model is unethical, sleazy, blackmailing, extortion.

"[...] it was just the first one that came up when I googled for "git hosting". I've not tried any of the hosting places before, so it was a random choice."

(I don't know how to link a comment in google+, it's in https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/PVZDD2N3... )

I was naive enough to don't get the raise I was promised because I cared about the company, got fired on December 22nd (I'd never forget that, since, I've already spent my money on gifts and stuff) after they got more funding and they went for more-experienced-talent.

Karma is a bitch though, most of the people they hire quit because of the working conditions, from a team of 10 (that I was managing) they're down to 2. Recently they asked me to join them again, I told them "fuck no!".

Now, I'm happy at another startup but making an industry level salary (probably more, since I live in Florida) and stock options (which are a bonus since I already make a good salary, and to be honest I don't care about them too much). Also I have time to live, I go out now, get drunk, clean my apartment, I started a company, I launched a product recently, we even got some customers already! I read books, do some consulting for friends.

I'd never let work affect my life again.