Spending Time With Your Family Makes You a Slacker According to Scoble. Scoble Can Get Fucked
Web 2.0 March 8th, 2008
language warning
Following on from my post on TechCrunch calling out Jason “penny pincher” Calacanis for his call that people who seek balance in their lives should be fired, Robert “I’ve never done a startup of my own in my life” Scoble responds with this bullshit:
Calacanis is right: startups can’t afford slackers
Jason Calacanis has started a big argument where Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch has stood up for slackers everywhere (he couches it in language of “pro family” in the family/life balance). The thing is, Duncan might talk to his boss, Mike Arrington. Did Mike get to where he is by slacking off and hanging out with his friends and having a “real life?” No. He worked his ass off. I’ve caught Mike on several occasions working until 3 a.m. or later. And he still is doing that work ethic. Of course, that hard work pays off: Mike was on the Charlie Rose show this week.
So apparently if you spend time with your family your a slacker with no work ethic. Scoble can get fucked. I work fucking hard and although I may not get the balance side right, I always try to spend time with my family. That’s balance Scoble. Oh, and taking your son out to Tech events doesn’t count as family time 
No one is arguing that you shouldn’t expect people you employ to work hard. Calcanis argued that there shouldn’t be balance (balance was the word he used, until he backtracked later). You know what: if succeeding in a startup means turning into a grade A cunt by never seeing your family and treating your employees like shit, you can fuck that right over again.
You only live once. Having a balance is a good thing. You can have balance and work fucking hard, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I know one thing for sure: no startup is worth losing my family over.
Comments
Trackbacks
- Fire non workaholics? at Michael Specht - discussions on HR and technology
- Hey Raena » A balance does not a slacker make
- Developing story on startup frugality « TechBays
- Work life balance - good. Working with no balance - bad | Technovia
- Calacanis? | opencoffee.gr
- Digital Wrist Slapping | Midas Oracle .ORG
- Whose side are you on? | Midas Oracle .ORG
- Whose side are you on? | Midas Oracle .ORG
- AUTO REVIEWS BLOG » Blog Archive » if someone will pay for what u have, it might be valuable.
- Human Resource News » Blog Archive » IT Worker Shortage?
- On balance « On Technology
March 9th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Startups are just that… startups. They come and go, eventually. If it doesn’t succeed, you try again.
You might only get one shot at family so I know where my loyalty will always lay.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:14 am
’startup success’ is usually a prime example of ‘you cannot have your cake and eat it too’
you generally have to giveup on family/social life
March 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am
If people streaming on Seesmic with son are considered hard workers and people who don’t stream on Seesmic with son are slackers, I will be more than happy to be a slacker. Well, Robert has started a new venture and this new entrepreneur zeal is talking there. Thatz all I can say without getting personal.
March 9th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
easy on the cursing, you’re austrailian - you’re not allowed to curse…but skin is ok
March 9th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Who is “Charlie Rose” and should I care.
Scoble and Calacanis are becoming more and more irrelevant. It’s come to the point now when they open their mouths the statements that come out are just in some rarefied ego-bubble and not relevant to the real world at all.
I’ve had my shots at startups. If someone came to me tomorrow and asked me to join an start up and demanded my family come second, I would just walk away.
The western world is filled with bitter management executives that have allowed their career to destroy their family life. These same people expect you to do the same. No thanks!
It maybe boring but my freelance lifestyle is mainly so I can have family time.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I was trying to get my own business off the ground for a couple of years … not even realising how it was affecting me and others around me until I put a post on the “I Work On The Web” meme and someone close to me pointed out that I’d just admitted how the business was killing me and negatively affecting my friendships with others.
I dropped the business the very next day.
Life First™
March 9th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
How much do you want it? If you want it, you work hard. Feeding the wife and kids is better than “work/life balance” starvation.
Duncan, less of the fs and cs — it diminishes your seriousness.
Oh, you’re an Aussie!
No excuse.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:33 am
@John Evans: That’s a false dichotomy, surely? Do you really think that your only options are work until you drop, or the family starves? No, the only think that drives the start-up workaholism is pure, unadulterated greed. Selfishness for one’s own goal, and ignoring the health of family, community and even self.
@Everyone: I’ve written a follow-up piece which is going to either have people nodding in agreement or exploding with even more fury. Still, it’s what I believe: Jason Calacanis and the Evil Cult of the Internet Start-up.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Duncan - Read this thread while I was on VACATION with my wife over the weekend and started worrying about your blood pressure! Although Calacanis apparently was joking (according to his comment on Scoble’s blog), I found myself VERY objective being away briefly …. and reading the headlines on this (and Sarah Lacy) were honestly pretty sad. NEWS? Headlines? There’s a whole industry to cover. Sometimes I think we all spend TOO MUCH time on ‘our ventures’. What people should know after a post like THIS, is that you are one of the FEW that engage readers one on one if asked. Whether it’s Arrington, Calacanis, Stern, or others, they should speak to their audience time allows. Ego is OK but engage your users! Posts on Twitter now go EVERYWHERE and the most refreshing this week were Arrington (earlier) feeling out one reader and Cashmore listening closer to his audience as well as few weeks ago. Jason needs to read back his Twitter posts. In general, they’re a turn off to his ‘future users’, whether he meant what he said or not.
Start-ups need a buzz, not a turn-off of any kind.
Bottom Line - The people that click on ads are the new and every day audience. They go to sites for a reason and could care less about personal stuff or star wars. They read the Valley thing.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I always thought the idea of all of this web and technology stuff was to make our lives better and the goal of running an internet business was to enable us to spend more time on the things we enjoy be it family, travel, sports etc. Blackberries are making people work 24 hours a day.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
“Feeding the wife and kids is better than “work/life balance” starvation.”
That’s your choice, John. I know my wife would disagree. But then, there is a hell of a lot more to our lives than work.
Obviously I’m a slacker just like anyone else who actually believes they have a duty to their family in more ways than a potential pipe dream of great financial wealth.
March 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Peak performance in business and sports requires recovery times. Its 1900’s thinking to say that one should give up everything for your business. The guys who don’t have balance end up either dying of a heart attack at age 50, turning to drugs or simply burning out never to be hear of again.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Scoble lost most of his relevance the day he left Microsoft. This kinda indicates why.
When you employ someone, you’re employing them for a 40 hour work week. If you need them to do 80 hours a week, you should be getting two people. If your business requires masses of sweat-equity to be poured in then the person you’re employing should not be an employee, they should be a shareholder signing up on those terms. When they’re an employee they probably don’t give a toss whether it’s your startup dream or the post office - it’s probably just a job to them.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Duncan. You only get one crack at life, and as much as I lik emy job, I’d far rather my family make it to my funeral than my employer
March 17th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Wrote a piece about this today. I work hard (8 hours a day, 5 days a week at one place, 4-8 hours a day, 5-7 days a week on my blogs) but I NEVER sacrifice time with friends or family. It’s too important to me.