Top all-time · #20790
Lawrence Krubner
Personal blog · respectfulleadership.substack.comcareerbusiness
Lawrence Krubner writes Respectful Leadership, a personal blog at respectfulleadership.substack.com about career and business. Since 2023, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 44 times, most often “There is no garden-variety company, so focus on your own unique needs”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
True stories about tech startups. Announcements of in-person Events.
Most-linked posts?
- There is no garden-variety company, so focus on your own unique needs2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-09-03
- Full of contempt, she refused to talk to the engineers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-15
What Hacker News says?
I've written about the poor style of decision making that often happens at "flat" organizations. Repeating a point that Jo Freeman makes, without a leader or a process for decision making, flat organizations make decisions accidentally. The winners tend to be whoever is the most stubborn. See "The Accidental Democracy of Flat Organizations": https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/the-accidental-d...
Comment linking /p/the-accidental-democracy-of-flat
on “The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)”Submitted A style of leadership that is direct and forceful, yet also respectful (2023) as a story · 37 points
HN discussionExactly. For those who need to understand what this can look like, I wrote up a detailed case here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/the-accidental-d...
Comment linking /p/the-accidental-democracy-of-flat
on “The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)”Submitted A survey of CTOs: how flat should your organization be? as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThis is one of the main topics that I teach entrepreneurs about. I wrote something reasonably short here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/to-grow-you-must... I wrote something much longer here, but this material is mostly from other CTOs who I surveyed: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/a-survey-of-ctos... If you are in New York City, we have 2 different speakers who will speak to 2 different a…
Comment linking /p/a-survey-of-ctos-how-flat-should
on “The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)”Submitted Is your project on schedule? How do you know? as a story · 9 points
HN discussionThis applies to startups. I give good advice to the CEO. The CEO often ignores my advice, and so the startup is destroyed. The startup would have done better if we had followed my advice. I documented a case here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/startups-should-... Another case here: https://www.amazon.com/Destroy-Tech-Startup-Three-Steps-eboo... I struggle with the question, "How do I manage upwards? Ho…
Comment linking /p/startups-should-do-the-hard-thing
on “Why doesn't advice work?”Submitted That place is a total sweatshop as a story · 8 points
HN discussionDan Morena, CTO at Upright.com, made the point that every startup was unique and therefore every startup had to find out what was best for it, while ignoring whatever was considered "best practice." I wrote what he told me here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/dan-morena-is-a-... My summary of his idea: No army has ever conquered a country. An army conquers this muddy ditch over here, that open wheat fie…
Comment linking /p/dan-morena-is-a-genius
on “Against Best Practices”Submitted Some of the best people will say all of the wrong things during an interview as a story · 5 points
HN discussion"But what does this mean for frontline engineering managers? Is the new normal just about writing more code and doing less of the other things that peacetime managers would normally do?" "Should they be able to do code reviews? Yes." There is no standard answer here. At many companies it is the Head Of Product who also oversees the tech team. They may not know how to write code, and will not know how to do code revi…
Comment linking /p/a-survey-of-ctos-how-flat-should
on “Should managers still code?”Submitted Brittle, Angry, Defensive People as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI agree with the emphasis on networking. At the risk of sounding like I am doing an advertisement, last month I gave away 5 free tickets to graduates of Fullstack Academy to come to my event, and one of those people found a part-time connection to a startup via the event. I'll do the same again, if you're in New York City, I offer 5 free tickets. Reach me at lawrence@krubner.com. Mention this Hacker News post. We wi…
Comment linking /p/april-28-the-inflection-point-for
on “Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends”Submitted A few warning signs that the CEO is burned out as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis is absolutely true. Still, sometimes outsourcing can go horribly wrong. I wrote about a shocking, outrageous case here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/when-outsourcing...
Comment linking /p/when-outsourcing-goes-bad-part-1
on “Bosses Are Finding Ways to Pay Workers Less”Submitted The Accidental Democracy of Flat Organizations as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf this subject interests anyone, I have written a great deal on the topic: "Why are you lying to me? What the hell is wrong with you?" https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/a-true-story-sof... "How to deal with weird passive-aggressive text communication from your co-workers or subordinates" https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/how-to-deal-with... "Is Anger Ever Strategic?" https://respectfulleadership…
Comment linking /p/is-anger-ever-strategic
on “Managing Difficult Software Engineers”Submitted Full of contempt, she refused to talk to the engineers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI discovered his real identity (what he actually did at the company) here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/when-outsourcing...
Comment linking /p/when-outsourcing-goes-bad-part-13
on “Like a punch to the face (executives who hide what their role is)”Submitted Redux: Why are you lying to me? Some criticism from folks on Hacker News as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is Anger Every Strategic? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Accidental Democracy of Flat Organizations as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Brittle, Angry, Defensive People as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted To grow, you must build a beautiful, pragmatic, innovative and agile bureaucracy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Software code reviews, and other empty rituals that waste time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The most dysfunctional startups are the one's with a commitment to flatness as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Startups should do the hard thing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Too big to fail: when you've no option but to brazen it out as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted When Outsourcing Goes Bad as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Seething with rage, he attacked my work, to hide how urgently he needed my help as a story · 2 points
HN discussion