Bijan Sabet, a venture capitalist, writes about startups, investing, founders, careers, and technology products.
HN commenters link his posts for Jeff Bezos's regret minimization framework, job-hunting advice, and an investor's response to a founder's blunt post.
It's legal. Ignore the people here saying it's "bad karma." What does that even mean? Presumably you'll be working for this company for a few years. You should pick the one you like the most. It's your next couple years, not the company's. They can always extend an offer to the next person in line.
That said, be careful, because there are extenuating circumstances. People do talk, especially in the same industry and city. Still, I highly doubt hiring manager at Y would reneg your offer if he heard from X that you chose Y over X. If anything he'd be happy!
Also note that if you got this job through your school's career network (alumni or otherwise), they may have policies in place that prohibit reneging on offers, and blacklist you if you do. Even then, though, you didn't sign anything.
I'm of the opinion that you should do what's best for yourself. This is your life, and the job will affect its foreseeable future. Make whatever decision you will regret the least in two years.
"If you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, “What will I think at that time?” it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion."
- Jeff Bezos on deciding to leave Wall St to start Amazon [1]
http://bijansabet.com/post/147533511/jeff-bezos-regret-minimization-framework
Post author here. That quote was just his shorthand for saying that if he's advising clients or investors, he's billing for that time. He talks to his clients to tell them how to set boundaries for investors and how to best communicate with them.
Check out what Spark Capital is doing to help alleviate this problem: http://bijansabet.com/post/48787521538/picking-up-our-own-tab
But yes, time-based billing sets up an inherent conflict of interest. Flat fee is great when it makes sense. Our company advisor setup a flat fee matter at his prior company to cover any phone calls or emails. No more watching the clock.
Yes I would, I have, and I will.
I always think back to Jeff Bezos's philosophy, which he calls the "Regret Minimization Framework" (see http://bijansabet.com/post/147533511/jeff-bezos-regret-minimization-framework). He basically advises projecting forward to when you're 80 years old. Ask yourself if at that time, would you regret X? This helps you frame your decisions with more of a long term view of your world. Helps you forget about some of the smaller stuff (like financial security).
Also in most cases, you can always go back to your cushy job if needed.
When you have to find 1500 monthly pay checks, I suppose you have to get the money somehow.
http://bijansabet.com/post/35849228202/the-first-photo-the-twitter-team-prior-to-our
Found via
http://threads2.scripting.com/2012/november/howTechCompaniesGrow
Seems a sensible position to me (old guy, non-coder and won't use twitter or fb).
Apropos of http://bijansabet.com/post/16980728547/why-facebook-connect-shouldnt-be-your-only-sign-in.
Tying your entire authentication strategy to Facebook Connect or other external authentication system is becoming a major liability to the Internet in my opinion. When all.js is broken, so is much (too much) of the Internet now.
You should re-consider making Facebook your only option for logging in and signing up.
http://bijansabet.com/post/16980728547/why-facebook-connect-shouldnt-be-your-only-sign-in
And the ensuing discussion, here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3548081