Buffer Open Blog

Unless I'm reading the blog post wrong[1], you've got it totally wrong about Buffer, Joel made Buffer 1.0 and was the technically minded co-founder at Buffer, not Leo. Sunil might have been an early hire, but we're talking a year after company founding. Joel + Leo took a while to grow it.

I remember watching a talk by Joel before he'd even brought Leo on board in Nottingham, UK (Joel was starting up in Birmingham, UK if I remember correctly), about his previous products/failures and how he'd just built Buffer and the problems it solved. I think I saw a post about Leo joining 3 to 6 months later, at the time a recent uni grad compared to Joel's more experienced dev + freelance dev background.

I've always been pleased to see Joel succeed, as he's a great guy, but I have to admit some of the posts they came out with have ultimately proved to be utter b%!!$hit. I remember calling them out on a post about how the UK was a bad place to startup, I've seen a couple of $100+ million buyouts of startups here since then just in Nottingham. Then they claimed bootstrapping was best, then raised. Claimed a flat structure was best, then go a traditional management structure, etc., etc.

I sometimes felt they were just echoing back to the startup community what the community wanted to hear, and to be fair, it really worked, they got lots of upvotes on HN, etc., so great marketing out of it, and good traction. There was a time when like clockwork they'd have a high-rated post here every…

> One explanation is that Buffer’s sample population may have changed over the years. However, Buffer sampled well over 1,000 employees in each annual report and doesn’t provide any indication that their sampling technique meaningfully deviated from past years.

Sampling technique might not have differed or it might have. I did some deeper diving on the stats because I have a hard time believing remote shot up drastically like it makes it seem and that it suddenly pays great...

2018: https://open.buffer.com/state-remote-work-2018/

2020: https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020

Compare 2018

> Most of the folks we surveyed work in the software industry (26%) followed by IT and Services (20%) and Marketing (19%). Only 5% of respondents work in Education and 8% in Media and Publishing.

To 2020

> Forty-one percent of those who took the survey work at organizations in software space. Other industries include: IT and Services (19.5 percent); Marketing (8.7 percent); Other (7.3 percent); Financial Services (4.6 percent); Media and Publishing (3.6 percent); Education (3.3 percent); E-commerce (3 percent); Medical and Healthcare (3 percent); Consumer products (2.3 percent); Travel and Tourism (1.6 percent); Non-profit (1.5 percent); Government (0.6 percent); and Law and Legal Services (0.6 percent).

Do we think that software suddenly had a 50-100% rise in engineers working remotely in 2 years? Maybe - but, personally, I'm skeptical. Seems more likely that the way they…

> almost everyone thinks they are an above average performer.[...]Therefore, if salaries are shared, at least two thirds of your workers are liable to be pissed off at what they are making, even though the amount is completely fair based on their actual worth to the company.

This is a strawman. Where is your data to back up that "almost everyone thinks they are an above average performer"? At least anecdotally I've never run into anything close to that. Almost everyone I've ever worked with that would be considered at or below average knew very well where they were. Their managers also had the data and would sit down and discuss it with them so even if they thought they weren't they certainly knew the company felt they were.

Perhaps if you jumped into an organization where feedback wasn't given (or given honestly) and opened up salaries you could have an issue. But the majority of companies should be giving employees valid, data-backed feedback which would not make them surprised if someone better performing is making more money than them.

Buffer[0] seems to do well with it and an experiment where a Plumbing company[1] did it ended up having lots of positives out of it. Those are just two data points but it shows it's doable. If you have data that shows otherwise, especially for the numbers you made up, feel free to post it as I would be interested in it.

[0] https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/
[1]…

Good Ideas that get tested will make money and mature with feedback.

Truly Great Ideas hidden away rely on you (and your confidants) alone to mature, grow, and test.

Perhaps part of that intrinsic value in a Truly Great Idea is the debt you start to incur working the Great Idea before it's ever given a chance to prove itself.

There's a bunch of discussion about this [0][1][2][3], but it comes down to the cost of opportunity and the drive to spend that effort and resources. You've had your idea, already bought into it, and have the history around the idea that will drive implementation and innovation.

Probably no one else you tell it to has that. And anyone else that wants to work on some awesome new startup is already circling their own fantastic(TM) idea.

So share! Get feedback from smart people who will help shortcut the path to takeoff for your idea. Because if someone has a good idea in the same vein as your great idea and executes, how long until your great idea is yet another "that could have been me"?

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4732684

1: https://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu/entrepreneurship/2015/02/no-ones-going-to-steal-your-idea/

2: https://open.buffer.com/one-will-steal-startup-idea/

3: https://www.google.com/search?q=no+one+is+going+to+steal+your+great+idea

All the obligatory books and references have already been mentioned, so I'll refrain from repeating.

I'm a recent developer-turned-manager [close to two years now] and have always been a voracious reader.

Apart from specialist books of the profession, as an introvert I find that a healthy dose of fiction helps me in my day-to-day dealings with people at the workplace - especially those who report to me.

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function]
[https://open.buffer.com/reading-fiction/]

^^ As such, I'd recommend some well-written fiction. Try The Godfather - always thought it was the best "people management" book :-)

Fantasy [or novels with a touch of the fantastic] would also be good.

War books are also good. Try some interesting non-fiction - I'd recommend WW II books by Stephen Ambrose. All about teamwork and beats reading dry management books.

You should probably stay away from satire, lest your manager think you a d*ck ;)

Before you do any of this, you should probably find out if your manager is in the habit of reading.

And despite the best advice, what a reader gets from any book depends on what she brings to it...so don't be surprised if reading doesn't help your manager :D

The point is you and I don't have a say either way. Jim, congrats on being a VP but you and I are just pawns. We have no leverage.

If you don't believe me, try bringing this up in a board meeting and see how far it flies. Employers benefit tremendously from the I formation assymetry which to me is a much bigger crime than some idiots who can't keep their junk in their pants.

I'm just an idiot on the Internet and you've actually made it. I'd like to apologize if this sounds condescending because it is absolutely not (in part because I'm so far below you that it is physically impossible but regardless of my fortune it is not meant to be). Mind you, i have no original thoughts and this is something i stole from buffer. I think buffer is a great example on how to do things. I wish all the sjw's in silicon valley would direct their attention to something that actually benefits the world for a change.

https://open.buffer.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffer-including-our-transparent-formula-and-all-individual-salaries/

I encourage you to keep an open mind about this.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely yours,