Comment by safety1st
It's always interesting to read opinions that are diametrically opposed to your own, especially when they come from people you have deep disagreements with (in this case, it's not the poster, but his inspiration, Drew DeVault who I am philosophically not aligned with).
Maybe the philosophical disagreements stem from different life experiences, as I started my career at a Big Tech, and learned the hard way that no, I could NOT change the organization I was a part of. It was the C-suite's way (and they served at the pleasure of the Board and the shareholders), or it was the highway.
So I took the highway, started my own business, and we're small and obscure and it follows the principles I want it to follow and it makes me money, and as far as I'm concerned that's awesome. It's the good version of capitalism and if we're smart enough we might very well beat the old company I walked away from in some manner in a free market one day.
My main point is that a company is going to follow the interests of its board and its shareholders. I suspect that whatever Drew did did NOT change the organization at Linode. I suspect it always followed the interests of its shareholders and still does, and what he really did was improve the efficiency of the asset they owned. Not to throw shade on someone who makes things better within their organization. But either you own it or you don't in which case you merely serve at the pleasure of the ones who do. I think more talented people should go off and own their own thing.
Fundamentally the company's success depends on the product, right? Sure, the shareholders are what needs to be appeased but they set their price on the excitement of what's to come. We can abuse this by creating artificial hype but do you not think that growth is better sustained with hype over worthwhile new products?
The investors are fickle and do not have the interest of the company in mind. They only have that interest so long as they hold their shares and they couldn't care less when they sell. But a business should not think in the moment, but the trend over time. Those investors will come and go and we want them to. You don't do that by appeasing the small subset of investors that invest now, especially those who are looking to get in and out as fast as possible. If the investors are the "real customer" then how do you sustain them in the long term? Certainly this is highly aligned with sustaining the people actually buying the products.
This seems highly related to Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy[0]. Those who voice are the first group, devoted to the goals of the organization. Those who care about the quarter and no further are the second. Loyal to the organization. Worse, loyal only while it suits them. And that's no loyalty at all.
[0] https://jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html