Although if I read that today, I would think the company is being unrealistic and overreaching.
Granted, they made it, but this kind of language would not build faith in a company if I were to read a job ad for them.
The added Alan Kay quote would further fuel my doubt that the submitter is just another worthless startup guy thinking he can get the best of the best with some shallow knowledge of what hackers think.
I would have been wrong this time, but I don't doubt for a second there are hundreds of ads like this for companies that crashed and burned shortly after.
As a programmer that has occasionally worked in teams that delivered great software in 1/3rd the time that sensible people thought possible, that advert really appeals to me -- to me it sounds like someone who really wants to get stuff done, and that is exciting. Like the GP said, the language in this particular post is interesting -- it feels very different to the usual 'are you a ROCKSTAR NINJA PROGAMMER?!?!?!' stuff that tends to typify the worthless startup guys.
That kind of high-performance environment is all about the team, not the individual. Usually it's hard to know who you will gel with until you have some sort of history of working together, then you self select. However, like I say, this advert really appeals to me and could possibly help me get over that pre-selection process in my head.
Back in the day a large quantity of the emails that I received (or postings that I saw) contained some tag line or quote such as that. I'm not sure exactly over what years that practice disappeared, but I can't remember the last time I received an email with a tag line.
Bezos was just doing what was quite common at the time.
Granted, they made it, but this kind of language would not build faith in a company if I were to read a job ad for them.
The added Alan Kay quote would further fuel my doubt that the submitter is just another worthless startup guy thinking he can get the best of the best with some shallow knowledge of what hackers think.
I would have been wrong this time, but I don't doubt for a second there are hundreds of ads like this for companies that crashed and burned shortly after.