[davidrm]

I'm sure this article only tells 10% of the story from both sides, but the fact remains that some people entrusted him with his money and that his behavior made them uncomfortable, which ultimately made them remove him from the position. I find all of this unsurprising.

[blackearl]

IMO this tells the whole story:

"Back in San Francisco, Zhu was preparing for an important meeting with a prominent investor group. Believing that limited quantities of LSD would improve his pitch, Zhu, who had never before used the drug, decided to try the microdosing plan. He took what he thought was a small amount of LSD shortly before the meeting."

That's just plain stupid.

[sokoloff]

I don't know if that the's whole story necessarily, but that and the "didn't stop talking to a reporter about internal matters after being directly asked to" is enough for me to discard the "The most likely reason Zhu was fired was anti-Asian bias" claim.

[breck]

I disagree. Doing this twice would be stupid. Doing it once is hilarious. I love this story. Good for him.

[abfan1127]

hilarious for us. dumb for him and his company. Small life lesson, try new risky things in ways that there is little downside. Want to drop some microdose of LSD? do it on a Saturday when you're doing your weeklies.

[pyjug]

Heh, so many valley people microdose openly. It's not a fireable offence. Also, that incident happened in 2019. Why fire him now?

[seriousquestion]

Agree, but still, trying it for the _first_ time in that context is... unwise.

[jamal-kumar]

because he accidentally took a macrodose and couldn't do his pitch properly

also it sounds like a litany of other things but I read this yesterday and don't recall off hand now

[martimarkov]

On the other hand the valuation of the company was 2 billion so he did increase their investment. It’s a two way street. They give you money, you deliver profit. I don’t agree that just because you are uncomfortable with someone you get to fire them because you entrusted him with money. I agree that it happens a lot. :D

[chmod600]

An interesting point, but there's a difference between "valued at $2B" and "delivered a profit in a bank account". It takes a lot of trust to bridge that gap.

[anotha1]

Completely unsurprising.

I prefer to smoke weed and hang at the beach, so I don't chase investor money, or make myself responsible for the wellbeing of full-time employees.

Is it limiting, absolutely.

Would I rather work myself to death now so I can... one day (maybe, dad died at 50 so...) one day maybe do the same thing... Lol

[lozaning]

Such is the story of the Mexican fisherman and the harvard MBA:

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”

“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

[anchpop]

It's an amusing story I've seen a few times, but I think it's disconnected from reality and strangely nobody ever discusses how

At his current margins, the fisherman's business is basically entirely fixed-cost. He needs to pay for a house and food for his family and new guitar strings when one breaks and that's it, in terms of expenses bait or whatever is probably next to negligible (I know nothing about fishing)

So he's vulnerable to someone spending twice as much time fishing as he does, lowering the commodity price of fish to 1/2 his current rate, so they'd be able to sell at 3/4ths his rate to undercut him while making a solid profit. Maybe the demand is there that it wouldn't affect our main character, but it's kind of an unstable equilibrium. If all his competitors decided that they actually wanted some of that profit and did full work days rather than only fishing for "a little while", the competition and increased supply would mean cheaper fish for everyone else in town but they'd end up stuck all working longer hours for not actually that much more money (since they'd have to compete with each other they probably couldn't all sustain 33% margins)

What the harvard MBA should have told the fisherman is that his lifestyle was at risk and he needs to form a cartel with all the other fishermen to not work more than a few hours a day (normally he would also have to worry about imports from elsewhere, but maybe transportation costs and a lax regulatory environment in the fisherman's town allow him to undercut external competitors without having to work too hard)

(One interpretation is that their culture is already forming that "cartel" as none of them want to or see a reason to work more. But they're still vulnerable to people from outside the villiage who don't share that view coming in and eating their lunch.)

[jimmygrapes]

I love this parable because it illustrates the implicit selfishness contained within the implicit anti-capitalism. The fisherman is content with his lot in life, and struggles little - but only he and his family are comfortable. The American, with his outrageous, complex plan is painted as a ridiculous figure; yet, his plan, if successful, would create countless opportunities for those who might otherwise struggle unreasonably to achieve the same level of comfort. It is self-sacrifice. Yet this mentality is painted as absurd, ridiculous, maybe even impossible.

[bagacrap]

except microdosing lsd is more like drinking coffee than smoking weed in terms of effects on your ability to do your job. He did it in hopes of enhancing his output

[colinmhayes]

It's not the microdosing that got him fired. It's telling bloomberg about it.