I read a quote of Drew's a while back that stuck with me. Just googled and found it:
"When Dropbox was getting off the ground in 2007, there were hundreds of small storage companies. It was almost a cliche, the way that many people believe mobile photo sharing is a cliche now, he says. “The important thing was, I would keep asking people if they used any one of these hundred options, and they all said no. These are my favorite problems to solve. You can’t focus on what everyone else is doing — it has to be about what’s really broken and what you can do to fix it.”"
He should've said what he did differently - seamless integration (aka virtual drive in Windows) was a selling point, but again, other services also had this.
The author doesn't trash Ultima IV, there's a section (pg 24-25) where a group of students attempt to play the game and get stuck. None of them thought to read the materials that came with the game
I believe Tillerson wanted to stay in Paris so the United States would be involved in the program and shape it's direction. I'd say that's quite a bit different than voluntarily taking on the pledges for Texas.
That's awesome. It does make me wonder though, do the people working in the call centers realize that they're scamming people or do they think it's a legitimate business?
I would guess (and I'm trying not to make any value judgement on this) that they view it as a job, and the sales commissions help pay for their lives and their family, and they don't think about it much more deeply than that.
I recently read some comments from a Timeshare salesman in the US, whose attitude was similar. Asked "don't you feel bad that your job is basically to operate a large-scale real estate scam", he replied, (I paraphrase) "hey, at the end of the presentation, you have the contract right there in front of you, and if you choose to sign it, it's on you. My job is just to convince you to sign, and if I do, I get a good commission."
The more I deal with sales&marketing people the more I think there are two different mindsets people have. One says that if you do the "convincing" part by saying anything but honest truth, you're scamming people. The other seems not to attach any moral significance to the situation.
There is no way in hell they cannot know what they are doing. They know they're not from Microsoft. And given this scam has been in the news for a while now, they don't get to plead ignorance.
I agree that they know its a scam, I disagree that they know who their employer is.
I have seen interviews with some of the rank and file scammers. Apparently, they do it because the pay is good for someone with their skillset and ability to put ethics aside.
The people who are on the phone don't know the details of the corporate structure. The boss could easily lie and claim to be a Microsoft contractor and it might be hard for someone on the phones to verify and asking to many questions might get them fired. This might make it easier for some to set aside those ethics, they know they are not on the level, but can feel slightly better because they think their behavior is authorized by a large company that already services these customers.
