Now that's a position I would envy: busting your ass working 80 hours a week developing world-changing products ("WordPress plugins and iPhone apps like Santa Strike") so that somebody else, who doesn't respect you as an employee, can get rich off your effort (while they spend their time browsing HN).
> "I want people that think about the product even when they aren't in the office."
God forbid your employees have a social life, hobbies, or side-projects. Enriching some sociopath by building "santa strike" apps is a cause worth sacrificing everything for, right?
Here's the funny thing, which makes employment a lot like romance- I DO think about my product even when I'm not in my office, but I do this because my employer and colleagues are awesome, and I want to make all of us successful, and we have a common purpose and goal.
People won't love you because you insist it. They can't. You'll have to be lovable to begin with, and you do that by being goddamn awesome.
Possessiveness is for the unenlightened, needy, insecure.
It takes a certain amount of life experience to arrive at the conclusion that many challenging work problems are solved by an insight that hits you in the shower, or while jogging, or during other seemingly idle moments that an 80 hour work week robs you of.
There's something heinous about demanding that a group of people think about "the product" in every waking hour.
I think I'm mostly objecting to the wording -- "product" is such a lifeless, anodyne word. If I want people who are passionate about what we're building, we have to build something that inspires passion, and I can't imagine ever calling that "the product".
> "I want people that think about the product even when they aren't in the office."
God forbid your employees have a social life, hobbies, or side-projects. Enriching some sociopath by building "santa strike" apps is a cause worth sacrificing everything for, right?