Happy New Year everyone! Gary and David dive deep this week and talk about CES and managing and preventing employee turnover during these crazy times.
Here are the links to all mentioned articles/videos in this episode:
Razer - Modular Gaming Desk Concept - Razer Project Sophia
CNN - This color-changing concept BMW will mess with your head
The Verge - The Samsung Odyssey Ark is its largest curved monitor yet — and you can turn it on its side
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hello@thebigpixel.net
OR comment on our YouTube videos! - Big Pixel, LLC - YouTube
Our Hosts
David Baxter - CEO of Big Pixel
Gary Voigt - Creative Director at Big Pixel
The Podcast
David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.
In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.
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hello@thebigpixel.net
919-275-0646
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Music by: BLXRR
Happy New Year everyone! Gary and David dive deep this week and talk about CES and managing and preventing employee turnover during these crazy times.
Here are the links to all mentioned articles/videos in this episode:
Razer - Modular Gaming Desk Concept - Razer Project Sophia
CNN - This color-changing concept BMW will mess with your head
The Verge - The Samsung Odyssey Ark is its largest curved monitor yet — and you can turn it on its side
___________________________________
Submit Your Questions to:
hello@thebigpixel.net
OR comment on our YouTube videos! - Big Pixel, LLC - YouTube
Our Hosts
David Baxter - CEO of Big Pixel
Gary Voigt - Creative Director at Big Pixel
The Podcast
David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.
In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.
Contact Us
hello@thebigpixel.net
919-275-0646
FB | IG | LI | TW | TT : @bigpixelNC
Big Pixel
1772 Heritage Center Dr
Suite 201
Wake Forest, NC 27587
Music by: BLXRR
Dude, I don't know anything about the Wu Tang Clan except for their a name that keeps coming up since my childhood. That is the end of my association with the Wu Tang Clan. Okay, are they everyone who did kung fu fighting? That's not them.
Gary:No. Hip Hop grew from the 90s that changed the game. This a Noah, Noah, our editor and your son has to listen to A Tribe Called Quest and Wu Tang Clan.
David:What about They Might Be Giants? No,
Gary:absolutely not. No. That's like saying oh and go Boingo.
David:What about young in the sea?
Gary:Hmm. I mean, you know if you went to the prominent Haiti, ladies
David:everyone, welcome back to the biz dev podcast. Happy New Year, everyone. This is the podcast about developing your business. I am David Baxter and joined with me is my co host, Gary Voight. How's it going, man? Well, Happy New
Gary:Year. Looking forward to the new year. And cool segue. Speaking of looking forward. Did you see all the cool stuff coming out at CES?
David:Oh, nicely done? I did. Yeah. I'm, I'm a huge ces nerd. I used to go to that show. I shouldn't say all the time. I went twice, years and years ago. And so I'm I love the tech that comes out of it. But it also going there and being there a few times it really puts things in perspective.
Gary:Yeah, I'm sure it's pretty exciting is it like just a giant exchange, kind of like a trade show would be where you just walking around from booth to booth to booth and like seeing cool stuff. And then there's presentations by big companies and stuff like that, or
David:Yeah, so I put in contact. So years ago, like 2009, I ran a website called webOS. Roundup, I was super into the Palm Pre and web, iOS, and all of the web iOS, and went into I just totally nerded out, I made a website. And that's all we talked about. And it did pretty well back in the day for a couple of years. And then, but a couple of those years. So it was it made enough money that I would pay for a trip to CES for two years to see what was coming out. So it was really cool. And so I wish we'd all rent one huge, huge, a normal sized hotel room shouldn't say huge. I'm in Vegas, and we stuffed like five dudes in there. And we did live podcast and all of that stuff. From there, it was really wild. But
Gary:that sounds pretty cool.
David:It was a lot of fun. But CES is it's it's what you said but take the trade show and put it on the moon. I mean, it is so big. And there's like so many different places that it's in. And it's kind of like everything segregated. Like you have the main hall where like Samsung and Intel have these gorgeous booths and Sony was there showing off the PlayStation back in the day,
Gary:just from the media coverage and the photos and stuff I get the idea that going to the physical place and walking in makes you feel like you're actually stepping inside of like a futuristic movie of like, this is what the future will hold is it kind of like that
David:each it depends on the on the company like Sony in particular likes to set up the living room. And they've got a Sony TV and they've got a big pushing couch and they've got you know, Sony speakers everywhere and they've got the Sony PlayStation there and you know, and then it's they're showing this is the world of Sony they love that. Intel likes lots of really bright lights and 4000 laptops sitting around. What's really interesting there's a whole nother side to CES that they don't talk about because it's it's sad and almost boring. It's all the other people who just desperate for someone to pick them up and put a news article on them. All these little bitty tiny Chinese Taiwanese companies, sometimes they are American companies just little bitty ones. You know, I'm selling this koozie and I really need someone to pay
Gary:just because like a regular trade shows like those are the smaller companies that spent their entire budget. Yeah, freakin promo items in the swag bag. So you'll maybe remember them past Yes. Even after 20 minutes of walking around with a giant bag of stuff, you're like, do I do I need this?
David:Do I need any of this? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I remember there was one guy who was he was walking around and talking to anyone who would stand still long enough to show them His they had made an all natural screen cleaning stuff, right? It'll spray by like a spray in a clean Yeah, yeah, it was spray and it was like it was made of Apple stuff. And like literal apple juice, not like Apple the company.
Gary:But if it was from Apple, it would be 4999 for the Yeah, along with their cloth.
David:And so they they you see this and you can see this guy was just so desperate to get someone and I will say though, it was really nice and it smelled nice.
Gary:Man, I feel like every spray was like just a little bit of his dreams dying. It just sounds a little bit
David:whatever happened to the guy. But so speaking of this CES, there were a couple of really neat things. I thought that came out. Now of course you have the laptops. Every year all the major manufacturers come out with what's going to be out in the second half of this year, and the new chips and the new GE graphics cards and all that stuff. It looks like we talked about this a little bit when we did our December podcasts about, would this be a big push? It doesn't seem like it. I think I was my call was right. It does look like there's going to be a nice year there's going to be some nice advancements, but nothing major in terms of a huge jump. Except I will say Intel seems like they're back in the game.
Gary:Yeah, they're making moves. They even just poached one of Apple's chip designers, the one they like was the lead, I guess T to the security onboard for the show. Yeah,
David:that's a big deal. That's a big steal. But they're 12 Gen chip seems to be useful for people who listen to our podcast. What that matters is, it just makes everything like your normal laptop, you don't to worry about AMD and stuff as much anymore. That 12 Gen chip is really nice. Now, of course, AMD is saying that they've got a rise and Chip around the corner, that's gonna blow everything away. They haven't really announced that. So who knows. But it's nice to see Intel having a clue because they've been really off the game for like five years. And so it's nice. Competition is always good. So if AMD was all by themselves, and
Gary:hopefully the competition will drive better products, and maybe even bring down the cost a little bit.
David:Well, and now see Oh, no way. No, at least not in the high end market. There's a it's like phones, right? Apple, my son was talking about, you know, the $1,000 phone and how ridiculous that is. And I said, you know, it's funny. For a long time phones were 500 bucks, and then they were 600 bucks. And then they sat for years and years at like 750 800. And then the 10 comes out iPhone 10. And Apple says $1,000. And suddenly, it's like they gave everyone permission. Every high info now as 1000 bucks or slightly more. It was it's just interesting how that is. And I think that the chip manufacturers to hold to that Did you see the color changing car?
Gary:I did? How can you miss that? The BMW with the it's not really paint there, I guess electrically charged? Little? Like, would they say it was about the size of a follicle of hair?
David:It's an eating screen. You know? Like yeah, no. Yeah, same same tech. It's just in paint. So
Gary:depending on whether it's a positive or negative charge, it can go from like the almost white to almost black. Mm hmm. That's that's pretty, pretty awesome. I don't see it being practical in any way other than maybe in movies.
David:Do you imagine scratching that car? I mean, you would cry? Yeah, you would just weep because you're never fixing that. You're what do you do?
Gary:You're driving around and an iPhone with a crack screen. Everybody's making?
David:Yeah, everyone know? Yeah, like your doors just flickering all the time?
Gary:Well, you got that weird, like pink and green kinda like, you know, distortion around a little scratch
David:where the break is. Yeah, I love the idea. And I hope that they keep refining. They're not making it to to be clear, they're not making a real product now. But if you get a chance, we'll have a link in the description, but they show what it could be done. And it's neat. It's very v1 kind of janky. But I love I love the boldness of trying.
Gary:And some of the idea behind it is definitely a step forward in the future because that in the article I mentioned that, along with the production of more electric vehicles, having the ability to change the exterior from light to dark, depending on the weather situation that you're driving in, during this time of year, whatever can help conserve battery life or even pull in some heat to then turn into more power. So
David:yeah, some neat neat stuff in there.
Gary:I mean, it's really cool to imagine where it could go. Plus, it just takes us one step closer to stealth technology.
David:I'm sorry, I do not need my cars to be stealthy. I
Gary:could you imagine the accidents? If
David:I when I was a kid. I mean, this is a weird thought. When I was a kid, I was always afraid this is a true statement that there was someone who had invented the invisible car. And I was going to hit them. And I wouldn't know it until I hit them. I don't know where this came from. But this was an actual, like concern of mine.
Gary:You fell asleep during some movie as a kid and get locked in your son.
David:They were invisible cars and I could hit them at any point and not not know that they were there. Um, so I don't need stealth cars. I think that's a bad idea. The other thing I wanted to bring up was the razor Sophia. Have you seen that?
Gary:That's that? Is it the desk that's like a flat kinda like a not a surface but it's like module modular components put inside of the actual desk part that's attached to one giant screen.
David:Yes. So you've got to see the picture of this. Again, we'll have a link it so backing up for a second so if you're if you're not a big razor, the razor makes gaming paraphernalia and they make it always glowy. We've talked about them a couple of times. And every ces they come out with some crazy prototype that usually never sees the light of day and they're always like Named after some lady Valerie or whatever this was seen. This one is Yeah, it's a modular desk, the whole thing is basically, it's kind of an ugly desk as desk go, right. It's just kind of a flat rectangle. But the whole thing is a screen of some sort. And there's like, you can have a Qi charger, which is a wireless charger, you could have a button, I don't know why you would need a button. But you can make it you can program the button to do something, you can have all these different modules. And then it's also the the gaming rig inside of it, of course. And it also glows because it has to, and then they have a 55 inch monitor sitting on top of it. So the whole thing is very futuristic, very Star Trek. That's what one of the articles I saw was is very star Trekky.
Gary:Yeah, their concept images here look like when Lego would just make a regular piece and put a decal on it to make it look like something else like their computer screen decal. And that's what it looks like. It looks very weird.
David:The only thing I don't like about it. And I think to me, this was a softball. Normally, Razer comes to CES with a working prototype. It's probably janky and will never be made, but it works like they did one I think the Valerie was a laptop that had two monitors folded out from the sides. It was a three monitor so but it was a real working prototype. Like they brought it to the thing and showed it you know, and it was just going in and out all the time was very cool. This one they only show renders,
Gary:well, wouldn't they would have to build all these modules for this desktop. Yeah,
David:I mean that they this one was just a rendering. And I'm like, Okay, you're obviously not very going to ever make this but I still love it. I love the I love the just the futuristic stuff Razer does every year. But I think CCS has a lot of fun. I dig it every year, it always happens. I've always wondered why they do it right after New Year's, but they do every year. And COVID made it a lot harder this year, a lot smaller than I think it would have been otherwise. All virtual, but they do the the big. It's really neat when you're sitting in there. And you know, Sony is giving their big announcements for their TVs and stuff like that. You feel like you're part of something. It's yeah. So today, this is talking about hot off the presses. This literally happened this morning on my way. And so I come into my office and my neighbor asks, Hey, what do you do? And I'm like, Well, we do we do software and, and websites, mobile app, stuff like that. She's like, Oh, do you think you could help me? We just had a guy leave. And he just dropped off his computer his his iPad and walked out the door and refuses to talk to us. So we're locked out of his stuff. And he's got critical work stuff, critical clients stuff on these machines. And he needs to get it out. Now I'm not in it to go upset. They're locked
Gary:out of they're locked out of the work that he current. It was an employee that left and they haven't
David:No, currently no way of getting into Yeah. And so the reason I bring this up was it reminded me so I had a project manager many years ago. And it got ugly. Towards the end, she was saying bad things about me to my clients. So I saying that we were not very good at our jobs, which is not great for a project manager to do. And so we had to fire her and she stole the laptop we gave her just flat out stolen. And she I don't know why she told me she needed to keep it to get personal stuff. And she would return it and she never did. And that was a early lesson for me is I'm you know, all the stuff she had on that laptop gone forever. That was the lesson that I learned is like, hey, these aren't your friends working for you. And I think that's the reason that's important is a lot of people when they're starting a company. It's very personal. Right? This is your baby? Yeah, it
Gary:was throw a bunch of blind trust that people if they show that they're going to help them Yeah, achieve their
David:their dream, everybody who starts a company. You know, this is a very personal endeavor. I'm going out on a limb, I'm taking risk. And I believe that everyone who is joining me in this crusade, because in my mind, this is a crusade, right? I'm conquering something everyone is joining with me and they're out there, they're drinking the same Kool Aid, they are still they're on board with me. And I think it's that's a something that almost all startup founders, you know, once you start getting to the point where you're hiring people we all stumble on. I mean, I certainly stumbled on it. And because you think they're not gonna hose me, they're not gonna take from me, they're not gonna cheat me.
Gary:You think that would only happen to like larger corporations or big companies with no face? See when it's more of an intimate relationship between just a couple of people and a startup? Yeah, you kind of have that camaraderie of we're in this together. Let's you know,
David:yes. And they are not most of the time that sometimes it's two buddies.
Gary:It's you are in this by yourself. They're just kind of there, either. And they're
David:your they're an employee. That's that simple. If they're an employee, they're not your buddy. And boy, I mean, that's been mean, I can't even tell you how many times because you think, Oh, these people are in it with me. But no, they're just, this is just a job to most of the people working for clients. And that's really important, I think. I think that that's something that startups and founders really gloss over,
Gary:especially now you see, now, I guess, through the pandemic, through COVID, people are making different life choices. And there's a what the media is dubbing as what the great resignation, where a lot of people are just leaving jobs that they weren't completely happy with or finding a change of heart for what they're doing. So could you imagine having like, a small business, maybe you got 510 employees, and two or three of them decide, You know what, this isn't what I want to do forever, I'm out, but you didn't really protect yourself or prepare yourself for this. So what if you lose, like hardware data and ensure things that actually are required for your business to run?
David:Well, yeah, I mean, I know that there are 1000s of little retail businesses dealing with this right now. Right. The great resignations are real thing, right? i
Gary:Every industry from foodservice retail all the way up through tech, for sure.
David:Yeah. So if I started my, you know, I'm excited, I started my own cupcake shop, and 2019 2018. I'm going, it's going well, I hired a few people. I'm excited about it. And then COVID hits and people start dropping like flies. I'm taking it personally, right, as the owner of this cupcake shop, I thought we were all doing this together. Right? You realize they don't care about you. And that sounds draconian. And sometimes there are cases where they do care. Yeah,
Gary:well, also from their perspective, it might be you know, I, I started working with you, because I believed in this. And then something happened in my family life or with my living situation. And that's far more important than this. So I have to focus on that. So it's not really a personal thing. But you do have to kind of prepare yourself for I guess, worst case scenario, or,
David:but it feels personal, right? I'm sure when it's your company, when it's your baby, it feels personal. And that's what I would encourage new people to kind of push past it. But I mean, I hate to say the word walls, but you kind of need to put those barriers up to protect yourself. And what I tried to do with my guys, because developers notoriously I mean developments is people don't typically work for very long periods of time, few years, and then they want to move on to another job. That's just the way the industry works. And with my guys, what I'm always trying to do is create a scenario where they feel loyal enough to me, that they would come to me and give me kind of a right of first refusal. Right, if that makes sense.
Gary:Yeah, lets you know that they're thinking about moving on because of this opportunity. Yeah, I need more money to match or, you know, do what you can to keep them.
David:I can't, you know, I can't match everybody. We had a guy leave not that long ago. And his buddy offered him a huge amount of money to go and do his dream job. I couldn't match the salary. He gave me that chance. I appreciated that. Yeah. And, and, you know, I wished him nothing but the best because there was nothing I could do. It was a win win win all the way around for him. Right. And so I, you know, we parted ways. And it was a very friendly breakup. But he gave me what I hoped for, I got a sort of a right of first refusal. Other people have come up to me and say, Hey, man, I, I need a raise. Right? I'm not. I'm not trying to, you know, hold your feet to the fire. But I know there's more money out here for what I do. Right? Remember that? Of course there is. So this is what I need. If you want me to stay. Let's have that conversation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But at least I got a chance. And to me, that's all I can ever ask for. Right? That means I was a good enough boss, that they weren't running for the hills,
Gary:it's safe to assume also in software development, that the way you increase your income is by switching jobs. pretty frequent.
David:Yes. Yeah. That's very cool. And that's true in a lot of jobs. I mean, maybe not retail or something like that. I mean, the gap isn't gonna pay a lot more than target or whatever. But But yeah, in our industry, it that's how you make oftentimes, and I shouldn't say this, because now my guys are listening to this guy. Maybe I need to get a raise. Right. But, but I want to, that's what I would encourage startups and business owners. To me, you've caught you're crossing the line, when you have employees and stuff, you're probably not much of a startup anymore. I don't know where that official line is. But in my mind when you have revenue coming in and you're no longer in your hiring people, I know you're a business. You're not a startup anymore. I mean, I don't know that's a matter of opinion, of course. But once you've crossed that line somewhere, then try to figure out? How do you keep your people? I mean, to me, my favorite thing in the world is to get bonuses. I know that sounds silly, but that's one of the things that's a part of our culture is we give bonuses. And that's one of the ways that we have people really enjoy working for us. Some owners do it very differently. They have different perks, but every company has got to have their own thing.
Gary:bonuses, I think work well, because you're kind of taking that veil of, you know, secrecy of how much the company is making versus how much the employees are making, you know what I mean? So, it shows that, okay, you know, if we've reached a certain revenue goal or a profit situation, then we can dole out some more bonuses. People feel like they're involved in the company success and not being with it as well.
David:But there are other ways to do to some people, some owners don't like giving bonuses, there are other things of flexibility. There are things of your remote work is a huge one right? Now, if you have a brick and mortar, and now you're letting people work remotely and be more flexible, that buys loyalty. And that gives you that, but you got to think about when you're starting your business in probably you should do this before you even bring on your first person. What kind of company do you want to be? Right? Do you want to be generous with your profits? Do you want to be super flexible? Do you want to be family first? Do you want to have unlimited vacation? Do you want to be draconian and make people hate working for you whatever you want, right? It takes all kinds
Gary:probably should be written down and stuck to in a structured way too, though, not just make it up on the fly, depending on how you think the employees feel, oh, there's most of your field,
David:you should be thinking about this at least once a year. Right? It should be something like on an annual basis, not necessarily new years, but on an annual basis, you should be thinking, you know, what our cultural values are? You'll hear me say that over and over? What are our core values? What is our mission, did that change in the last year? Do we need to refine that in the last year. And then once you have those core values, this is these are the pillars that run your company, you're not running your company and more your ideals or running your company. Because if you don't have ideals, or something you stand for, then your company's not gonna mean anything, your your why you're doing this isn't well defined, at least in your own head, you're going to have a really tough time in business, because you're gonna have a really tough time getting your people to really love what they do. And therefore they're more flighty. Right? Because they, ideally, when you bring on a new employee, you're talking about those values right off the bat. And they're resonating with those or they're not one way or the other.
Gary:Yeah, it definitely puts a little bit more of a, like you said, a cultural feel to the company, instead of just you're hiring me to do this job, I'm going to write this code. While I'm doing this, I'm gonna see if there's anything better out there for more money. And then I'm going to do if you if you get them invested in the actual spirit and the culture of the company, they're going to stick around a little bit longer. Or like you said, if you talk about it initially, and they just don't feel as though they're a good fit for it. If it's just kind of not what they're into. Yeah, then maybe they won't waste you know, you're in their time.
David:Definitely better to know that upfront. Right? We like I mean, we have transparency is a huge deal to us. That's what our number one core value is transparency, integrity, honesty, that sounds I know sounds marketing, but that is our bedrock. And if someone like sales guys or something like that, you know, hey, they it's very common for sales guys to kind of flub here and flub there and promise things and aren't really right, they're right on the horizon. I mean, that's a common thing. Those people aren't going to succeed at our company. They're just not because we're going to ask them to be just so bluntly honest, all the time, that those little tricks you do to get those extra sales, they ain't gonna work. And you're not going to be a good fit. It's just, it's just as simple.
Gary:And then be honest and somewhat uncomfortable.
David:Hopefully not everyone's uncomfortable all the time when the word get here, but But I mean, it's who are you as a company? That's my challenge to every startup business person listening to this? Who are you? Why are you doing this, write that down. The more you do that, the more you know that the more loyal Your people will be. And therefore, the less you have to worry about that. Now, with all of that said, turnover happens, turnover changes, and you need to no one should have a company iPad, that you can't get into. Period. Nobody should have an a laptop that you have given them in European for as the boss that you cannot log into. Now, does everyone do that in a small company? Absolutely not. Can I say I do that 100% of time? Absolutely not. But it should be.
Gary:Yeah, I've heard you mentioned. Many times the proverbial bus is he like to use that phrase? And so I guess protecting yourself both with your technology and data and stuff. What's the proverbial bus in this situation? Just making sure that business can continue no matter what happens? We always
David:in our world, redundancy is important because of us, we always try to protect ourselves with the proverbial bus. And that just means for those who don't understand what that phrase is, if your key player was gone tomorrow, for some reason, whether they quit, or they got hit by the bus, that's where that term comes from,
Gary:like, what happened to your business neighbor?
David:Yeah, like the neighbor here, right? How well prepared are you to absorb that blow? Generally, the way you handle that is cross training, so that no one is an island. Right? These are ideals, a lot of times this is really hard to do. So I'm not trying to belittle this. But that's ideally that no one's an island, that everyone kind of shares everyone's load a little bit, so that if Joe leaves that Phyllis can pick right back up and kind of do half of his job, at least for a little while until Phyllis gets better at it, or we find a replacement, right? You're not in the lurch. In our world, it's like we should never have a coder all by themselves on a technology that no one else knows, right? That should never ever happen. If we are doing that, that we are not doing our clients a good service. And we are overloading that poor guy. Because if that guy gets sick, guess who calls him even when he sick? Me, because this stuff broke, and no one can fix it for him because he's on an island. That's how we protect, we always try to stay in the same vein, we have several stacks that we work on that there's at least two people who know it at any one point in time. And that's, that's critical. So again, think of these things, how are you going to handle these things because turnover happens, people are going to shock you, people are going to do stupid things. And you as a business owner need to think about that.
Gary:People are gonna shock you. That's that's an important one to say.
David:But it is it is absolutely true. Humans are humans, right? And no matter how much you think you know them, no matter I mean, like, again, my neighbor, they were saying, hey, they've been working together, the boss and this guy was his right hand, as far as I can tell. Been working together almost since the company started, they were friends, the boss is absolutely floored that this is happening. No one knows why this has happened. I mean, I hence
Gary:the shocking part where it's just out of nowhere. Yes, Sega
David:out of there. And and that's you got to protect yourself as a business owner, that's just kind of something to keep in the back of your mind you are. These are not your buddies. I think if I could say anything, these are not your buddies, these are employees. That doesn't mean you can't treat them like a buddies, you should be friendly and treat them like your buddies, but you need to put those protections in place. Tech, devices, IP, customer lists, you need to I mean, like one of the things everybody talks about is hey, do I make them sign non competes and stuff like that? Most of the time, non competes don't hold up, right? You cannot legally stops him from getting a job. Like I cannot stop you being a designer. For somebody else. That is your livelihood. That is your skill. That is what you are very, very good at. So if I said, you sign this piece of paper, you got to go flip burgers, because you can't design and I legally that will never hold water. So those are not a really big fan of we do have the really loose ones. But
Gary:so basically, they're just like a veiled threat for larger companies to kind of hold over their employees, correct?
David:Yeah, most of the time, you cannot know the way you get around that you can put in a radius. Like, yeah, I could be, you could put a time. But those times are rough too. I can't tell you can't have a job for a year, right. But what a lot of times it is, is within a 1210 mile radius of my office, you can't do design work for another company.
Gary:If they define a direct competitor, I think it's or divide.
David:The ones that do matter. When you're talking about contracts and site making employee contracts, the ones that do matter, and the ones that will hold them in court are the ones about poaching clients. That's a big one, because that's considered a trade secret. My client list for big pixel is a trade secret that if you left the company and took that and said, Hey, new employer, I got all the big pixels clients, let's go steal them. Right. That's against the law. i We can come at you at that point. Another thing you can't you can't steal employees. A lot of times if that's in the contract, that's usually protectable. Because again, that's that's my you're in my business, right? Those are the things that should be in any employee contract those clauses in particular, for and it's a time period. I mean, usually it's like one to two years afterwards, if you poach the client two years later, that's my fault. As much as it is you being a jerk. Right? Because I if you're able to poach them two years later, and hey, hey, I'm Gary, I worked with you two years ago. You want to come work for me now? Yeah, if I didn't do my job for two years, then okay, you got to deserve to lose the client. But there's always a time limit on those things. And that's worth worth keeping in mind. I mean, everyone's I'm not a lawyer, so everyone needs to draw up their own contracts. But I know that non competes often get thrown out if they're, if they're really broad and vague for the next 10 years in the state or the Eastern hemisphere, you can no longer build websites. Yeah, that will fly man. That's just not.
Gary:Yeah, I think that, like I said earlier, it's basically just a veiled threat. And when we mentioned the great resignation and people, you know, moving on and deciding that their current job might not be the best fit for them. You, the media is making it seem like a lot of that is just destroying industry. But it doesn't seem to be the reality. It seems like a lot of the larger corporations who have been, you know, not exactly treating their employees fairly, are the ones feeling the brunt of it. So it's almost like, okay, you know what, I don't deserve this. And those are typically the companies that are holding the veiled threat of the non compete and non disclosure and the, you know, we're ill, so you're going to get another job, no one's gonna pay what we're paying you like all that? Kind of a.
David:I will say that the caveat to that, I think it's the hospitality industry. Every restaurant I go to, is absolutely understaffed. I mean, all
Gary:I'm talking about Yeah, corporate is done larger companies. Yeah, no, that's true. Yeah,
David:I think, I think if you're a big corporation, and you've had a lot of people resign, it's probably a good time to start some navel gazing, right? What What am I? Why am I losing?
Gary:Especially when you see an articles about like, yeah, you know, the CEO, and the execs are getting $5 million bonuses, but the employees getting nothing. Yeah, that was the Google that kind of stuff is coming. Yeah, that's coming to light a lot more often. Now. Yeah. I don't see a lot of
David:the story there. And we need to go find that link. That's a good story. The story there is there's
Gary:even one about James Corden now oh, I don't know about that. One that he negotiated for a raise and the staff and the whole crew that does the show for him more not mentioned in it at all. Like,
David:it's, I mean, yeah, there's some of that is, I mean, especially with famous people, there's the whole cancel thing, but
Gary:that's probably their agent doing it too. But But I know Google in
David:particular looks really bad. Because they, they were asked, Hey, what about giving everybody because they made record profits again? And right. They said, Hey, what about using some of that money, some reporter asked to give your guys a raise because of all this inflation. And Google said, we do not have plans to do that. And then within a few weeks, they was shown in an SEC filing that four of the major executives got a $450,000 raise or something like that. I mean, yeah, that's a bad press, man. Especially when you're just, I, there's part of me, that's kind of feels bad. I know, this is a stretch. But those companies that are making so much money, I mean, they are making so much money, it's to the point where they don't even know what to do with it. Does right? Do you get it to the point where all the Apple retail store people are making $45,000 a year? Because we just have money sitting around? I mean, it's crazy.
Gary:No, I think we're in a territory now. Where it's just Uncharted, no one knows what to do, because there really shouldn't be this small amount of companies and people controlling so much. Well, you know what I mean, here's something interesting.
David:I heard. So right now, this week, Apple briefly, I don't know if they finished, but I know briefly earlier this week, they crossed $3 trillion in value, and stock value and stuff. They said that at its peak embers, like this is the biggest company in the world. And they said at its peak, the Dutch Indian company, back in like the 1800s, they were this massive trading conglomerate back in the 1800s. They would have been in today's dollar worth $7.9 trillion dollars. Because they owned almost all trade out of Europe for a while again, I don't know a lot about it, but they were the largest, most successful company in history, according to this and it's like, I can't even wrap my head around that. I mean, like the Rockefellers and stuff like that. They're saying if they were alive today, they would be as wealthy as like Elon Musk and stuff would be but but not much less or not much more, right that we're all in that category now. And we avoid wandered we have wandered off the reservation.
Gary:Yeah, and I'm not saying company shouldn't make money. I'm just saying Come on. Let's not be disgusting.
David:That's that's a go Don't be disgusting. That does
Gary:Yeah, treat your employees well. And don't Don't be disgusting.
David:Fair. That's gonna be our new mission statement. Big pixel serves to not be disgusting. That's
Gary:yeah, you know, you don't need a 55 inch vertical monitor. Oh, see? Do you see that? See,
David:now you're getting personal because I love that monitor. That monitor you are displayed? Yes, I am. Okay, so a running joke in my my employees is my love for stupid monitors. And so whenever a new one comes out, they have to send me all the links. It's a CES. So let me qualify that. So at home I have a 49 inch monitor. And at work I have a 38 inch monitor and a what is that a 27 turn vertically that I'm currently staring at. So yeah, I
Gary:am close the laptop screen. No,
David:I turned that off. I turned that on a phone. I only have two. Okay. And so I am known to be an absolute monitor snort. And so the Samsung I think it was Samsung, right? Is that right? Came out
Gary:with Yes, Samsung their Odyssey arc. It's the largest curved monitor in existence 55 inches. And so and it's all LED, and like super
David:8k. So now it's 4k, so glorious. Oh, so what's funny, though, is the same time everybody's giving me grief one of my employees, one who's been on the podcast, he says, Hey, cuz he got what we I give away monitors to my employees when when they're not being used. So I gave him my old 34 inch and he was like when he first got he's like, this is stupid. Why do you need a monitor this but it's too big, too big. And he says this week is like, I have to admit now that I love this monitor. And I want a second one. And I was like I have a believer
Gary:to do this second, second vertical monitor, which I can understand for people who you know, write code or whatever, right? Like anytime I see as a designer when I see a vertical monitor, it just hurts my soul.
David:Well, I've got so my little situation I've got my it's funny. I might 27 inch vertical. And only thing on their slack. That is literally just got slack over. It's a little overkill, but it is lovely. The 55
Gary:minutes, every little Slack message takes up probably like what two inches of the screen. Beautiful. I'm not sure I have all the empty space.
David:The whole thing like I got the whole thing anyway. 55 inches I believe might be my max. I'm not buying that monitor yet. My wife was like, Absolutely, it would be your man. Yeah, cuz it's just, I think 49 inches. Once you get it, it's glorious. And that does this beautiful curve of the Odyssey G nine. And it curves around and you kind of get this little peripheral thing going. So beautiful. But you turn your head a little bit but you don't want to turn your head a lot. Like there is a limit on how much head motion
Gary:you're gonna get Nick Yeah, it's just it's been
David:it's been able to put this is such a 1% thing. Sounds so snooty. You got. But I like putting I put three screens next to each other. I could go for four, just saying I could go for four.
Gary:It's like the scene from The Matrix went on there on the ship and the operators code reading all the code. There's like 58 Different
David:I just started watching resurrections. And I haven't finished had not seen it you have not finished its streaming it is yes on HBO Max. I started watching it last night. Okay, I just I introduced matrix to my son, I won't let him see number one and number one only because the other ones are trash fighting. Anyway, um, I let him see the first one. And then I was like, Okay, I got a refresher. I'm gonna go watch the new one now. And about halfway through and one cool thing. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but Gianna Reeves is sitting in an office. And again, I'm not gonna say anything about what he's doing there. But it's a modern day office. And he's got like, five monitors. And I was like, Oh, I've got jealousy. I've got envy, man. It is glorious. It is just glorious. He's got this corner office. And it's, it's just this perfect office anyway.
Gary:Now I have a 28 inch monitor. And I'm thinking like maybe the biggest I would go. And I've had I've debated in my head against him for this, like the 34 is probably but I don't know, that just seems like it's too much.
David:If I put my 49 inch in front of you, you would be like, I get it now. If it was crystal, yes, the difference it
Gary:had the pixel density and the resolution that the difference if it's slightly off and I could see like a little bit of pixelation or blurry I'm out when you're
David:a Mac nerd like you. You are used to those super high end screens because Windows is trashed at those screens
Gary:spoil. Like the my laptop. Now the new MacBook Pro, this screen, it looks fake. Yes, it's so crystal clear and sharp that it looks, it looks like someone photoshopped the different screen onto like, they took a photo. And then they put a screenshot of a screen onto the laptop in the photo and the photo has noise and it's a little bit blurred from the depth of field. But the screen is like a perfect crisp image. It kind of looks like that. It's almost like
David:Windows is really bad at high density screens if anybody's ever tried that. And you get what the worst is if you have a high density screen on a normal screen, like a high density laptop that's not uncommon. And then you plug it into an external monitor and you have both open windows just absolutely has a connection throw it up on itself.
Gary:And it's like it turns it into
David:ugly and so if you are used to that like so all of my monitors are not a HDPI they're just not so I'm used to that I have the slightly fuzzy text and stuff like that that you would despise. So yeah, you can't it the in there is no computer on the planet right now well laptop on the planet that could do a 49 inch screen at the DPI that a Mac requires. It would be like an 8k screen. It's just no, no maybe that 4k screen but But if you put a 4k screen on 55 inches, it's not great.
Gary:Well, there's an LG OLED screen coming out. I think 34 is the is the highest, but unless it 6k Or something like a $1,600 display, I
David:think we have left the realm if we had anyone listening to this podcast, I think they've turned it off by now. So we probably have nerded out too hard on the monitors.
Gary:Well, we had a bit of a break, so we had to kind of catch up and goof
David:around a bit. See what I did there? All right.
Gary:Yeah. And you said Microsoft wasn't good at stuff. Oh,
David:you had to get it in there. Fair, fair, fair, whatever. I don't like interview.
Gary:But we still are taking questions. If anybody has any questions, comments or ideas for us. You can email us at Hello at the big pixel dotnet. Any other way to get in touch we are. You could leave us messages on Instagram, YouTube.
David:We are still posting our stuff up on YouTube. Our editor has been a little slow nudge nudge. But, yes, we do have some questions, but we don't have time to answer them. I will say that that's the first. What will lead it will we will we'll do two questions next week. How about that? There we go to questions next week. That's fair. Alright, y'all. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy New Year again, and we will talk to you next week. See you guys