Do they still make good movies?
I’m writing down some memories.
You can start at Chapter One if you like or just keep reading here.
I got my first Netflix account in 1999. Had some friends who worked there. Loved the shiny disks. Couldn’t watch them fast enough. There were so many great movies in that period, we couldn’t keep up.
Around 13 years ago, Netflix called me up out of the blue and asked if I wanted to work there. I said not really but they said “Just come and talk to us.”
Netflix was just down the road from where I lived, so I went to see them.
The Netflix office was the most beautiful office I have ever seen. It was like walking into Steven Speilberg’s guest house. Larger-than-life movie posters on the walls. Lush armchairs. Enormous coffee table books on the enormous coffee tables. It was just gorgeous.
In Silicon Valley, interviews for senior jobs tend to last two full days and they assigned me the loveliest HR person to help guide me through it and she coached me on what everyone was going to ask me and told me how to answer if I wanted the job. Netflix is famous for having – let’s say – a very distinctive HR culture and you have to read the founder’s book and understand it to get in.
They tell you, “If you’re the kind of person who comes in every day and does a great job, we’ll say ‘thank you very much’ and send you on your way with a nice farewell package. We only want superstars here.”
A lot of people hate the Netflix culture. I loved it.
Anyway. They offered me the job at the same time as I was offered the job as Employee #3 at a brand-new start-up company building communities for cancer patients. It didn’t even have an office yet. The Netflix salary was double and they offered a shit-ton of stock but I am a romantic and took the start-up job.
I called the Lovely HR lady and told her I was taking the other job but she asked if I would come talk to their Chief Product Officer first. I said it won’t do any good but, sure.
The Chief Product Officer was English. Lovely man. He said, “They told me you were coming and that you were important but they didn’t tell me why you were here.” I said Netflix had offered me a job and that I had declined. He asked if he might change my mind. When I said “No”, he said “Well, we have half an hour. Seems a shame to waste it. What do you want to talk about?”
“We could talk about your product”, I said. “I have some ideas!”
I told him that the average rating of a forty-something man and a teenage girl makes a nonsense of ratings and recommendations. You need separate user accounts for family members to make good recommendations.
Anyway, we had a lovely chat. He wished me well and I went to join my start-up.
Over the next few years, the Netflix hiring manager would call me and take me out to dinner every year. “You know our stock price is 3x what it was last year?”, he asked. A couple of years more: “You know our stock price is 16x now?”
Anyway, so that’s why I am not rich. I still work for the same start-up building communities for cancer patients and I am still Employee #3 and I just cancelled my Netflix account on Friday. It’s crap now. Haven’t watched it in ages. They don’t make good movies any more.
I’m writing down some memories.
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Sure there might be the what ifs and the maybes. We might still be in San Jose. We might be richer. But I’m very happy we’re where we’re at right now. To me it feels like you made the right choice.
You’re a good one, missus!
And nothing else needs to be said about this one! No regrets and that’s all.
wow, you write such marvelous stories. And we (on SP) are supremely grateful that you started and stayed with SP. Thank you Kevin for making SP the one constant in my daily read.
So glad you are a romantic!
I so agree with your decisions, as well as your comments about the dearth of good movies/films. Nowadays when I look for a movie to watch it’s all like junk food for dimwits. If I want to find one of the good old classics, they aren’t available. Aurgh!
The movies I went to in the late 1960s and 1970s were very creative and informative. As I understand it, at that time, the old studio system of “Hollywood” was crumbling, and independent films got a better chance for distribution.
I have heard that “Hollywood” now prefers the blockbuster, action-packed movies because they make more money worldwide than smaller, more intimate movies.
Recently I saw Treasure of Sierra Madre by Bogart and Walter Huston. Fabulous. “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.”
I used to love going to the movies but I’ve seen maybe three in recent years that I enjoyed.
Wife says it’s because I am old. They don’t make movies for old people.
A few years ago, I started a movie club for my friends called “Let’s Watch a Movie!”
Every week you could nominate a movie. Then we had voted for a genre on Monday, and for a movie in that genre on Wednesday. We watched the movie on Saturday.
We were about 100 members at peak and we were all over the world. Lots of folks would host a movie night and invite friends with themed dinners and dress up. It was a lot of fun and we kept it up for about six months.
I’ve often thought about restarting it. Weird that I didn’t write a blog post about it.
It has a Facebook page though! Go check it out if you want to see Mr and Mrs Clown in dress-up!
https://www.facebook.com/letswatchamovieclub/
I need to admit that I have not been a movie-watcher for many years so my opinion may be limited
I confess that I had not been thinking about all you readers from Smart Patients when I wrote this! Thank you for your kind words, anyway!
You are rich in spirit and happiness. How could you not be when you are building communities for cancer patients. 🙂
I agree with you about Netflix – there’s nothing to watch now!
Thank you, Justine. You made me smile!
As another member of the SmartPatient community I am very thankful to you , (and Mrs. Clown,) for the choice you made. Clearly the folks at Netflix have some idea of what they have missed out on. But they don’t create a worldwide community of caring, empathetic people who educate and support each other through tough times. You have accomplished that. Thank you.
Caroline
Oh Caroline! Now I have tears…
Keep telling stories, these are great. I look back at some of my choices or the ones that happened to me and most of them would have me in a very different place as a different person.
Thank you, Steve! Stories about Sparge and Piratefest soon…
We have a sad history of signing up for Netflix, watching a movie or two (usually one we’ve seen before), then three or four months later remembering we are paying for it and haven’t watched anything since the first week, and cancelling. Then a couple of years later doing it again lol. I have better luck checking out DVDs from the public library—smaller selection but more variety.
I’m sorry you are not rich. I’m sorry *everyone* is not rich, actually. I was never courted by the private sector but felt drawn to public service work anyway—I liked personally knowing who was benefitting from my effort and in what ways. And I liked being appreciated!
No one but people in the biz would know who you are had you gone the Netflix route. Instead, you are a big fish in a pretty big pond, appreciated by grateful people everywhere. PS The only movies I saw in 2023 were Barbie and a documentary about the Mars Rover named … Oppy? Both in theaters and interesting and entertaining. So far this year I have attended a live broadcast of a Metropolitan Opera performance on the big screen and watched half of the Ken Burns 8-part series on the history and development of US “country music” at home. Four 2-hr CDs left to watch, very entertaining and a nice way to pass these gloomy winter nights. There are worse things than not keeping up with pop culture 😃
You are very kind, Janet. Thank you!
I had never heard of Netflix until I came to stay with you and we watched a film one night (might have been Alpha Dog?) Then a few years later it launched in the UK and I thought ohhhh that’s that thing Uncle Kev had 😀
I don’t remember the dates exactly but this was about the time that you came to see us, I think.
I’m just reading this for the first time now, Kevin, and I cannot tell you how glad I am still that you chose Smart Patients over Netflix! You made a huge positive difference in thousands of lives. Thank you.