Questions such as pseudocode a "(sorting, binary search, etc)" algorithm on the whiteboard are BS questions used to haze interviewees and make the interviewer feel like the big man on campus. Almost no working programmer ever implements any of this BS unless they are doing very specialized work.
I've interviewed 100s of programmers for several very well known tech company and specifically tried to get tech interviewers to tone that down. Doing so allowed us to hire some great non-CS JR programmers who are now team leads and even CTOs at other companies.
My understanding is he looks for phrases people are increasingly searching for such as "BHP Free Sippy Cup" and then buys a domain such as bhp-free-sippy-cups.com. On the site, he just displays affiliate links to various vendor product pages for that product, e.g. Amazon, etc.
The trick is understanding the trends and having the SEO skills to efficiently build the traffic. He can't put too much individual time into any one property because it will on average only generate a few hundred dollars a month in revenue.
If the trend becomes popular enough someone comes in and buys the domain for their real sippy cup business.
A friend of mine runs a 1 person business. Well, technically, he does have an assistant who does his office admin and books.
My friend has steady gross revenues of $6M a year. When I first met him about 8 years ago he was 26 and living at home with his parents. He once remarked on how much he appreciated his mother still doing his laundry and cooking for him and his father.
I forgot to mention, he has extremely high gross margins and EBITDA. He does all the work himself other then that admin I mentioned already.
What is his business, you are probably wondering?
He owns internet domains. He flips them like real estate. He looks at Google trends, buys undervalued properties, develops their traffic via SEO, generates affiliate sales revenue, and if given the opportunity, then sells them at a much inflated value. He owns 1000s of domains and has built highly automated systems to efficiently manage them.
This is a good interpretation of the event as I understand it.
Culturally, it would be a good move to grant all employees before x date a token number of units so they felt validated. $1k worth of units to a few dozen employees is a rounding errors worth of dilution but would pay many intangible dividends to the culture.
I do think, ultimately, the bulk of incentive equity should go to those most likely to make significant contributions.
Assuming people will create great works while living off a sustenance-level basic income is a bit of a stretch. And, it seems to ignore the extreme level of work, commitment, and persistence it takes to write books, publish science, etc.
The issue is not whether people should be able to profit off their own work but whether a rent-seeking gatekeeper should be able to hijack others' work and profit off it.
I've traveled the ICW from Moorehead City, NC to Dinner Key, Miami. Derelict boats bring a very bad reputation to the cruising community and have real repercussions. Also, this boat is very unlikely to pass a coast guard inspection, making it an illegal vessel, putting other boaters and rescuers at risk, as they are legally obligated to render aid if he needs it.
This is why I am concerned for his mental health. Nothing wrong with living in a boat, as I've done with children. But one must be responsible and respect the danger of the water.
Far from a homemade boat. The Bristol 27 is a seaworthy craft. But this sailor apparently doesn't know how to use a sponge and paint brush to maintain her. These are normally quite pretty boats.
There's no excuse for keeping his boat in that state of disarray. I've lived aboard a sailboat with my family in the Bahamas and met a lot of full time liveaboards. The only boats I ever saw that were kept like that were the derelict vessels in Biscayne Bay, where destitute or mentally ill homeless lived in rotting anchored boats.
I've interviewed 100s of programmers for several very well known tech company and specifically tried to get tech interviewers to tone that down. Doing so allowed us to hire some great non-CS JR programmers who are now team leads and even CTOs at other companies.