You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. And vice versa: when you can do whatever you want, you have more ideas about what to do. So working for yourself makes your brain more powerful in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful.
Working for yourself doesn't have to mean starting a... See more
Working for yourself doesn't have to mean starting a... See more
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
startup founders, leadership, PG
limitations of working at a big company
If people have to choose between something that's cheap, heavily marketed, and appealing in the short term, and something that's expensive, obscure, and appealing in the long term, which do you think most will choose?
It's the same with work. The average MIT graduate wants to work at Google or Microsoft, because it's a recognized brand, it's safe,... See more
It's the same with work. The average MIT graduate wants to work at Google or Microsoft, because it's a recognized brand, it's safe,... See more
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
startup founders, leadership, PG
“If "normal" food is so bad for us, why is it so common?”
Though they're statistically abnormal, startup founders seem to be working in a way that's more natural for humans.
I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of animals in the wild that I'd only seen in zoos before. It was remarkable how different they seemed. Particularly lions. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive. They're like... See more
I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of animals in the wild that I'd only seen in zoos before. It was remarkable how different they seemed. Particularly lions. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive. They're like... See more
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
startup founders, leadership, PG
working for oneself, or at least for a small group, is the natural way for programmers to live. Founders arriving at Y Combinator often have the downtrodden air of refugees. Three months later they're transformed: they have so much more confidence that they seem as if they've grown several inches taller. [4] Strange as this sounds, they seem both... See more
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
startup founders, leadership, PG
working for oneself is natural. more worried and happier, like lions in the wild. come alive.
These smaller groups are always arranged in a tree structure. Your boss is the point where your group attaches to the tree. But when you use this trick for dividing a large group into smaller ones, something strange happens that I've never heard anyone mention explicitly. In the group one level up from yours, your boss represents your entire group.
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
startup founders, leadership, PG
“the workers and manager would each share only one person’s worth of freedom between them.”