On building of All Trades
The researchers, Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas, were interested in people who took a less conventional approach to life. They interviewed hundreds of high-achieving, wildly successful “dark horses”: people who swerved in and out of jobs—and often industries—to find a good fit. From symphony conductors to chess masters, Apple execs to dogsled mushers,... See more
Simone Stolzoff • In Praise of the Meandering Career
Instead of doing broad but thin market research (e.g., customer surveys), focus on one person (or a small group) and go as deep as you can, learning everything about how your product fits into their broader lives. Or become your customer—spend a day, a month, or even a few years in the role you're trying to sell to before attempting to build a... See more
Casey Rosengren • The Power of Designing for a Single User
It’s not that people don’t want to work. It’s that their jobs feel, for whatever reason, unsustainable: unsustainable for their mental and physical health, but also unsustainable for their family, and their longterm survival. Many people actually really like the work that they do, if they were, indeed, allocating the bulk of their time to doing... See more
Anne Helen Petersen • The Expanding Job
At oAT, we’re on a constant mission to rethink how we do what we do and why
Stop trading time for money, start trading value for money.
100 Simple Truths
I wish when I was at my previous startups I had focused more on building and less on winning. Sure, I may not have done exactly what I had thought I wanted, but finding ways to love the process would’ve allowed for better outcomes anyway. What we want is such an abstract idea, built on a foundation of shifting sand, that it is pointless to try to... See more
Evan Armstrong • The Futility of Utility
“Technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
Evan Armstrong • Want to Build? Technical Excellence Won’t Be Enough.
Steve Jobs
“Self-management requires an interlocking set of structures and practices.”
How We're Working Without Managers at Buffer
Learning to thrive in a resilient culture is essential. Being indoctrinated into a rigid and fragile mindset is not.
Manipulation, indoctrination and addiction
There’s no competition for cookbooks on making food out of soccer balls and hockey pucks.
There’s no competition for software that charges you to find out the temperature on Mars.
There’s no competition for a service that counts how many pairs of shoes you own.
In fact, in every market that’s worth entering, there’s competition. That’s what you’re... See more
There’s no competition for software that charges you to find out the temperature on Mars.
There’s no competition for a service that counts how many pairs of shoes you own.
In fact, in every market that’s worth entering, there’s competition. That’s what you’re... See more