On building of All Trades

I'm really inspired by also how they were really quiet for a really long time at the beginning. They were not trying to become the next new success story on the pages of every paper. They were much more just like, "We're just going to prove through the quality of our output over time that we are doing something interesting, and weird, and... See more

Camille Ricketts: Former Head of Marketing at Notion

"Hi, would you rather work with a company that's owned by some private equity schmuck, or a company where some of the prosperity you helped me generate gets reinvested in you and your community?" It's a competitive advantage to do the right thing. So I feel like that we're going to have a new wave of founders who take that seriously, who are going... See more

Reflections on a movement | Eric Ries (creator of the Lean Startup methodology)

The internet and software is only accelerating this trend: as coordination costs get lower, it becomes easier and easier for companies to use outside services instead of building capabilities internally, concentrating knowledge in fewer and fewer organizations.

Ise Jingu and the Pyramid of Enabling Technologies

How do you preserve a source of truth when your team looks like teams of the future, connected with individuals who care but may be working in different systems and organizations to help you achieve your business goals? How can you assign an arbiter of truth?

“Lots of folks have said to us, ‘You’re growing, you could grow faster if you hired more people.’ I think a lot of companies and investors overpitch growth at all costs, but sometimes that causes a ‘more people more problems’ issue .”

It should come as no surprise by now that Foster politely said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” to these well-meaning... See more

The Not So Cookie-Cutter Approach to Company Building — 8 Lessons from Zapier

The first step is to understand the fundamental difference between humans and AIs. We are analog, chemical beings, with emotions and feelings. Compared with machines, we think slowly—and we act too fast, failing to consider the long-term consequences of our behavior (which AI can help predict). So we should not compete with AI; we should use it. At... See more

Esther Dyson • Don’t Fuss About Training AIs. Train Our Kids

We’re building a human-first company in the age of AI. To be a generalist is to fundamentally be human, to be graded on soft skills, willingness to show up, and be curious and to build trust.

With the innovation of the org chart McCallum eased the tradeoff between scale and efficiency that many organizations face as they grow. This new ‘operating system’ for firms operates even more effectively in modern times by leveraging the internet, but the tradeoff between scale and efficiency has not gone away. Structures and processes that work... See more

Omar Shams • The AI Organization, part I - by Omar Shams - mutable.ai

My entire philosophy of how I organize myself as a working painter can be summed up by something George Carlin said: “Just keep movin’ straight ahead. Every now and then you find yourself in a different place.”

You hear a lot in art school about how painters must continue to “grow” and “evolve”—but I think those are such bullshit words. There is... See more

Kieran O‘Hare • Following the ‘White-hot Fire Inside of You’

The art in “sheer persistence”

Responsive organizations are fueled by individual and collective learning. Retrospectives are baked into the culture; feedback and learning drive strategy and growth.

Sharan Bal • Hiring Humans, Not Resources

A century-long vision allows you to build something that mostly ignores short-lived fluctuations in public perception or personal feelings. With a vision of that duration, you can think outside of yourself. If you couple that with a hum-drum process of Google Sheets and brain-trust meetings, you can build something meaningful.

There is something... See more