On building of All Trades

When a company actually wants the opinions of those who work there, there are far more effective ways to have a productive conversation around the insights and desires that we each bring to the organization. Asynchronous and structured, these interactions are vital sources of connection and wisdom.

“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

With more remote and hybrid work, I think we probably have to be more thoughtful about creating connections — to new people and new ideas. I don’t think it means we can’t do it, but perhaps we can’t rely on water-cooler or photocopier serendipity to the extent we might have in the past.

Perhaps we can use tactics like the “Monday Notes” NASA... See more

The thing about smart people is that they tend to think that if they think really hard about something, they might figure it out, when the truth is, in strategy (and life in general), there is never one right answer.

Strategy requires making choices about a future that is not yet known. I’m one of those people that tends to over-intellectualize

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Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest...The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest.

Know what you want to stand out for, how you’re different, what you can do that no one else can that can’t be captured by an algorithm or simple market signals, at least not yet. 

There’s a market for almost everything. 

The most valuable things will always be the ones that are hardest to price.

You can start a company to make an impact and surround yourself with people on a similar journey, or you can seek to maximize the stock price and profits.

Projects rarely unfold in a linear fashion; they require frequent course correction. Most trainees should spend more time on a project’s decision tree than they currently do. Once you get into a project, you will have learned from your initial experiments, new papers will have been published, and technology will have advanced. As a result, at any... See more