On building of All Trades
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?
Given the pace we are working at, we look foremost for flexibility and initiative. The ability to build constructively in a limited-resource environment (potentially having to wear several hats) is the most important to us.
Lenny Rachitsky • How Perplexity builds product
Perplexity founder’s take on how they prioritize early hires
If you remain flexible – even in the places where you really do think you got it right – and give yourself the chance to be proven incorrect, you’re setting yourself and your company up for success.
The Not So Cookie-Cutter Approach to Company Building — 8 Lessons from Zapier
The future of work is flexible - teams need partners that are flexible and and allow for flexibility in their work structures.
Many concepts can be explained concisely, in simple language, and we should all strive for clarity. But the aphorism is a mistake, for a number of thoughts approximate the carpenter’s craft, and to meaningfully reveal them requires time and attention. Sometimes these cannot simply be told to another at all, they must be grown. For a topical... See more
Simon Sarris • Long Distance Thinking
Job titles are just the most visible ladder of them all. It’s interesting that pompous executive job titles were invented during the Victorian era. This is when we started the trend of calling a cleaner a hygiene technician. A bin man became a waste management and disposal technician. Later on, a call-center worker became a communications... See more
Anne-Laure Le Cunff • The tyranny of job titles: from vanity growth to personal growth
Generalists have shirked the the notion of a true job title to fit their work and have followed the thread of providing value and making an impact. No wonder there’s a group of talented professionals hiding in plain sight given how constricting the traditional job titles have become in affirming our professional worth.
Mihika likens the role of a 0-to-1 team within a large company to that of Hestia in Greek mythology, who is the “keeper of the hearth.” It is Hestia’s job to always keep the hearth burning, even while other gods go out on separate quests. This means always keeping the 0-to-1 project alive and helping it spread to others, mostly through setting... See more
Lenny Rachitsky • Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma)
the people who can start things will be the major beneficiaries in the coming years, because the barrier is no longer knowledge or skills, it’s courage.
Superhuman
People in positions of power have a vested interest in workers keeping their heads down and staying in their lanes. Elite schools and corporations run on the backs of excellent sheep. But when you find other people who are open to less linear definitions of success, it will give you the confidence to keep going. Wander on, fellow traveler. I’m... See more