on working

Celine’s 2nd Law: Honest communication occurs only between equals. If one person has power over another, then the less powerful person can’t risk saying what they really think. Thus, in any hierarchy, honest communication only travels horizontally.

Move toward the next thing, not away from the last thing.

Same direction. Completely different energy

Instead of trying to be the best at one thing, try to be "merely" great at two things and then learn to combine them. Not only is this easier, but it will make your skillset more unique, cutting out the competition.

Playfulness makes it easier to adapt the rules of the game to meet everyone’s needs in the situation. You might decide to invent a new rule, change a rule—or play a new game altogether.

Work for someone you look up to.

You have to do the work. To use a crypto analogy, you have to have proof of work. If you have that and you truly have something interesting, then you shouldn’t hesitate to put it together in an email and send it. Even then, when asking for a meeting, you want to be actionable.

If you understand the true motivations and fears of every stakeholder/team member, you can begin to understand where things may start to come apart.

Hint: the incentive is never “the work” and the biggest fear is always about the person, not the org.

You have to be utterly ruthless about dodging meetings. When you do meetings, make them walking meetings. Do standing meetings. Keep them short, actionable and small.

The day I compromise what I write to satisfy the whims of some corporate overlord is the day that I quit writing for a career.