The Future of Generalist Work

The Imperfectionist: Doing things is what counts

“Here’s what I mean: everyone seems to yearn for the productivity technique or life philosophy or set of personal rules that will cause them to do more writing, launch a business, be a better listener, or finally start meditating. But nothing beats actually doing a bit of the thing to reinforce to yourself that you’re capable of making progress on it. The best way to convince a five-year-old that enjoyable leisure doesn’t require addictive technology is to spend a few hours demonstrating that it doesn’t; and the best way to prove to yourself that you can add words to the manuscript of your novel is to add a few.”

Most ideas fail, but some will still create value for you even in failure.

An idea that allows you to acquire skills, experience, and build assets regardless of its ultimate success, is worth investing in.

How To Figure Out If Your Idea Is Worth Spending Time On - For The Interested

Keep a curiosity inbox. Whenever you get a new idea, write it down in a specific note or on a dedicated page in your notebook. Then, each time the idea pops back into your mind, give it a mark or increase its rating. Over time, you’ll develop a ranked list of ideas based on your long-term interests. This strategy allows you to continue exploring... See more

nesslabs.com • The Curiosity Conflict: The Struggle to Shift From Exploration to Exploitation

Top tier executive assistants are great at many things but have critical core operational tasks and simply don’t have the wide strategic business context required for CoS-style work.

Michael Houck • Understanding Cost Of Sales | Blog - Houck's Newsletter

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

And what you see internally is what I'll say is razor-sharp focus on reducing cycle time and bias to action and how do we reduce cycle time. I think it's basically the core of it culturally to me is getting people to think about smaller units of time for decision making. It seems obvious but I think you really have to reinforce it culturally. So... See more

Lessons from scaling Ramp | Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor)

“It's just to remind people that we don't work in years, quarters, weeks, we work in days. Each day matters and so never put out something tomorrow that you know can get done today. And that bias to action really permeates not just in the product teams but everywhere.”

many of society’s most pressing challenges – such as climate change – require highly creative problem-solving that crosses multiple domains, and polymaths may be the best people to find those solutions.

David Robson • Why Some People Are Impossibly Talented

Here are eight imperatives—all of them drawing strength and sustenance from the humanities:

We need a way of defining and pursuing progress that doesn’t reduce that concept to something that only comes from a digital device.

We desperately need access to values and wisdom that aren’t corrupted by the relentless financial metrics and imposed

Ted Gioia • The Real Crisis in Humanities Isn't Happening at College

That’s what -1 to 0 feels like: messy, confusing—squiggly. The hardest part is escaping. What ultimately leads you out of the mess is conviction, a state you must build incrementally and internally. And conviction and certainty are not the same.

For many people, -1 to 0 is also about deciding how you want to work. In a startup? In a big team? As a... See more