The Future of Generalist Work

Every. Single. One. of the startups that I've worked with have some

co-founder (or early team) dynamic that implicitly shapes their lasting culture.

These practices may be well-known and honored, or they may be hard-coded yet unspoken (like the pie in my story above). Either way, they are a part of the company’s DNA — its nature.

As an Ops Leader,... See more

Amanda Schwartz Ramirez • Find the sacred pie

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.”

You see, task management (what GTD teaches) is a meta-skill – a skill that enhances your ability to learn and apply other skills.

Meta-skills are not specific to any particular subject or field but are broadly applicable across various domains. For example, emotional intelligence, communication, critical thinking, self-regulation, and... See more

Superhuman

Each drop is creative and rebellious, winking to the world that capitalism is a necessary joke. They do all of this with a team of 34 people, most of whom are generalists with no background in making physical goods.

Evan Armstrong • The Art of Scaling Taste

The magic that MSCHF makes with generalists is the stuff of legend

a common misconception about going deep in a subject and researching it day in and day out is that its novelty will wear off. it doesn't wear off, but your perspective on novelty changes. for a novice, novelty is newness. for an expert, novelty is nuance.

Soona x.com

Taking a nontraditional path will force you to grapple with what matters

The greatest benefit of a nontraditional path is that you have to figure out what you care about. Rather than an employer telling you what you should value, you have to do the hard work of determining what you value for yourself. This may sound self-evident, but in a world... See more

Simone Stolzoff • In Praise of the Meandering Career

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.

Sari Azout • things worth sharing this week

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

How to clarify a concept you can’t articulate:

1. Change mediums. Draw it. Photograph it. Sing it.

2. Change levels. Explain what is one level up (bigger picture) or one level down (finer details).

3. Change fields. What would this concept look like in different fields?

James Clear • 3-2-1: On hard conversations, how to ruin a good strategy, and asking for what you want

How great generalists think