Johanna

The best way to be good at sales is to genuinely believe in what you’re selling. Selling what you truly believe in feels great, and trying to sell snake oil feels awful.

If the authors use Twitter and the news media to promote their work, doesn’t that suggest they’re inviting public discourse about their research? Not sure I have any good answers for this. Maybe sharing stories of errors uncorrected isn’t the right approach. I’m willing to try any other approach offered to help fix our current poor practices of... See more

Basic jobs don’t help the disabled. (...) First, the disability application process is a mess. Imagine the worst DMV appointment you’ve ever had to obtain the registration to a sketchy old car you got from a friend, then multiply it by a thousand – then imagine you have to do it all while being too disabled to work. (...) Second, disability is... See more

It’s become easier to be busy, but harder to be productive. To work on the right things at the right time. 

Gupta recommends assigning people already within your company to act as bar raisers. (...) “Tell them their job is to ensure that somebody is going to be above the 50% bar of the folks already at your company for that role at that level.”

I’ve learned that I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’t like. So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to do them (by delegating, avoiding, or something else). Stuff that you don’t like is a painful drag on morale and momentum.

It’s also important to think about what you’re well-suited for. This is hard to do with pure introspection; ideally you can ask a mentor or some people you’ve worked with what you’re particularly good at. I’ve come to believe that founder/company fit is as important as product/market fit.

Whenever possible (and it’s almost always possible), have someone do a day or two of work with you before you hire her; you can do this at night or on the weekends.

Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on