business

Think Less

In several management paradigms such as Lean or the Theory of Constraints, one of the key principles in ensuring good flow of products or services through a process is keeping the amount of Work in Process (WIP) – that is, work that has been started but not yet finished – low.

For example, in a sales process, if your lead-generation team produces 100 leads a day but your sales team can only vet 10 a day, pretty soon you’re going to have an ever-growing backlog of unvetted leads. As that backlog gets bigger, the amount of time from when a lead is first generated to the time it gets vetted gets longer. If you want flow, keep WIP low.

These same dynamics – and even the word ‘flow’ – show up in human psychology as well.

Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi’s famous work on being “in flow” – that state of relaxed state of peak performance also known as being “in the zone” – posits that one’s emotional state is often a function of how the difficulty of a given task compares to one’s skill level in it: when the task is too easy, you’re bored; when the task is too hard, you’re frustrated or stressed. And the task is just about right – when you are being pushed to your limit but not beyond it – you enter flow.

Csikszentmihalyi’s model of psychological flow.

Also consider that in the popular Getting Things Done productivity system, one of the most important habits is consistently getting all of your ideas and to-do items out of your head and ‘on to paper’ (digital or not). This frees your mind from having to remember and keep track of it all. People who have gone through this process often find that they they are better able to focus and get more productive.

Less is More

In all of these cases, the amount of ‘stuff’ in the first step in our process- whether sales leads, the level of challenge in a given task, or the amount of to-dos in our list – exceeds the ability of the next step to handle all that stuff. Let’s call the step that’s producing the ‘stuff’ step ‘A’, and the next, step ‘B’.

One way to deal with this – to improve the flow – is to increase the capacity of step B. In our examples this might be hiring new salespeople, practicing to improve your skill level, or improving your memory. The problem with this approach is that while some solutions to increase capacity are cheap and easy (e.g. writing down all your to-dos in an organized way), most of the time these things take additional time and resources. In the meantime, the longer you get things continue on the same way, the more the backlog increases and the problem only gets worse.

Instead, what is often required – counterintuitively – to maintain and then improve flow is to first stop Step A from producing as much. Producing less before the bottleneck in the process reduces WIP and improves flow. After flow is improved, you can then more easily work on improving the capacity of the next step. And this all seems to work in both things and people alike.

“No Mind” = No Thoughts

I think is one of the reasons meditation is so powerful. One of the things you learn after just a few weeks of meditating is that we humans tend to be thinking – that is, producing thoughts – all. the. time. Indeed, it often takes many months of practice meditating to be able to go for more than a few seconds without thought. In many ways, a big part of meditation’s ability to help people is that it trains them to think less.

To be clear, I’m not disparaging the value of thinking. Our cognitive ability is what distinguishes us as a species, and sometimes thinking deeply about something is absolutely recommended. But too much of anything can be problematic. When we’re so lost in thought we’re not really present with our loved ones. When we’re so stressed thinking about work or money we can’t sleep. When we’re so focused on thinking about all the things we want instead of enjoying what we have that we live our lives in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. Those are all symptoms of too much thought.

I don’t think meditation’s ability to decrease the production of thought and increase the frequency and duration of flow in one’s life is a coincidence. Rather, one’s psychology is related to the the structure of one’s brain, which in turns obeys the same physical laws as a manufacturing or sales process.

So if you want more flow in your life, consider a few suggestions:

  1. Get your to-do list organized.
  2. Reduce the difficulty of a difficult task, whether by breaking it into smaller pieces, getting help, or delegating.
  3. Meditate.

And try, if you can, to think less.

What Causal Inference Can Tell Us About Hiring

One area I’ve gotten interested in lately is causal inference. For those of you not familiar, it’s a methodology that attempts to find and validate cause-effect relationships between variables. The key is that it attempts to do so using data without having to rely on controlled experiments. (For an introduction for the casual reader, I highly recommend Judea Pearl’s book The Book of Why.)

One concept I found interesting was the implications of something called a collider. A collider is a variable that is the effect of two or more variables. As a simple example, consider the following:

The way to read this diagram is that fame is a function (or effect) of money, talent, and looks. In other words, fame = f(money, talent, looks). In this example, fame is a collider relative to money, looks, and talent because they all have arrows pointing into fame.

The interesting implication from the book is the following: given that you hold the level of a collider constant, the other variables become dependent upon each other even though there is no causal influence on them.

To understand this better, let’s use an even simpler example: X + Y = Z. In this case, Z is a function of X and Y (i.e. Z = f(X,Y)), so Z is a collider with respect to X and Y:

Here’s the key point: if we fix the value of Z at some specific value (say 10, so we’re left with the relationship X + Y = 10), then X and Y become correlated. In other words, if I know the value of X (say 8), then I can infer Y (i.e. 2).

The interesting finding from causal inference is that this dynamic generalizes. Said another way, for a given level of Z, information about X automatically gives me some information about Y, even if I can’t observe Y directly.

Almost Famous

Why is this interesting? Let’s go back to our fame example. Assuming our causal model is valid, then we can say that for a given level level of fame, if we know something about their level of wealth, we can infer something about their level of looks and talent. If we simplified it down for a minute to say just include looks and talent, then we could say – for a given level of fame – we’d expect that a person who is more attractive is likely to be less talented. (Another way to think about this is if they were both attractive and talented, they’d be even more famous).

I haven’t done an analysis to verify this yet, but it’d be interesting to run an experiment. For example, look on social media for actors who have a similar level of followers (as a proxy for fame). Within that cohort, if the model is valid then you would see a spectrum ranging from the good-looking-but-hacky to the talented-but-ugly.

Counterintuitive Hiring

This finding has interesting implications in many places. Take hiring, for example. Consider, for example, a hypothesis that seniority_level = f(skill, likability). If you think both skill and likability are positively correlated to seniority level, then – for a given level of seniority – consider that the most skilled person is likely to be the one you personally like the least.

These are of course toy examples; the causal structure of real life is likely to be much more complex. But they illustrate both the power of causal analysis and the sometimes counterintuitive truths behind the way the world works.

Advice to a Recent High School Grad

My Godson just graduated from high school and is getting ready to attend college in the fall. I couldn’t attend his graduation party, but I did want to give him a gift. In addition to some noise-cancelling headphones, I wrote him a letter with some advice that I wish I had received when I went to college.

Below is the letter. Now this letter was a tailored to him so this is not necessarily the advice I’d give everyone. And I’m certain not everyone will agree with all I’ve written. But here it is.

Hi [Redacted],

Congratulations! Graduating high school is a big life milestone. I’m sorry I won’t be able to attend your graduation party, but I wanted to send along this note and a gift in my absence.

I asked several people about a few different gift ideas, and we all agreed that this would likely be something you would find useful for both fun and work. I actually got some a couple years ago and definitely wish I had had them in college. I hope you enjoy them!

I also wanted to give you a few pieces of advice that I wish someone had told me when I was going off to college. If you search the internet for “advice for college students” (which you should!) you can find lots of great information, so here I’ll focus on a few things that either I didn’t see elsewhere or that I felt would have been particularly useful if someone had told me.

Begin with the End in Mind

First, begin with the end in mind. What do you want to get out of the college experience? A job? To expand your horizons? To make new, lifelong friends? To learn more about yourself? College is different from high school in many ways. But one of the biggest is how many more options you have and how much more freedom you have in choosing between them. Because your time is limited, it’s helpful to at least spend a little of it thinking about what you hope to get out of your college and what steps are most likely to get you there. This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t change what your goals are as you learn and grow. In fact, that’s probably likely. But having at least some tentative idea about what you think your goals might be can help you be more conscious about how you spend your time.

Figuring out a Career Path

A career path should lie at the intersection of three things: what makes money, what you’re good at, and what you enjoy (in that order of importance). The people who get paid a lot typically are pretty good at at least one of four things: selling/marketing, managing people, managing money, or creating something that can be reproduced over and over (e.g. writing software, designing a microchip, discovering a new drug, etc.). You can also make pretty good money if you have certain professional certifications (e.g. a corporate attorney, a surgeon, etc.) You should therefore ask yourself and others who know you well which of those areas you are most skilled and which you enjoy.

Even if you think you’re pretty sure, one of the things I’d recommend early in your college career is to try to take a few classes in each of those areas that might give you a better sense of those things. I don’t know that there are many classes that focus on selling, but there might be some classes in negotiation or you could even start a small business on campus. For marketing you can obviously take marketing classes, but if you do that I’d really focus heavily on courses that are very quantitative (e.g. database marketing, digital analytics, etc.). For managing people, the best way to do that is to get a job where you are trying to coordinate a lot of people or try to get into a leadership position on campus at some point and gain some experience. There’s a lot to being a good leader/manager but a desire to coach and mentor people along with excellent communication and organizational skills are key. For managing money, I’d recommend taking accounting and finances classes, or even economics. Finally, in terms of actually making stuff, I’d say computer science and/or industrial design classes (like actually designing products) are good areas to focus. The other types of classes I’d recommend are those focused on statistics. Unless you’re going to be an engineer, statistics will be way more useful in the real world. And of course, if you have any interest in the law or medicine, taking classes in law or biology/chemistry is a good idea.

The main point I’m trying to make here is that early on you should cast your net semi broadly and get some sense of what areas are of practical interest to you. I have nothing against taking classes like poetry, art history, or psychology, but I’d recommend that you wait to take those until you’ve chosen your major and need some other classes to balance out your workload. When in doubt, finance classes are always useful – money touches most things.

Beyond the classes, I’d say that if there’s something you’re interested in that you think might want to pursue in a career, see if there’s some way to get involved with it while you’re in school early on. Maybe there’s a group on campus. Maybe you start a business or a blog. Maybe you start coding on your own on the side. It’s important that you try to actually do the thing you think you want to do. Yes it may help you get a job down the road (more on that later), but – even more importantly – it can help you understand what doing that kind of work is actually like – sometimes, the reality can surprise you. 

You may also want to consider visiting the career center at school. Most students don’t even think about visiting until senior year, but in actuality the resources there are a lot more valuable when you have four years to learn and plan than when you’re two months from graduation and scrambling to find a job.

The next things are internships and interviews. They can help you figure out which types of jobs you might enjoy. If you think you are interested in X, see if you can find professors in that field and just ask them about it. They probably know former students in that space. If there’s an alumni directory, search on there for people in those fields. (You can also used LinkedIn.) There’s a phrase that goes “ask for money, get advice; ask for advice get money twice”. By reaching out early before you’re actually looking for an internship or job and just asking if they’d be willing to talk on the phone or meet for coffee, not only can you learn a lot about various industries but – if you do decide that you want to intern or get a job with them later – you will have already built a relationship with them.

Finally, though I would still recommend that you go to college, you should be aware that the job market is shifting in big ways. Google, for example recently announced a program called “Google Career Certificates”:  they are online courses that – if you take them and pass – Google will consider them equivalent to a four year degree. There are also programs that are called “coding bootcamps”, which aim to give you the practical skills necessary to get a job as a software developer in the course of a few months. The reason I mention this is not to dissuade you from going to college but to make you aware that there are many forms of education available. You shouldn’t assume that just getting a college degree is all you need to do to be successful (or, conversely, that not getting a college means that you’re stuck.) While it’s not the majority view yet, more and more employers are starting to realize that what matters is not having a piece of paper, but that you can do the job they need you to do and can learn and adapt as needed. 

Now if you really want to be a professional athlete, movie star, or famous musician, I’m not saying don’t try. Do try, and try hard. But statistically speaking it’s probably not going to happen. So be smart about having a plan B.

Position Yourself to Get a Job

The good news is that two of the most important ways to figure out what you might want to do – doing actual work in the space and informational interviews/internships – are also two of the most important in helping you get a job by the time you graduate.

Here is the absolute #1 most important thing you need to know about getting a job: it’s almost always about relationships. For companies hiring a new college grad, they’re often going to get hundreds (if not thousands) of applications. The single best way to differentiate yourself is through a referral. That means building relationships: relationships with folks at potential employers, with professors or staff, even with other students – sometimes a friend of yours might get hired before you at a place you want to work and they can refer you; sometimes they might have a parent or older sibling that works somewhere. You never know.

When you combine the relationship with demonstrated interest in the area (through thoughful questions, joining relevant clubs, doing relevant work on the side, etc.) and decent grades, you’re in great shape. And while grades are very important, if I had to choose between a 3.1 and amazing relationships and a 3.8 and no relationships, I’d take the former in most cases. Keep in mind, however, that some scholarships, clubs, etc. have their own GPA requirements. This isn’t advice to skimp on the academics.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to folks. A lot of times people will respond to students. Create a profile on LinkedIn and search for folks in your field. Or look in your alumni directory. The best note is short and goes something like this: 

Dear Mr/Mrs X, I am currently a [freshman/sophomore, etc.] at [school]. I am very interested in learning more about the [field]. [Some explanation of how you found them] and was wondering if you’d be willing to speak for 30 mins and tell me more about the industry and your role. 

Not everyone will respond but some will. Take them up on it. Be prompt and prepared. And then follow up with a thank you note. Then – and particularly if it’s a thing you think you might actually want to do in the future – send them an update note every semester or so: how things are going, what you’ve been doing, and express your continued interest in the field (or ask about possible internships). 

If you start doing these things early on, you will be light years ahead of most other students come graduation time.

Develop Relationships

I talked a little bit about this already, but really take the time to meet new people and develop new relationships. There are two reasons to do this. First, it will help your career. Second, it’s rewarding in its own right.

First, money. Generally speaking, we live in a capitalist society. This means that the people who control the capital are basically in control. For the purposes of this letter, there are two types of capital. The first is financial capital. This is money. All else being equal, having more money is better. The second is human capital. This refers to people’s skills, talents, time, and attention. If you invest those types of capital effectively, you create more of them. If you invest ineffectively, you destroy them. You have your own talents, abilities, time, and attention, but those are inherently limited. You can’t be good at everything. But other people are good at other things. By getting good at developing and maintaining relationships, you get access to other people’s talents, abilities, time, attention, money, and relationships.  More practically, whether you’re looking for a job, someone to hire, a new client, an investor, or even just some advice, having a wide set of relationships makes all of these so much easier. This is somewhat true when you’re graduating. By the time you’re 30 it will be pretty important. And it only gets more important the older you get.

Second, meaning. In 1932, a Harvard doctor named Arlen Bock tried to conduct a definitive study of what leads to a life of satisfaction and happiness – what he called “human flourishing”. Between 1939 and 1946, Dr. Bock and his team selected about 250 sophomores from the Harvard undergraduate class, which ended up including four members who ran for U.S. Senate, one who served in a presidential cabinet, and even a young JFK. The men were evaluated at least every two years by questionnaires, evaluations from physicians, and in many cases by personal interviews. Information was gathered on every imaginable dimension: mental and physical health, career enjoyment, retirement experience, and marital quality…all from the time they enrolled in the study for the rest of their lives – it was to become known as the Grant Study, one of the foremost longitudinal studies of 20th century social science. In 2012, George Vallant, who directed the study for more than three decades, published a book called Triumph of Experience, a summation of the insights from the study. There are many interesting findings, but in my mind the most important finding is the following in Vallant’s own words: “The 75-years and $20 million expended on the Grant Study points to a straightforward conclusion: the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

So how to do this? If you’re naturally extroverted then you’ll do it automatically. If you’re introverted, it may take a bit more work. But make the effort. Join that club. Ask that girl out. You don’t need to be someone you’re not but put in the effort to at least be in situations where you have the opportunity to develop relationships with others. The reality is that you probably won’t remember most of what you learn in your classes. But many of the relationships you forge could last a lifetime. 

Do Well Enough in School

The first thing I need to say here is that “well enough” is really defined by your goals. If you want to go to med, law, or grad school –  then having top grades (~4.0) really matters. If you want to try to get a highly competitive job at a top company (Amazon, Goldman Sachs, etc.) then slightly lower grades (3.75+) are probably fine if you have built the relationships and have demonstrated real interest by doing work in the field. For most other things, a 3.0 is probably good enough and a 3.5+ is quite solid. If you’re getting below a 3.0 you need to do some combination of working harder, getting some help, or considering changing your major.

I won’t go into a ton of detail since you can find a lot about doing well in school online, but here are some quick tips on how to do well:

  • Use the resources the school has. Go to office hours. Go to writing clinics. Ask your (smart) friends. Ask the teaching assistants. Youtube and Google are your friends. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP. You are the customer (and the product) – the professors, teaching assistants and everyone else are there to help you. 
  • Figure out your own schedule. Some people are morning people. Some are night folks. Some people work best in uninterrupted blocks. Some people like to work for 90 mins then take a while to recover. Figure out when you are best able to focus and plan accordingly. Plan for about 3 hours of work outside the classroom for every 1 hour in it.
  • Figure how you study best. I personally found it was best for me to skim through the textbook before lectures as well as after.
  • If you’re in classes with problem sets, find others in the class to work with. It will be a lot easier working with a group.
  • Did I mention not being afraid to use the school’s resources? 

Working While in School

First of all, I recognize that some people have to work during school in order to afford it. But if you’re not in that situation, I’d generally recommend against it unless it’s really aligned with what you think you may want to do in the future. If you think you need more money, I’d first try to talk with the school – sometimes they have additional grants that they can provide. Next, assuming you haven’t taken out crazy amounts of debt to go to school already, I’d consider taking out an additional loan amount to cover the extra cost. You can also search for something called an “income share agreement” – this is a new way of paying for school where you only pay once you have a job and can afford it.

My reasoning here is that every hour you spend working (say in Starbucks) is an hour you could have spent studying, or writing your blog, or programming, or networking with potential employers. If you spend those hours doing those things, I can virtually guarantee you that’s a better investment. Now if take out a bigger loan, don’t get a job and then spend those hours watching TV or drinking (when you’re over 21, of course), that’s a different story.

Expand Your Horizons

Once you have some idea of what kind of path you think you might want to be on, are developing relationships, and are doing well enough in school, the next thing I’d suggest is to intentionally and proactively expand your horizons. Here are a few experiences that might be interesting to try – even if just once – while in college: write for the college newspaper; study abroad for a semester; volunteer for a political campaign; play an intramural sport; volunteer at a soup kitchen or other non-profit; learn Brazilian jiu jitsu; join a choir; play an instrument; do yoga; take a cooking class; learn to meditate. Always do some mix of spending time on the thing you think you care about (as doing so will tell you how much) and trying new things you’re curious about or even know nothing about just to learn. When you start working full time you’ll have plenty of time to focus. Now is still a time to explore.

Try to Enjoy the Journey

I found this paragraph online and though it captured the sentiment well:

“College can be a very exciting time of your life, but it can also be a very stressful one. Universities advertise themselves as places full of fun-loving, amazing students enjoying every day by hiking on the local trails, dressing up in school colors, cheering at football or basketball games, discovering their true passions, and having ‘the best four years of their life’. But college is also a place where you spend a lot of money taking classes that are likely considerably more difficult than anything you’ve taken in the past, with the hope that the effort will land you a better career someday, but only if you spend a lot of time networking and finding other opportunities to grow your resume, all while trying to figure out what it means to be an adult now and not a kid anymore. It can be so overwhelming that it’s very easy to just curl up in a ball and accept that the students around you will be better off than you, and that’s just the way it is.”

Particularly at times during the first couple of years, you may find that college can be overwhelming, stressful, and many other things. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Talk to your parents. Or your sister. Or your friends. Or people at school. Or me. Whatever helps. When things get really stressful, take a few deep breaths and remember that, in the grand scheme of things, whatever it is isn’t that big of a deal. The data I’ve seen suggests that the first two years are often the hardest from an adjustment perspective. If you can persevere through the first two years, things usually get better.

With that said college can also be a fun and exciting time. Though it may not always feel like it, in many ways it’s the time (perhaps until retirement) when you will have the maximum amount of freedom with the minimum amount of responsibility. You’ll learn a ton, make great friends, have fun, and make memories that last a lifetime. Four years may sound like a long time, but it’ll go by quickly. So enjoy it. I’m rooting for you.

Love,

Brendan

What did I get wrong here? What important thing did I miss? What advice do you wish you’d received before going to college that you don’t think is commonly given?

Creating Value

I have heard many times that the key to a successful business is to “create value”. While there is truth to that, it seems inadequate. Moreover, the ways in which it is inadequate have significant implications for the types of businesses one should start, the skills one needs to be successful, and the nature of our market system as a whole.

To my mind, there are two important clarifications here.

Value for Whom?

First, I actually don’t think our capitalist system rewards those who create value; it rewards those who create value for those who have value to give in return.

This can be most obviously seen in consumer brands. Apple and Starbucks are two of the most valuable brands in the world. Why? I would argue it’s because they target more affluent consumers for whom the marginal opportunity cost of that $3,000 computer or that $5 latte is not that big.

This reality has real consequences for the types of businesses that get started, funded, and succeed. Most people would probably agree that a business that helps uneducated, unemployed, single moms improve their parenting skills is ‘valuable’. But that’s not necessarily an easy business to start because – even if the moms wanted it – they don’t have the money to pay.

Now of course that business could attempt to sell its services to the government or a non-profit — or even get sponsored by a corporation – but this really is just the same thing: convincing the group that has value to give that you are providing a product or service that they value (even if they’re not the direct recipient of that product or service).

Creating Value vs. Capturing Value

The second clarification I’d like to make is the ability of a person or an organization to create value vs their/its ability to capture value. It took me a long time to realize that these are not the same thing, and that the skills/capabilities required are often quite different. Moreover, for the purposes of becoming financially successful, I would argue that being able to capture value is more important..

Let’s say you’re a brilliant developer. You’ve worked for years developing this algorithm that solves some massive problem. And just last night, you finally got it to work. You’re telling some guy about this at a party, and he’s super interested. In fact, after some more discussion he agrees to pay you $500K for your work. $500K! You gladly take the money, and at tax time gladly pay your tax bill on that income when the time comes.

Meanwhile, this guy takes your algorithm, forms a corporation, and then turns around and goes and licenses it to big company. He’s a great negotiator and manages to get a $1M license fee – non-exclusive, of course – per year. And come tax time he’s got a bunch of business expenses to pay — marketing, business-class travel, etc., and leverages his disregarded entity’s self-directed plan to make large, pre-tax contributions to his retirement account, allowing him to reduce his tax bill significantly.

Who created the value here? Who captured it? Are the skills and knowledge required for each the same?

–

There’s obviously a lot to discuss here. Even my example is far from perfect in illustrating the distinctions. Perhaps I’m even thinking about it the wrong way. But they seem like important distinctions to consider.

The Disney Synergy Map

Those of you who know me well know I love maps, diagrams, and systems. I also love when people combine “left-brain” and “right-brain” thinking. This is one of the reasons I love architecture: it’s engineering and art combined.

Walt Disney was a genius at this. He is obviously known for his masterful animation, storytelling, and his vision for Disneyland. But what many not appreciate is the incredible number of technical advances that he and his team pioneered to enable such art to be created. (If you haven’t seen it and are interested, the American Experience documentary on his life is fascinating).

Given this, imagine my delight when I first found this diagram that Walt created in 1957 to lay out Disney’s strategy. It was known as the “Synergy Map”:

There are so many reasons why I love this. The scope of the vision. The understanding of how the pieces fit into the whole. The brilliance of the feedback loops. And – in pure Disney Magic – the characters running around the map.

I’ve had this saved on my computer for several years now and recently had a copy printed and framed on my wall. It inspires me every time I look at it.

The Value of Options

When making a decision, we often tend to immediately gravitate to a specific option and then evaluate that decision in a vacuum. Instead, I find its helpful to make sure to force myself to layout at least 2-3 options and weigh their pros and cons. This is not so different than the A/B Hypothesis Method I try to use. The difference is that whereas that process primarily takes place quickly in my head, this process is meant to be used for larger decisions; often involving a group.

High Standards

One of my mentors, the late Eli Goldratt, had a saying about goal setting:

“If you’re not sure how to hit a target… raise the target.”

Practically, the reason this works is that raising the target eliminates possible courses of action and forces you to focus on the levers that will have the biggest impact. Philosophically however, it is a particular instance that illustrates the power of having high standards.

Having high standards for both yourself and others is pretty close to having a superpower. Yet while it sounds simple, it’s not easy. It requires stepping back and asking ‘what does true excellence look like here?’. Then, it requires both the discipline and the emotional fortitude to hold yourself and others to that higher standard.

All great leaders hold high standards. Consider the very first job that Jeff Bezos ever posted at Amazon (my emphasis):

“Well-capitalized start-up seeks extremely talented C/C++/Unix developers to help pioneer commerce on the Internet. You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems, and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible. You should have a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or the equivalent. Top-notch communication skills are essential. Familiarity with web servers and HTML would be helpful but is not necessary.“

Whether it’s speed, quality, or both, great leaders hold high expectations for themselves and their teams.

Beginnings

Many people took off the past two weeks for the holidays, so today marks the beginning of the new ‘work year’. For some, it may also represent the start of a new role or even an entirely new job.

Though I’ve been working on this for some time now, today marks my official first day as Managing Director of Centinel. As such, it has me thinking a lot about beginnings and how much they can matter.

Beginnings are a unique time. Almost everything is a ‘first’: a first impression; a first policy; a first decision; a first precedent. One of my favorite eras in history to study is the founding of the United States government. From the signing of the Declaration of Independence though the drafting of the Constitution to Washington’s first administration, the Founders were keenly aware that what they said and did in those early days set the tone and character for all that was to come. As such, those early days shaped our country and its government in ways that were uniquely powerful. This is true of personal relationships, too.

The start of a new role and especially the founding of a new company is similar. Though the scale and magnitude is not likely to be as large as founding a new country, those early days nevertheless have an oversized impact on what’s to come. That’s why I believe it’s so important to think carefully about what messages and precedents are set.

Many of are thankful to be done with 2020. As we begin 2021, let’s remain mindful to start on the right foot.

Traits of Great Employees & Founders

Paul Graham has another great post this month on Earnestness. You should read it in full. (It’s not long.) There were a few specific parts that caught my attention, however:

The highest compliment we can pay to founders is to describe them as “earnest.” This is not by itself a guarantee of success. You could be earnest but incapable. But when founders are both formidable (another of our words) and earnest, they’re as close to unstoppable as you get.

He goes on further:

When you call someone earnest, you’re making a statement about their motives. It means both that they’re doing something for the right reasons, and that they’re trying as hard as they can. If we imagine motives as vectors, it means both the direction and the magnitude are right. Though these are of course related: when people are doing something for the right reasons, they try harder.

Warren Buffett often says he looks for three things in people he hires: intelligence, energy, and character. Jeff Bezos says he looks for resourcefulness and an ability to make good decisions. How might we synthesize and reconcile these things? I think it probably looks something like the below:

I think the question of motives and energy is an interesting one. Some people (like my wife) tend to be high energy in general: she is able to work for long periods of time and is incapable of “relaxing” – watching TV or reading, say – for more than a few hours. In contrast, I am very lazy in general… except when the effort required aligns with something I value. For example, I value building companies and being fit. So I have no problem working for twelve hours and then running six miles. But taking 10 mins to get up from the couch to put away some groceries? Now that takes real effort.