learnings #4

1. Are you closing the gap (with competition) vs opening the gap (going ahead of competition)? 

>> A question from a mentor. Are you catching up, or are you running ahead? A good frame to evaluate where our time goes. 

2. "I want you to do this". "I have high expectations from you". "You can do this". "We have to be world's best in this". "Who needs to do what by when". "Show me the code"

>> I was noting down the usual phrases by the same mentor. Direct expectation setting, raising the aspiration, clarifying the vague asks, going to the ground truths than accepting the abstract picture. 

3. Don't select people like yourself for the team. Choose people who challenge you, make you think differently, smarter than you. 

>> Yet another mentor. He was a tiny bit upset that I managed to steal someone, but I was asking him permission (after the fact). The advise is something to be kept in mind. 

4. Don't make promises you cannot deliver. Like "onboarding will be smooth" - if it will not be. Under promise and overdeliver. 

>> This comes up again. This was in the context of asking someone to join you, we sell the idea why they should join us, but not to overdo which leads to disappointment. 

5. If writing code becomes cheap, the scarce skills are: framing problems, deciding tradeoffs, and validating outputs. Become the person who can specify, verify, and integrate.

>> I used to wonder about the inevitable march of technological progress rendering some industries obsolete. I had read about “dead towns”, the same ones that had once thrived around some factories or industries that were made redundant due to next generation of technology. Now I think I am about to see this happen to my own line of work. It will be a wild ride for next few years. 

6. The key is to say no to solving 90% of the problems you have and to focus on the 10% that really matter.

>> I am still learning to sit with the pain of not being able to solve everything and still focus on the most important ones I can do something about. Building this pain tolerance becomes inevitable. I guess this is why some people seem insensitive after a while. Mine is not of that scale though. 

7. Give away the legos - graduate from building room, to house, to neighborhoods, to cities, to the world. Don't be uncomfortable in giving away what you built to someone else. 

>> Useful to think about – build something, then to let go, to go and build something bigger. Same thought as “increasing your impact in concentric circles” and “why we should take on bigger challenges” to know what we are capable of, to discover more about ourselves, to grow as a person. 

8. Snorkel before Scuba - get a wider understanding before deep diving into a specific problem

>> Same thought as “microscope vs telescope”, zooming in vs zooming out, knowing the weeds vs seeing the forest. But that both views are needed. 

9. J Curve vs Stairs - career trajectory

>> This and the previous two are from a podcast by Molly Graham, one of the best I heard recently. She was saying we should be ok to take a career path that looks like you are falling off a cliff, then figuring it out to and climb a new peak. That it doesn’t have to be just climbing a stair, one promotion at a time, waiting it out. Each of such “jumping off a cliff” sounds scary, but makes it worthwhile. 

10. Everyday life is so absurd that just existing is an act of revolutionary courage, that behind the eyes of every human is a dizzying matrix of pain and confusion. 

>> Such a beautiful sentence. I hope I remember this when I judge anyone.