Blog

I remember the first time I gave someone a raise. I’ll never forget it. This person was a key player on the team. Someone talented and experienced, that had nonetheless bought into our mission and delivered results. He was a fun person to be around, too. But because we were an early stage startup, we…More

Today as I was getting my haircut, I noticed a situation that made me think about the role of a leader in an organization. What made today different than any other haircut? Today, the owner of the business was present at the front desk. He was there when I arrived, during my haircut, and as…More

An excellent article by Lara Hogan. My favorite part: We’re going to have to lean into the discomfort of this moment here. I’m sorry! It might feel easier to avoid this awkward conversation, or simply trust that the feedback has landed. But moving forward without triple-checking that you’re on the same page wouldn’t be fair…More

There’s a huge difference between shipping a product, soft launching, and launching. And there’s no rule that says you can only launch once. It took a fair amount of effort for me to divorce these ideas in my own mind. The novice mindset of “if you build it, they will come” is still one of…More

Jessitron writes: Software is not an up-front investment that pays off over its use. Software is an ongoing concern, an intricate piece of a business that needs to evolve if the business is going to. and: The difference between people good at receiving direction and people who generate their own direction, according to Kegan, is…More

Someone once told me that as a member of the executive team at a growing technology startup, whenever there is a Big Decision that must be made, you have three choices: Agree and commit Disagree and commit Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out Obviously this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but…More

We’re currently on week 14 of Agave, and I wanted to write a little about the product development process inside my brain as Jared and I are working on building the best virtual office in the world for remote teams to have serendipitous interactions. Separate problems/opportunities and solutions It’s such a common mistake to make…More

Adrian Wooldridge writes about the ancient wisdom of Plato and how it relates to democracy and society’s classes. The most prescient part of the article for me was: If a society run by educated guardians is the best sort of society, in Plato’s view, a society run by the masses is the worst. Plato conceded…More

I was reading Auren Hoffman’s Step Functions and One-percent Improvements and remembered a key piece of advice we received early at Bloc. I can’t remember who told us, but it was: Every project is either an incremental improvement or a big bet. You need both. I think about this a lot during roadmapping exercises or…More

I was reading Scott Alexander’s excellent post this morning about why different people got the early coronavirus predictions right and wrong, and one of the things he mentions: The coronavirus killed fewer people than the flu did in January. But it might kill more in February — and unlike the flu, its scope and effects…More

From Boz’s Mission, Strategy, and Tactics: Interestingly, this post is an example of something even more paramount than having a mission: providing a common language for the team to use that everyone understands. Ensuring people use terms consistently isn’t just pedantry, it is potentially critical to scaling execution. I couldn’t agree more emphatically. One of…More

I try to watch this video at least once a quarter to remind me of how and why great leaders build and run their teams. It’s 10 minutes long and well worth your time. If you liked this, you should read his book, Turn the Ship Around.More

From HBR This has become one of my biggest pet peeves at modern companies. And it is everywhere. Someone calls a meeting and 5 people show up, each carrying a laptop. Maybe you, as the meeting owner, kick things off. But then, I see your eyes drawn to your email inbox. During the meeting. While…More