Curb Your Ambition
- Bury the hustle: “the grind” = overwork => burnout. Choose sustainable.
- Happy pacifists: war metaphors != business. Don’t compare, participate.
- Our goal: No Goals: concrete goals are artificial. Prefer high-quality work.
- Don’t change the world: Reduce unrealistic expectations. Do good local work.
- Make it up as you go: Short-term planning gives flexibility and keeps discount low.
- Comfy’s cool: Discomfort is a negative signal. Occasional discomfort is ok.
Defend Your Time
- 8’s enough, 40’s plenty: 8 hours = Chicago -> London. Can do a lot if uninterrupted. Pick.
- Protectionism: Resist meetings and default to async comms
- The quality of an hour: 1x60 » 4x15. Don’t forget buffer for context switches.
- Effective > productive: Don’t do as much as possible. Cut, don’t add, work.
- The outwork myth: work ethic = consistency, quality, respect, NOT heroism, quantity.
- Work doesn’t happen at work: offices = interruption factories. Isolation is key.
- Office hours: lending expertise is unfair trade for expert. Batch questions.
- Calendar tetris: Meetings are last resort. When someone takes your time, it costs you.
- The presence prison: Availability (physical or virtual) = interruptibility.
- I’ll get back to you whenever: Resist escalation. Delegate to async.
- FOMO? JOMO!: Don’t stay constantly tuned in. Use “heartbeats” for important updates.
Feed Your Culture
- We’re not family: Companies using this metaphor incur unidirectional sacrifice.
- They’ll do as you do: If you choose bad habits and long hours, so will they. Set an example.
- The trust battery: Build relationships on a person-by-person basis by investing in people.
- Don’t be the last to know: Ask hard, pointed questions to get real impressions.
- The owner’s word weighs a ton: Even questions can drastically shift priorities.
- Low-hanging fruit can still be out of reach: You can’t gauge unfamiliar work. It’s probably harder.
- Don’t cheat sleep: It makes waking hours better, especially for others. Work can wait.
- Out of whack: Work usually takes from life. That’s not balance. Set boundaries.
- Hire the work, not the resume: Resume is only a snapshot. Work is the best representation.
- Nobody hits the ground running: Understanding culture and knowing how to operate takes time.
- Ignore the talent war: Nurturing and growing your people is more fulfilling and sustainable.
- Don’t negotiate salaries: Fixed compensation reduces inequity from negotiation.
- Benefits who?: Free meals keep you at the office. Set people free instead.
- Library rules: Open-plan offices should be like libraries: quiet places where people focus and work.
- No fakecations: Completely disconnect and rest. “Unlimited” vacations are counterproductive.
- Calm goodbyes: When someone leaves, clearly state why. Else, rumors will fill the void.
Dissect your process
- The wrong time for real-time: If it’s important, have a separate doc for it and slow down. Async first.
- Dreadlines: Keep deadline fixed, but reduce scope if needed. Give the working team this power.
- Don’t be a knee-jerk: Write ideas up and request thoughtful comments.
- Watch out for 12-day weeks: Releasing on Friday meant fixing through the weekend. Use weekdays.
- The new normal: Culture (mal)adapts quickly. Course correct immediately.
- Bad habits beat good intentions: More ingrained habits take longer to unwind. Start now.
- Independencies: Ship things when they’re ready. Keep teams independent.
- Commitment, not consensus: One person takes input and decides. Others disagree and commit.
- Compromise on quality: Know what needs to be perfect and what can be “just fine”.
- Narrow as you go: Explore in the beginning and then focus on executing. Don’t backtrack.
- Why not nothing?: Migrations are tiresome. Doing nothing can improve focus and reduce toil.
- It’s enough: Know when to stop optimizing on a metric. Going too far brings stress.
- Worst practices: Don’t blindly cargo cult. Find what works for your team and circumstances.
- Whatever it doesn’t take: Clarify what it will take so you know where to make tradeoffs.
- Have less to do: Eliminate work when possible to free up time to focus on what matters.
- Three’s company: Work expands to fill the team available. Move quickly with a small team.
- Stick with it: Pulling people off projects incurs waste. Allow time for reflection on new ideas.
- Know no: Yes is a commitment whereas no allows more options in the future. Saying no is hard.
Mind your business
- Risk without putting yourself at risk: Choose risks that keep optionality open.
- Season’s greetings: 4-day weeks in summer. Adapt work culture to season.
- Calm’s in the black: Without profit, you’re either burning money up or burning people out.
- Priced to lose: Per-seat pricing gives big customers influence. Fixed pricing diversifies.
- Launch and learn: The market and customer feedback is the highest quality input.
- Promise not to promise: Promises accumulate like debt with interest. Avoid committing early.
- Copycats: People will copy you. Getting angry only hurts you. Move on.
- Change control: Don’t force users to change behavior or upgrade. Legacy is heritage.
- Startups are easy, stayups are hard: Launching is just the first step in the journey. Pace yourself.
- No big deal or the end of the world?: These are two tokens in attitude. You take one, customer takes the other.
- The good old days: Keep growth slow so that you can retain the culture that you have.
Last
- Choose calm: Protect time, stay focused, and keep life in balance. Make this choice.