christopher

When I first arrived to one of my tech jobs, I did inventory of what folks were working on. Walked up and down the aisles of desks, cursory glances at screens, and reading slides in conference rooms from afar.

Managers and workers were spending more time analyzing scenarios than putting things into motion. Too many emails and microscopes. Waiting for absent approvals. It was killing the company. The innovator's dilemma where almost nothing happened.

People love seeing others in motion. They want others to try new things and take risks. You should make a mess out of a perfectly good situation. Prepare to ask for forgiveness. Nearly nothing is really that permanent in tech.

The next week I started deleting kanban boards and GitHub issues. Whole repos of code. If it wasn't on fire, it wasn't worth solving. Shortly, those 15 minute stand-ups meant more. You needed to show up, talk, fight for time and attention.

Things started moving and by the next summer we were opening up positions and rehiring.

blockspace babe. cultural attaché from ‘06 twitter. adjacent possible fanatic 🌐 UTC–4

love this energy. feeling exactly the same impulse at a volunteer gig we started on last month

Sometimes companies post jobs they don’t really intend to or can’t hire for.