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> OP's ability to put his learnings into words Reading this gave me the exact opposite impression - the amount of work it takes to extract takeaways from this

> OP's ability to put his learnings into words Reading this gave me the exact opposite impression - the amount of work it takes to extract takeaways from this writing is IMO one of it's biggest failures. It felt like pulling teeth to try and even get meaning out of some sections. #3 in particular is so nebulous I struggle to find the lesson at all. To me, this seems like a case of bad writing organization. If done better, I bet this piece would be half the length of current. As to the contentious content: taking time to understand how your company works, great! Needing 6 months before being considered useful? Huge red flag. > When you’re in a company full of smart people, like Shopify, it can often be quite tricky to resolve disagreements and impasses Here's another huge red flag for me. The later explanation around having an idea of how the leadership/company thinks? Great. But having that philosophy/approach outlined should make resolution a lot easier. The "full of smart people" excuse could be rooted in a few things, but I struggle to think of a good one.

Aeolun 6y ago
> Needing 6 months before being considered useful? I don’t think this is ‘useful’ so much as ‘having a clue what is going on’. It’s easy to be productive on the one project you are assigned to, but you won’t have any context for the implications of what you are working on.
- adjkant 6y ago
  Quote the original piece: > "In your first six months, you’re gonna be useless anyways. You’re going to be drowning in new information and context and it’ll take you a few months to learn how to swim." Useless is their word here, and the way they continue to describe it gives the same impression. I'm in agreement that knowing how organizations work takes time and experience, but six months is indicative of a larger problem in the org. Brevity and succinct, digestive philosophy is valuable. If you can't at least communicate a good outline to new hires in a month or two, something has gone wrong. The minutiae of course will take far longer than 6 months in total, but you should be able to "swim" by then, just not as fast as a 2-4 year vet.
csallen 6y ago
I just read point #3 after reading your comment, and I don't see what's nebulous about it. Perhaps different people are good at grokking different writing styles, because it was quite easy for me to extract the lessons: - It really is true that big companies move much more slowly than startups. - Consequently, startups should be wary of projects that depend on partnerships with big companies. - Big companies are slow because knowledge is widely distributed and tough to wrangle, and liabilities and gotchas are numerous. Even simple things require a lot of know-how. - To minimize slowness, find a single person who knows all of the moving parts involved. Avoid hodgepodges of people who each know only a tiny part of the whole challenge. - It's important to start with this person, because problems snowball. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
- adjkant 6y ago
  I like your summary a lot better, and much of this info is buried. Something that speaks volumes is reading the first sentence part of each paragraph in that section, you get exactly zero of these points. The storytelling flow of consciousness might work for some, but generally it's well established that for this type of writing, leading with your point and backing up with examples after tends to be more effective. But also in this case, a lot of the details don't actually add context to the lesson and can be removed without hurting the content of the piece. As an example, here's a possible rewrite of section #3 that I think reads a lot better and really doesn't lack any material: > A long time ago, I was told “if you’re a startup, try not to waste your time talking to big companies unless you’re doing it deliberately. They have an absolutely endless capacity to consume your time with meetings.” I didn't truly understand until I got a chance to work with a partner for my first time within Shopify on our partnership with Operation HOPE to help start 1,000,000 new Black-owned businesses over the next decade. > It’s clear to me now how this happens. In a partnership, I have found the most important thing is making sure that someone who understands every piece of the project is involved from the very outset of the project. If this fails, you end up spending a lot of time (like I have) straightening out requirements and capabilities on both sides. This creates meeting after meeting as new groups get pulled in, but never solves the real problem. Word Count: 488 vs 154
nathanvanfleet 6y ago
Not to mention brevity being a sign of good communication. The same point is covered over and over with slight changes. You really slog through and feel like things aren't really clear. I have worked a bunch of tech companies and am having trouble figuring out how I could possibly be "useless" for an entire 6 months. What is going on there? He never really says.

Aeolun 6y ago

> Needing 6 months before being considered useful? I don’t think this is ‘useful’ so much as ‘having a clue what is going on’. It’s easy to be productive on the one project you are assigned to, but you won’t have any context for the implications of what you are working on.

adjkant 6y ago
Quote the original piece: > "In your first six months, you’re gonna be useless anyways. You’re going to be drowning in new information and context and it’ll take you a few months to learn how to swim." Useless is their word here, and the way they continue to describe it gives the same impression. I'm in agreement that knowing how organizations work takes time and experience, but six months is indicative of a larger problem in the org. Brevity and succinct, digestive philosophy is valuable. If you can't at least communicate a good outline to new hires in a month or two, something has gone wrong. The minutiae of course will take far longer than 6 months in total, but you should be able to "swim" by then, just not as fast as a 2-4 year vet.

csallen 6y ago

I just read point #3 after reading your comment, and I don't see what's nebulous about it. Perhaps different people are good at grokking different writing styles, because it was quite easy for me to extract the lessons: - It really is true that big companies move much more slowly than startups. - Consequently, startups should be wary of projects that depend on partnerships with big companies. - Big companies are slow because knowledge is widely distributed and tough to wrangle, and liabilities and gotchas are numerous. Even simple things require a lot of know-how. - To minimize slowness, find a single person who knows all of the moving parts involved. Avoid hodgepodges of people who each know only a tiny part of the whole challenge. - It's important to start with this person, because problems snowball. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

adjkant 6y ago
I like your summary a lot better, and much of this info is buried. Something that speaks volumes is reading the first sentence part of each paragraph in that section, you get exactly zero of these points. The storytelling flow of consciousness might work for some, but generally it's well established that for this type of writing, leading with your point and backing up with examples after tends to be more effective. But also in this case, a lot of the details don't actually add context to the lesson and can be removed without hurting the content of the piece. As an example, here's a possible rewrite of section #3 that I think reads a lot better and really doesn't lack any material: > A long time ago, I was told “if you’re a startup, try not to waste your time talking to big companies unless you’re doing it deliberately. They have an absolutely endless capacity to consume your time with meetings.” I didn't truly understand until I got a chance to work with a partner for my first time within Shopify on our partnership with Operation HOPE to help start 1,000,000 new Black-owned businesses over the next decade. > It’s clear to me now how this happens. In a partnership, I have found the most important thing is making sure that someone who understands every piece of the project is involved from the very outset of the project. If this fails, you end up spending a lot of time (like I have) straightening out requirements and capabilities on both sides. This creates meeting after meeting as new groups get pulled in, but never solves the real problem. Word Count: 488 vs 154

nathanvanfleet 6y ago

Not to mention brevity being a sign of good communication. The same point is covered over and over with slight changes. You really slog through and feel like things aren't really clear. I have worked a bunch of tech companies and am having trouble figuring out how I could possibly be "useless" for an entire 6 months. What is going on there? He never really says.