4 ms·

I'm not saying these are good or bad. But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks, as if those are the things

I'm not saying these are good or bad. But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks, as if those are the things that make the company. They might be, or they might not. Reminds me of a friend who didn't wear socks because Einstein didn't wear socks. The implication being "he doesn't wear socks and he's smart, so if I don't wear socks I'll be closer to being as smart as Einstein". Ok, we were like 8 years old, but still.

jabradoodle 3y ago
This drives me crazy. let's adopt the practices of this blog post from an org 100x larger than ours, building a product which is in no way similar to ours... why?
- rnk 3y ago
  Hey, 40 direct reports is accepted best practice! Remember when google did that? My manager was a poser back 15 years ago, he had only 20 direct reports - I'm not making this up.
  - b112 3y ago
    No one on ones is probably to protect from sexual assault allegations. No time alone == safe.
    - 13of40 3y ago
      Well hold up, I do 1:1s with people at least every two weeks, but I haven't actually breathed the same air as one of them since the beginning of summer. (We both drove to that empty building downtown and had lunch, IIRC.)
      - rnk 3y ago
        Hmm, we'll probably see you in the people's court soon.
    - sneak 3y ago
      It saves on communication time, less repeating. I get a lot of cold emails from my website, asking me things. I ask those corresponding with me to ask the questions on my BBS instead, so when I take the time to answer, the answer benefits more than one person, and there is increased ROI on the time and energy spent constructing a thoughtful reply.
- paulmd 3y ago
  there's a massive number of good takeaways in this article (and comment thread) on building an agile organization with evidence-driven leadership and rock-solid and reliable product execution. "in no way similar to ours" is an embarrassing take for any member of a product-driven organization to take here. there are very very few industry-defining CEOs who are at the helm of the companies they founded 30 years ago and leading an industry that they essentially designed and built themselves, riding a money-train on an entire class of product and a product-use case they defined from the ground up. the fact that huang has done this multiple times means he's worth listening to. he's managed to run a (now) trillion-dollar corporation like an agile startup and maintained an extreme level of technical excellence and long-term realized customer value (every CUDA testimonial ever, etc), and that's cause he can run his OODA loop faster than anyone else and actually get good products out the end. no, you don't have to wear the turtleneck or leather jacket and yell at underlings. yes, absolutely you should think about evidence-driven leadership, being agile and willing to pivot and throw away your product and move to something else if it's not going to work, eschewing formalized "busywork" 1:1s in preference for having the CEO actually "stochastically sampling" the IC work output, and making sure the voices from the boots on the ground are being heard. there is almost no tech company for which those are not great principles that you should probably strive to incorporate. and "wow we have nothing in common with that" probably speaks more about your corporate culture than you think.
  - jabradoodle 3y ago
    You would do well to read the thread you are replying to, I was replying to this: > I'm not saying these are good or bad. But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks, Also, nowhere did I say I work at a tech company, I do not.
mongol 3y ago
Didn't Einstein wear socks? Seems like a misunderstanding. Sounds more like Steve Jobs to me
- bookofjoe 3y ago
  shoes
satvikpendem 3y ago
YC talks about exactly this idea, cargo culting startups: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/IR-dalton-michael-silicon-valley-s-cargo-culting-problem https://www.ycombinator.com/library/IR-dalton-michael-silico...
blantonl 3y ago
The people that imitated Steve Jobs' worst traits under the auspices that they were "as smart and driven" as him and therefore should mimic some of these traits was rather maddening. I honestly believe there was an entire generation of young managers who thought that it was OK to wear turtlenecks every day and be an abrasive asshole.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  When that big Steve Jobs book came out, seemingly overnight every manager up the totem pole from me suddenly became mini-Steves, minus the creativity and product judgment.
tstrimple 3y ago
And so, microservices and kubernetes were thrust upon the unsuspecting world.
renewiltord 3y ago
Well, it's a piece of evidence on the other side about necessary operations. One still has to choose to build one's company in one shape or the other, and ideally one does not cargo cult other companies or try to innovate on simple things but there's a lot of value in just choosing to go your own way if you're right. Things I liked about his stuff are the idea that every management position is a growth position. Some are, and in some you're just ensuring that superstars can play the right way. And you can land where you want on that.
acchow 3y ago
> But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks This is also true of successful people and their secrets to success. With survival bias, it's hard to differentiate noise from cause

jabradoodle 3y ago

This drives me crazy. let's adopt the practices of this blog post from an org 100x larger than ours, building a product which is in no way similar to ours... why?

rnk 3y ago
Hey, 40 direct reports is accepted best practice! Remember when google did that? My manager was a poser back 15 years ago, he had only 20 direct reports - I'm not making this up.
- b112 3y ago
  No one on ones is probably to protect from sexual assault allegations. No time alone == safe.
  - 13of40 3y ago
    Well hold up, I do 1:1s with people at least every two weeks, but I haven't actually breathed the same air as one of them since the beginning of summer. (We both drove to that empty building downtown and had lunch, IIRC.)
    - rnk 3y ago
      Hmm, we'll probably see you in the people's court soon.
  - sneak 3y ago
    It saves on communication time, less repeating. I get a lot of cold emails from my website, asking me things. I ask those corresponding with me to ask the questions on my BBS instead, so when I take the time to answer, the answer benefits more than one person, and there is increased ROI on the time and energy spent constructing a thoughtful reply.
paulmd 3y ago
there's a massive number of good takeaways in this article (and comment thread) on building an agile organization with evidence-driven leadership and rock-solid and reliable product execution. "in no way similar to ours" is an embarrassing take for any member of a product-driven organization to take here. there are very very few industry-defining CEOs who are at the helm of the companies they founded 30 years ago and leading an industry that they essentially designed and built themselves, riding a money-train on an entire class of product and a product-use case they defined from the ground up. the fact that huang has done this multiple times means he's worth listening to. he's managed to run a (now) trillion-dollar corporation like an agile startup and maintained an extreme level of technical excellence and long-term realized customer value (every CUDA testimonial ever, etc), and that's cause he can run his OODA loop faster than anyone else and actually get good products out the end. no, you don't have to wear the turtleneck or leather jacket and yell at underlings. yes, absolutely you should think about evidence-driven leadership, being agile and willing to pivot and throw away your product and move to something else if it's not going to work, eschewing formalized "busywork" 1:1s in preference for having the CEO actually "stochastically sampling" the IC work output, and making sure the voices from the boots on the ground are being heard. there is almost no tech company for which those are not great principles that you should probably strive to incorporate. and "wow we have nothing in common with that" probably speaks more about your corporate culture than you think.
- jabradoodle 3y ago
  You would do well to read the thread you are replying to, I was replying to this: > I'm not saying these are good or bad. But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks, Also, nowhere did I say I work at a tech company, I do not.

mongol 3y ago

Didn't Einstein wear socks? Seems like a misunderstanding. Sounds more like Steve Jobs to me

bookofjoe 3y ago
shoes

satvikpendem 3y ago

YC talks about exactly this idea, cargo culting startups: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/IR-dalton-michael-silicon-valley-s-cargo-culting-problem https://www.ycombinator.com/library/IR-dalton-michael-silico...

blantonl 3y ago

The people that imitated Steve Jobs' worst traits under the auspices that they were "as smart and driven" as him and therefore should mimic some of these traits was rather maddening. I honestly believe there was an entire generation of young managers who thought that it was OK to wear turtlenecks every day and be an abrasive asshole.

ryandrake 3y ago
When that big Steve Jobs book came out, seemingly overnight every manager up the totem pole from me suddenly became mini-Steves, minus the creativity and product judgment.

tstrimple 3y ago

And so, microservices and kubernetes were thrust upon the unsuspecting world.

renewiltord 3y ago

Well, it's a piece of evidence on the other side about necessary operations. One still has to choose to build one's company in one shape or the other, and ideally one does not cargo cult other companies or try to innovate on simple things but there's a lot of value in just choosing to go your own way if you're right. Things I liked about his stuff are the idea that every management position is a growth position. Some are, and in some you're just ensuring that superstars can play the right way. And you can land where you want on that.

acchow 3y ago

> But I note that every time a company becomes "hot", people start mindlessly copying its quirks This is also true of successful people and their secrets to success. With survival bias, it's hard to differentiate noise from cause