Join 📚 Favorites And Reflection Questions
A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
Shifting elevation, a few thoughts about Directors and VPs operating in these modes, which I’ll lump together using the term “executives” for ease of use:
• Curator executives are judged by their execution against a rotating spotlight of emergencies. Hypergrowth executives are judged by the outcomes of their diversified portfolio of bets
• Curator executives know that their ultimate impact is derived from systemic changes to culture and durable investments, but that they’ll be judged almost entirely on managing emergencies: real success comes from successfully managing both dimensions. Hypergrowth executives know that there will be emergencies constantly, that they’ll burn out quickly if they personally address each one, and focus instead on managing their portfolio of bets: success comes from maintaining altitude as emergencies try to pull you in
• Curator executives work with their teams to fully resolve fires. Hypergrowth executives mitigate fires until they can be handed off to newly hired managers for resolution
• Curator executives generally solve problems directly. Hypergrowth executives generally work via programs. Both prefer to [work the policy rather than solve via exceptions](https://lethain.com/work-policy-not-exceptions/)
• Curator executives anchor on reality as perceived by their engineers. Hypergrowth executives anchor on reality as perceived by their engineering managers
• Curator executives are deep in the margin profile and revenue plan. Hypergrowth executives maximize revenue growth [without deteriorating margin much](https://infraeng.dev/efficiency/)
• Curator executives design organizations that are steady-state durable. Hypergrowth executives design organizations that minimize the impact of frequent expansions
Good Hypergrowth/Curator Manager.
lethain.com
How had the leaders of the company remained unaware of their noise problem? There are several possible answers here, but one that seems to play a large role in many settings is simply the discomfort of disagreement. Most organizations prefer consensus and harmony over dissent and conflict. The procedures in place often seem expressly designed to minimize the frequency of exposure to actual disagreements and, when such disagreements happen, to explain them away
Noise
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass R. Sunstein
We don’t belong to the fear-based crowd desperate to control others through political power.
A Farewell to Mars
Brian Zahnd
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
Readwise