1, #182 - Too clear?
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I love clarity. But can things be... too clear?
I found this delightful contrarian take in an essay by Airbnb’s head of org design, Clay Parker Jones, about how clearly defined job roles can be restrictive:
“Clarity is great for a mechanized, efficient working environment, but it stands in the way of the rapid growth of the skills that will be valuable in the post-industrial economy. If you’re building an organization for the Second Machine Age, those skills include a deep capacity for: large-frame pattern recognition; ideation; and complex forms of communication.”
At one level, he’s talking about the dehumanizing nature of job specifications that turn us into micro-managed machines with overly determined inputs and outputs. (see: Become an artist to outrun the machines.)
But beyond that, there’s also the danger of false clarity: representing something in a reductive way that makes it seem simpler than it really is. (see: The paradox of simplicity.)
This reminded me of another contrarian perspective from Tom Critchlow, a long-time independent consultant who encourages people who are starting out as freelancers to hold off on narrowly scoping what they offer too quickly. There’s an interesting tension: Choosing a predefined lane makes short-term growth easier (you fit into existing categories), but it also limits long-term growth (you fit into existing categories).
It’s uncomfortable when things aren’t clear. But isn’t that better than the comfortable clarity of being a cog in a machine?
Insight inspired by Clay Parker Jones, in both The End of Role Clarity and Clarity Hurts. And by Tom Critchlow, both for sharing Clay’s essay and for his own observations in his iconic A map for indie living and elsewhere.
Great insight. I think the exercise of refining a job description or target market is hugely beneficial. It’s hard to reduce complex things to clear principles or metrics, and the process can actually lead you to new ideas or winnow out bloat or correct drift. The mistake is holding those ideas too tightly in a dynamic environment.
I think this example is quite useful, as most jobs tend to generate bureaucracy (for understandable operational reasons) that tend to be in the way of change.
Very interesting to review how this also affects people's development.
These Airbnb examples are tricky, they have seen enormous growth through very smart product development and marketing, but the impact of most communities has been negative.