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.
Agreed. I think mapmaking is a good analogy. It’s good to have maps and creating one forces you to learn the terrain. But if you’re in new territory, a bad map may be worse than no map! And the “too clear” thing in particular gets back to the “map is not the territory” framework, where a map of sufficient detail becomes unusable.
Thanks for reading and continuing the conversation!
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.
Yeah, established companies often seem structured more to prevent change than to enable it. I think that’s the equivalent of “getting old” for a person 😄
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.
Agreed. I think mapmaking is a good analogy. It’s good to have maps and creating one forces you to learn the terrain. But if you’re in new territory, a bad map may be worse than no map! And the “too clear” thing in particular gets back to the “map is not the territory” framework, where a map of sufficient detail becomes unusable.
Thanks for reading and continuing the conversation!
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.
Yeah, established companies often seem structured more to prevent change than to enable it. I think that’s the equivalent of “getting old” for a person 😄
And yes, Airbnb’s legacy is a bit mixed.
Appreciate you reading and leaving a comment!