Thingsters.com

But you gotta love our sense of humor, well maybe not our friends at PBOT.

When I was growing up, I shared a large attic bedroom with my two brothers. On late Sunday nights, we always went to bed listening to King Crimson Biscuit Flower Hour on Public Radio, followed by many probing shows that asked and attempted to answer big questions. One of my favorites is still a conversation starter I love using today that has led to hours of facinating conversation.

If we were ever visited by super-intelligent aliens:

1. Who would you put in the room besides yourself?
2. What would be your three questions?

The obscure questions/answers often lead to the most intriguing insights.

“I would invite God.”
Why: “Because if he does not show up for this, he doesn’t exist, or we are in some real deep trouble.”

“I would ask what is the best Beatles Album?”
Why: “Because it will tell us how much the know about us, if they are reading our minds.”

This can go on for a very long time with a small group of interesting people, but the lesson is that the insight is not neccesarily in the question or answer itself, but by in the nature of why it was asked and context of what it answers.

How do you recognize a feature factory?

• Your product releases are focused on sizes and colors.
• Your services and pricing focus on bundling value.
• Your marketing is focused on introductory pricing.
• Your business model is built on a obscelescence mindset.
• Your sustainability strategy is based on blitzscaling your way to a monopoly.

Here is a more nuanced view about the “12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory” from John Cuttlefish’s blog.

Last year when certain companies took a stand and decided not to allow political discussions at work, at the time I thought this made sense. Mainly due to the hyper-partisan nature of our society, cancel culture, and enthusiasm for wokeness. After thinking long and hard about this; I realized I was wrong. How else are we going to practice civil discourse required for the continuous improvement of our systems and policies? We can’t just rely on our own personal truths or blindly follow political narratives. So yes, but we will need some guidelines and best practices to remain non-disruptive.

My first suggestion is that if you want to allow free political discussion at work, it should come with a minimal barrier to entry. For me this means publishing my “Searching for a Better-Better”. If you want to engage in politics, policy or economic discussion with me, please read it, then we can discuss your views on a better-better.

There are 4.2 million people whom have dropped out of the labor force during the pandemic. A surge of 3.6 million people have also retired during the pandemic, 2 million more than expected. This has left us with labor force participation rate at just 61.7% in the U.S.

Despite a overall decline of 5 million jobs since the start of the pandemic, businesses are also facing an accelerating quit rate as 3.8 million Americans resigned in June alone.

Gallup analysis finds that 74% of workers are actively disengaged and 48% are actively job searching. Potentially questioning how/why they work, and who they do it with.

70% of workers feel that COVID-related restrictions led to the most stressful period in their career. This is not business as usual. It’s time to ask the hard questions about your work from home policies, child care, ageism, DEI and organizational health.

Learning and adapting is an essential part of any organization’s culture. Yet, so many continue with the status quo. Why is this? It is both complex and complicated. It also questions our core values, and identity. This process is scary, and requires physiological safety.

Product development should be a team sport, but occasionally you need that certain someone to act as a sherpa. Hopefully, that person is not afraid of heavy lifting. Knows when to lead and how to follow. Builds consensus on how to assess effort, risk, and reward. They are fantastic at inspiring teammates. They are masterful at aligning stakeholders and prioritizing. They also appreciate the unique challenges ahead while humbly knowing they have not mastered all of the lessons from the past.

Sam Altman and Ezra Kleins thoughtful exploration.