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2024-12-21 | ๐ผ Work | ๐ธ๏ธ Web
๐ผ๐ช Work Reflections
A very rough draft
๐ก A new (to me) mental model for work.
โ๏ธ How work works.
โค๏ธ โGet a career you love and youโll never work a day in your life.โ
๐ค Perhaps not the full story.
๐ป I love engineering.
๐ง My understanding of my role as an engineer and the path to success has evolved.
โก๏ธ I used to go to work, eager to do great engineering. ๐ท Thatโs what Iโm here for, after all. ๐ฐ Thatโs what theyโre paying me for, right?
โ Wrong.
๐ค All employment, regardless of profession, is about society.
๐ฅ Priority number one is always to please the manager. ๐
๐ Success in employment is about job security and advancement.
๐ฏ A manager has goals and feelings about their direct reports. โค๏ธโ๐ฉน
โ
Success in employment starts when your manager feels good about you. ๐
๐ญ In the pursuit of success at work, every decision should be viewed through this lens: what will make my manager feel best about me? ๐
โ๏ธ Meritocracy is a nice idea, but humans donโt implement it well.
๐ When optimism is in the air, managers may meet to decide who to promote. โฌ๏ธ
๐คฉ In this meeting, you want everyone, and especially your manager, to feel very good about promoting you. ๐ฅณ
๐ When pessimism looms large, managers may meet to discuss who to lay off. ๐ญ
๐จ In this meeting, you want everyone, and especially your manager, to feel very bad about letting you go. ๐
๐ฎ Thatโs it. Work is a social game. ๐น๏ธ People have power to control resources. ๐ Gaining favor and influence with those people is the whole game. ๐
๐คฏ This was the critical flaw in my understanding of my role as an engineer.
โ My job is not to do great engineering. ๐ My job is to make the boss happy. ๐ฅฐ Engineering is just a tool. ๐งฐ
๐ฏ Your competence is the feeling your boss gets when they think about how good you are at helping them accomplish their goals. ๐
๐คจ Your idea of competence doesnโt matter if your boss disagrees. ๐
๐๏ธ Today, I view success at work as a function of the political, business, product, and engineering value I provide, in that order, as judged by my manager, their peers, and their manager, in that order. ๐ฏ
๐ซ Itโs not enough to do great work. โจ ๐ซ Itโs not enough to build great products. ๐งฑ ๐ซ Itโs not enough to delight customers or maximize profits. ๐ ๐ซ Itโs not enough to do what your bosses boss wants. ๐ซ Itโs not enough to do what your boss tells you to do explicitly, or to do what you think they want, if they donโt ultimately feel good about you as a result. ๐ฅ The bosses feelings and goals trump everything else because those are what determine your job security and prospects for advancement. ๐ผ
๐ค Value is subjective. ๐ Humans are emotional. ๐ง Brains see patterns. ๐ We leap to conclusions. โก๏ธ When A precedes B, we assume A caused B, consciously and unconsciously. ๐ The strongest patterns we see correlate events and emotions on short time scales. โณ