1/ I remember going to an unconference/hackathon in Vietnam and there was this moment where I realized all these 18-22-year-old Vietnamese students were smarter, hungrier, and harder working than almost anyone I knew in college.
2/ I like to think I was never particularly entitled, but to the extent that I was, meeting those people really woke me up.

It also showed me how many advantages I had to build on.
3/ It's really hard to overstate how important the "ovarian lottery" is and the extent to which that "luck" impacts your life trajectory.
4/ If you have the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in the developing world (I spent 4 years total), I think it's one of the most impactful things you can do both in terms of leveling up yourself and broadening your perspective.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Taylor Pearson

Taylor Pearson Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TaylorPearsonMe

14 Mar
Been going back through the Boyd/Guerilla/Blitzkrieg stuff lately and it's so obvious to me that the way in which companies function is going to be completely remodeled in that vein.

So obviously the future.

FEW UNDERSTAND THIS
I think the shift will happen as companies go more distributed, naturally lends itself to a guerilla structure with "multiple unsupported centers of gravity" as Boyd called them.
I think all of the hard tech is there, it's just a matter of re-engineering what is leftover of Taylorism.

The Toyota Production System/Theory of Constraints probably the most promising angle right now
Read 4 tweets
10 Feb
1/ I have experimented with many different approaches over the last nine years to how to work with distributed teams.

Here's my current "best practices" approach:
2/ *General Guidelines*
a) Take spatial context seriously: If we’re discussing a specific task, we discuss it in the comment section below the task itself. If we’re talking about a specific document, we discuss it in the comments attached to the document.
3/ b) Poor communication creates more work. Getting in sync with your team and communicating to help your team stay in sync with you is not something annoying you have to do in addition to your job, it is a core and central part of your job.
Read 12 tweets
15 Dec 20
If you could make a reading list that everyone who worked with you would be required to read, what 1-3 books would be on that reading list and why?

My list:

Getting Things Done
Work The System
Systems Bible/Seeing Like a State/Antifragile
Getting Things Done by David Allen - because you need to be able to trust someone to do something once they have said they will do it to make meaningful progress
Work the System - Because I believe you need to agree on a "systems first" framework for how work is done to be long-term effective.
Read 4 tweets
10 Dec 20
1/ I think Goodhart’s Law is one of the most underappreciated ideas I know

The law itself is simple: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
2/ For example, when most people buying/renting a house or a condo, the internet search order goes something like:

1) Pick the location
2) Pick the price range
3) Pick the square footage/nr of bedrooms
4) Finally, bring in other parameters, such as a garden, backyard, etc.
3/ However, this obscures important factors: My current apartment has far more natural light and higher ceilings than my previous place but it’s cheaper because it has fewer square feet.
Read 24 tweets
28 Oct 20
1/ A thread on what theories of guerilla warfare, college football, and running a company have in common.
2/ Let’s start with football (of the American variety). Generally, the way that the game is played is that there is a head coach along with an offensive and defensive coordinator.
3/ Generally, the coordinators are watching the games from the sidelines (or the box) and will call in specific plays to the offense and defense respectively.

These plays are generally “fixed.”
Read 25 tweets
20 Oct 20
Over the years, I've tried to keep a list of criteria for deciding on whether to take on a project.

Here are the 9 questions I ask myself now
1. If you didn’t make any money, would you still have had a great time?
2. Is the project a purple cow? Imagine having a conversation at the last cocktail party (or even better, actually have one) do people’s eyebrows raise and say “cool"
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!