Can you hear the music?
Embrace Exceptionalism.
In 2011 Andy Kessler wrote Eat People. As a technology investor Andy had a thesis on product and businesses that work, scale and generate excess returns for founders and investors. The book presented that thesis in a fun easy to read format using 13 principles or rules.
One rule focused on talent. Find exceptional talent. Retain it. The chapter also questioned if there was a scientific basis for the 10x programmer. Turns out there is. And it isn’t 10x. It is 300x.
It appears to be 10x to us because we don’t think, assess or compare in a logarithmic world.
The summary of Andy’s research was this exceptionalism in talent was linked to the ability to hold large problems in your head. The ability to go back and forth, to tweak, zoom in and zoom out. To make a change and project and flow its impact all the way downstream to the end. Halstead length was the magic number used to measure this capacity. Neil Bohr says this to Oppenheimer with a different set of words — “Can you hear the music Robert?”
The ability is a gift. You can’t learn it. You can’t grow it. You can’t copy it. You can’t imitate it. You can’t fake it. It comes built in. I don’t have it. And I know how painful it is to find out that I don’t. Not in terms of regret or jealousy. More in terms of being locked out by a wall that I can’t climb, or a door I can’t open because I don’t have the key.
One of the reasons why I hate writing a book is because that is when I come face to face with this limitation. To hold 250 pages or more in your head. To zoom in and out. Move back and forth. To realize that I am not meant for this. It makes my head hurt. I am not complaining. I am grateful for all the gifts I do have. I am just pointing out what it feels like to hold a large problem in your head.
Or not.
If you want to win in the product world, you need these large bandwidth thinkers. Not a function of age, experience, skillset or tools. A function of a gift. Really hard to assess though in a typical interview setting since the evaluation requires a much more longer somewhat informal assessment. When you find them, don’t nickel or dime them. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
That is one way the product world is different from the services world. In the services world we are captive of the daily charge out rate. Can’t afford to pay more than what the rate specifies and the mediocrity that leads from it. In the product world, one high bandwidth thinker, outshines 300. Because they can see and open doors us ordinary mortal can’t even see.
Like move 78. Can you hear the music Robert?
**************************************************
Craft. Ideas are easy, products hard. Now available on Gumroad. https://rebootdude.gumroad.com/l/cpiub
****************************************************
