Some Emails to the World
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movers and quakers
whoever made this instagram post for penn deserves a pulitzer prize
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wise career advice
Some bits of wisdom on career navigation from a former Google Director who is now the CFO of a public company:
(a) "Try to keep your options open for a reasonable amount of time. If possible, through your 30's."
(b) "Make sure to have a diversity of experiences. Have the courage to do a variety of different things, even if you feel that some of those experiences are 'beneath you.'...If you want to be a senior leader in any function, you have to have a variety of experiences."
(c) On taking a new job: "Remember the Warren Buffett quote: 'Give me a choice between a great management team or a great industry and I'll pick a great industry every time.'...You want to be really comfortable with the industry you might join and not solely focused on the team that you might work with."
(d) On advice he would give his 22-year-old self: "Go faster and have even more diversity of experiences."
What advice would you give to someone in the first half of their career?
(a) "Try to keep your options open for a reasonable amount of time. If possible, through your 30's."
(b) "Make sure to have a diversity of experiences. Have the courage to do a variety of different things, even if you feel that some of those experiences are 'beneath you.'...If you want to be a senior leader in any function, you have to have a variety of experiences."
(c) On taking a new job: "Remember the Warren Buffett quote: 'Give me a choice between a great management team or a great industry and I'll pick a great industry every time.'...You want to be really comfortable with the industry you might join and not solely focused on the team that you might work with."
(d) On advice he would give his 22-year-old self: "Go faster and have even more diversity of experiences."
What advice would you give to someone in the first half of their career?
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Huang isn't managing 60 people. He's managing information flow
Huang keeps 60 direct reports. The typical CEO has 10. He holds zero one-on-ones. Everything happens in groups, in full view.
Every morning he reads 100-200 emails from engineers across the company. Not summaries. The actual emails. When he sees something, he replies-all to someone five levels below him, CC'ing VPs who had no idea the conversation was happening.
The obvious objection: this doesn't scale. It's chaos. No one can manage 60 people.
But Huang isn't managing 60 people. He's managing information flow. The direct reports aren't there so he can supervise them. They're there so no one can stand between him and what's actually happening.
Most org charts are designed for control. Clear reporting lines. Clean accountability. But control comes with a cost: every layer between you and the ground floor is a filter. And filters don't just remove noise. They remove signal too.
How many filters are sitting between you and the problems you need to hear about?
Your org chart isn't neutral. It's deciding what you're allowed to know.
Every morning he reads 100-200 emails from engineers across the company. Not summaries. The actual emails. When he sees something, he replies-all to someone five levels below him, CC'ing VPs who had no idea the conversation was happening.
The obvious objection: this doesn't scale. It's chaos. No one can manage 60 people.
But Huang isn't managing 60 people. He's managing information flow. The direct reports aren't there so he can supervise them. They're there so no one can stand between him and what's actually happening.
Most org charts are designed for control. Clear reporting lines. Clean accountability. But control comes with a cost: every layer between you and the ground floor is a filter. And filters don't just remove noise. They remove signal too.
How many filters are sitting between you and the problems you need to hear about?
Your org chart isn't neutral. It's deciding what you're allowed to know.
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cheddar, man
The case of "Cheddar Man": a British man is a direct descendant of a man who lived approximately 9,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic period!...
Cheddar Man" is a male human fossil found in 1903 in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The remains date back to the Mesolithic (around 10,000 years before present) and is the oldest complete skeleton of Homo sapiens found in Britain.
For years this fossil did not receive much attention from the scientific community, until in 1997 it was discovered that an English history teacher is not only his direct descendant, but lives in the same region.
Direct descendant of a prehistoric individual:
The DNA of Adrian Targett, a history professor, matches that of the Cheddar Man. The genetic imprint was passed from mother to child. Simply put, both people have a common maternal ancestor
Cheddar Man" is a male human fossil found in 1903 in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The remains date back to the Mesolithic (around 10,000 years before present) and is the oldest complete skeleton of Homo sapiens found in Britain.
For years this fossil did not receive much attention from the scientific community, until in 1997 it was discovered that an English history teacher is not only his direct descendant, but lives in the same region.
Direct descendant of a prehistoric individual:
The DNA of Adrian Targett, a history professor, matches that of the Cheddar Man. The genetic imprint was passed from mother to child. Simply put, both people have a common maternal ancestor
express, not stress