Hard work is irrelevant

[ApparentHorizon]

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/43729...innovative-culture-lost-her-job-to-the-system

Tldr

• Do whatever you want as long as you produce
• Pay your people well and let them create systems to make themselves redundant

 

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[Perrots]

Work Smart

 

[Andy Black]

"The market doesn't pay for activity." (Blaise Brosnan)

What do you say when someone asks how things are going?

Do you say you're "busy"?

That's the wrong yardstick. The market doesn't care how busy you are.

You can't invoice for busyness - only output.

 

[devine]

"The market doesn't pay for activity." (Blaise Brosnan)

What do you say when someone asks how things are going?

Do you say you're "busy"?

That's the wrong yardstick.

The market doesn't care how busy we are.

We can't invoice for busyness - only output.

Nailed it.

Someone, make this guy a new minister in Ireland. This country needs this kind of people.

 

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[Andy Black]

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/43729...innovative-culture-lost-her-job-to-the-system

Tldr

• Do whatever you want as long as you produce
• Pay your people well and let them create systems to make themselves redundant

Interesting read, thanks for the share.

We're so used to measuring the inputs, and expecting to be paid for those inputs.

"I put 10 hours in, that should be worth $500."

"I bought it for $20 and the handling was about $5. Let's mark it up and sell it for $35."

That's a poor way to price.

The market might not value your output as highly as you want it to based on your inputs/costs (aka being unprofitable.)

The market might also value your output a lot higher than you'd think based on your inputs/costs (aka leaving money on the table).

If you're in B2B then your output is part of their input - it's part of their value-chain.

Find out how much your output is worth to others, and charge accordingly.

Just don't make the mistake of thinking the value of your output is based on how many hours you put in, how hard you worked, or how busy you were.


"You can't invoice for input." (Blaise Brosnan)




(That Blaise dude is a smart guy...)

 

[Raoul Duke]

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Interesting read, thanks for the share.

We're so used to measuring the inputs, and expecting to be paid for those inputs.

"I put 10 hours in, that should be worth $500."

"I bought it for $20 and the handling was about $5. Let's mark it up and sell it for $35."

That's a poor way to price.

The market might not value your output as highly as you want it to based on your costs (aka being unprofitable.)

The market might also value your output a lot higher than you'd think based on your inputs (aka leaving money on the table).

If you're in B2B then your output is part of their input - it's part of their value-chain.

Find out how much your output is worth to others, and charge accordingly.

Just don't make the mistake of thinking the value of your output is based on how many hours you put in, how hard you worked, or how busy you were.


"You can't invoice for input." (Blaise Brosnan)




(That Blaise dude is a smart guy...)

Favorite quote by Musk: "You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve."

There was another one, forgot who said it: "You need to be fired before you can hire."

I took a position at a company a few years back, and it was nuts how often I was just dragging out tasks to fill out the day. It didn't help that I automated half of the responsibilities, but that didn't matter to the manager. Work = productivity to them.

 

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[Andy Black]

Favorite quote by Musk: "You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve."

There was another one, forgot who said it: "You need to be fired before you can hire."

I took a position at a company a few years back, and it was nuts how often I was just dragging out tasks to fill out the day. It didn't help that I automated half of the responsibilities, but that didn't matter to the manager. Work = productivity to them.

Yes, in a job we're often measured by the hours we put in, or how busy we are. No wonder people have a tough time jumping from a j.o.b to working for themselves.

 

[ilrein]

Truly software development is a field which encompasses this attitude more noticeably than others. All that matters is what you produce. No user cares or knows what tech stack you made it with. They don't care how long you spent on it, only that it's fast and friendly. All they see is an interface.

On a slight sidenote, exposure to Heroku was the first time I ever heard of a Platform as a Service. Here is a business model that sells automation of tedious tasks, such as setting up a web application for production use, and it was an absolute beast at the time (2013 or so -- now AWS is king). They used their engineering resources to sell shovels, so to speak. Why risk building an application that may or may not pickup and eventually make money, when you know everyone and their mother is going to try to do the same?

PS: Andy, I just read the 3 quotes in your signature in succession outloud. I now suspect the order is no coincidence =)

 

[luniac]

The work isn't hard, the war in my mind is.

 

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[Andy Black]

Truly software development is a field which encompasses this attitude more noticeably than others. All that matters is what you produce. No user cares or knows what tech stack you made it with. They don't care how long you spent on it, only that it's fast and friendly. All they see is an interface.

On a slight sidenote, exposure to Heroku was the first time I ever heard of a Platform as a Service. Here is a business model that sells automation of tedious tasks, such as setting up a web application for production use, and it was an absolute beast at the time (2013 or so -- now AWS is king). They used their engineering resources to sell shovels, so to speak. Why risk building an application that may or may not pickup and eventually make money, when you know everyone and their mother is going to try to do the same?

PS: Andy, I just read the 3 quotes in your signature in succession outloud. I now suspect the order is no coincidence =)

Yes, the 3 quotes in my signature are in a certain order. To me they say this:

Help someone close to you. Have faith, the money will follow. Start now.

 

[Andy Black]

The work isn't hard, the war in my mind is.

Love this.


The subtitle to Blaise's third book?

"Win the debate in your own head."​

 

[BigBrianC]

It's kinda like when people ask me "Which is better, short or long copy?"

To which I respond "Good copy is better."

Quality always wins.

 

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[luniac]

Love this.


The subtitle to Blaise's third book?

"Win the debate in your own head."​

lol never heard of the guy before!

 

[OldFaithful]

I read the OP article and then found the powerpoint from Netflix. That was an excellent read. I'm keeping a copy of that ppt for future review. Thanks!

 

[vitality11]

I read the OP article and then found the powerpoint from Netflix. That was an excellent read. I'm keeping a copy of that ppt for future review. Thanks!

Found PPT too and will read it tomorrow. Article is great. Worthy read.

 

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[juan917]

I love the premise of the thread but did anybody actually read the article? Seems to me that are bragging about firing people. F that, companies that run like that are the lowest of the low IMO

 

[ZF Lee]

Favorite quote by Musk: "You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve."

There was another one, forgot who said it: "You need to be fired before you can hire."

I took a position at a company a few years back, and it was nuts how often I was just dragging out tasks to fill out the day. It didn't help that I automated half of the responsibilities, but that didn't matter to the manager. Work = productivity to them.

I see what you are doing there, Musk!
No wonder he wants to go to Mars!!!!

 

[kytro360]

It's kinda like when people ask me "Which is better, short or long copy?"

To which I respond "Good copy is better."

Quality always wins.

Haha, I like that!

 

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[ZF Lee]

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/43729...innovative-culture-lost-her-job-to-the-system

Tldr

• Do whatever you want as long as you produce
• Pay your people well and let them create systems to make themselves redundant

No wonder netflix is a success!

And you know what?
I really want to develop such a system like that for my Fastlane mechanisms!
A system that rewards output rather than time spent!
I like Netflix's style!
Wastage cut down, no wagonhoppers, no slackers!
I like the team-sport concept....too many businesses try to be friendly-friendly when the truth is, the market doesn't care, and it wants solutions now!

 

[xaviel]

The entire slide deck, here http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 goes into way more depth.

Very good read.