April 27th, 2024
Going Savage with a Hiring Philosophy
By Jeffrey M. Barber
The modern workplace simply sucks. Looking around this sick world, it may just be as reflection that our civilization just sucks and we should never have stopped hunting and gathering. I’m feeling the echoes from pg’s “You weren’t meant to have a boss” essay, and a paradox arises for me around hiring as being entrepreneur focused on freedom. My struggle is ultimately that I do not want to further my freedom at the expense of others, so I want deals to be fair. Yet, I’m also not willing to sacrifice my freedom for the freedom of others. Your freedom is your problem, not mine.
So, this begs the question of how can I scale? Maybe, I just can’t and the only way for humans to exist is the submit to the corporate-kings and their feudal armies. I will admit the current world is nice to those that live with discipline to save enough to become a shareholder and reap the value of the corporate-kings. It is almost like the financial system is designed to keep trouble-makers well-fed…
Personally, I’m having a lot of fun solving very hard problems because that is what I love doing. Being me feels like I’m intellectually bench-pressing the entire planet. However, I also love to teach, but perhaps teaching is just a platform for my ego?
Generally speaking, there is only one acceptable way for me to dominate another person: teaching an apprentice. I reflect on the character Bak Mei which was introduced to me via Kill Bill, and the mythos of a stern old man that knows his shit appeals to me. Combine this with the concept a Takumi where one can dedicate their entire life to a singular craft, and you will have approximated how I feel about code.
It’s the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way around. No wonder you can’t do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin. Pai Mei
This mythical stern man is exactly as he should be: a proxy for mother nature. Especially when he cares not for how you feel to mirror the cold brutality of mother nature; the lion does not care about you feelings when it eats your face.
Ultimately, this is why I did well in Amazon because principal engineers put me in my place and I was humbled, and this humility allowed me to grind and learn. Internally, I laughed at the people who cried at their desks because I was getting stronger every day. There is no gain without pain. At core, what I crave is perfection and exceptional skills. I don’t just want to be good; I want to blow past great to see outstanding in my rear-view mirror.
My hero is the prolific Euler, but only time will tell if I become as prolific. I believe, at my very core, it is important to take on ambitious and seemingly impossible tasks.
Sadly, most people are not like this. Leading at scale taught me about the diversity of people, and my playbook had to change towards empathy because most people just want to survive the day and do something–anything else. Any domain is like this, and building a durable organization requires accepting this. Reflect on Heraclitus:
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t be there, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring back the others. Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher
This is hard-core truth, and it is saying something profound with respect to a single activity and inequity of life. Life isn’t fair nor equal, and in any domain there will be the exceptional person with both the talent and the work ethic to absolutely dominate. The beauty of the internet is that these people can be discovered to inspire us to work towards new heights, but the ugly darkness of the internet is that many turn to bitterness and envy.
When you confine yourself to only those things that are under your control, you cannot be defeated. Don’t be fooled by outward appearances. People with more prestige, power, or some other distinction are not necessarily happier because of what they have. There is no reason to be envious or jealous of anyone. If you lead a rational life, the good lies within you. Our concern should be our freedom, not titles and prestigious positions. The way to freedom is not to be too concerned about things we don’t control. Epictetus
Accepting that I have limits and am not in control of the world, I have to ask myself what game am I to play? Am I to learn all the ways that existing businesses work? Should I play by all the rules? While there is value in knowing the history of why we are here, there is also value in pushing forward with experiments.
My final reflection on hiring is that I should seek those that I want to work with.
Savage Hiring Program
Thus, I’ve decided on my hiring strategy. Instead of trying to figure out an organization with fixed-roles, structure, and rules; I’m embracing the tyranny of a flat organization. In the landscape of today, it will be a toxic organization dedicated to outcomes rather than feelings.
This means that I have a fundamentally different playbook, and I have to keep the # of employees small to skirt labor laws. My goal is to find ambitious people and give them something no other company will: creative freedom.
There is only one requirement: Use and extend Adama for all product and infrastructure needs.
Using Adama should be easy, and the skill to build is entrepreneurial in nature; the mission is to tap into demand.
Effectively extending Adama Platform requires deep understanding in programming languages, databases, distributed systems, graphics, browser technology, streaming network protocols, and mathematics. With my guidance, your potential for growth is unlimited and you can actually use everything you learned in a computer science degree.
Performance is measured in two ways: (1) you found demand in the market for an idea, or (2) you pleased me with a contribution. As such, I will not make contribution easy, and my feedback will be like Christmas because feedback is a gift.
Earning your freedom
Suppose you find demand and it’s strong, then what? I want you to be free to build either a large company or a lifestyle business. You will run that business with our full support giving this company a fair cut on revenue (1%-5%) until a buy-out value has been achieved.
This is my incentive to grow you rather than exploit you. I want you to be strong. I want you to stand on your own two feet breathing free air doing what you want when you want. Most importantly, I want you to be able to tell anyone Fuck You.
I hate luxury. I exercise moderation. It will be easy to forget your vision and purpose once you have fine clothes, fast horses, and beautiful women Genghis Khan