Category: Work

“Reformed Philosopher”

“Reformed Philosopher”

Today, this happened on Twitter:

Scott is a speaker and author, and someone I have a lot of respect for. He has written a number of books that are worth your time, most notably one about his time with Automattic. We actually met one time, at my first ever Automattic Grand Meetup, which took place in San Francisco. I was nervous. I’m a little nervous now, to be honest.

I do think of myself as a reformed Philosopher, and I do recognize and appreciate the historical weight that a term like ‘reformed’ can carry. All of the formal education that I have was focused on philosophy; mostly political and economic philosophy (think Nozick, Rawls) but also some headier stuff (I was especially fond of Levinas’ Talmudic studies, for example).

I currently hold an MA in Philosophy from the State University of New York, specifically the Binghamton campus (Go Bearcats!). I taught teenagers philosophy when I lived in Providence, running Ethics and Logic classes out at the Community College of Rhode Island. It was before that, though, when I was living in Binghamton, that the reformation happened.

I think probably at the root of it all was the quiet realization that while I really enjoyed thinking philosophically, I was pretty rotten at the role of a philosopher. There’s an important distinction to be made here: I don’t see anything inherently wrong in the profession and practice of philosophy – in fact, I think capital P Philosophers do some of the most important work that there is to be done! I am glad that they are out there and the world is a better place for having them.

I found myself at one end of what would turn out to be a pendulum – I was more and increasingly frustrated to be sitting in small classrooms with my fellow graduate students, discussing at great length the ideas of justice, and global equality, and so forth.

I can see now the broader view, the necessary tension that exists between making space for discussion and using thought to try to influence action farther down the road. The importance of separating theory and practice. At the time, it felt very disingenuous, and that tension ate at me.

It felt as though the pursuit of justice, and equality, was not well served talking about justice and equality. That pursuit, it required action.

So I graduated, and did not continue on to more schooling (as many of my peers did) – rather, I followed the pendulum to the far end of the spectrum, and took a job making $11,000 per year working with the Binghamton Neighborhood Assemblies Project, an Americorps placement in an experimental (and controversial) direct democracy experiment. It was in some way my personal schism, splitting away from what seemed to be, at the time, the church of academic Philosophy.

I became a community organizer, a position that would later become steeped in significance as a young Senator from Chicago would take his place on the world stage.

As I continued through my working life, I’ve continued to swing on this pendulum between practice and theory, and I’ve always found a certain personal value to bringing the dogged intellectual rigor of the philosophy classroom into my endeavors. On some level, I can reflect on how frustrating I must have been to work with at times, challenging assumptions and demanding a certain consistency of position – but it has served me well, and I can’t very well change my heart, my roots.

It was this love of Big Ideas that drew me to Automattic. Open Source is, at its core, a philosophically enormous idea, and one that cannot be ignored. Automattic’s goal, to democratize publishing on the Internet, to providing a voice for folks who would otherwise be voiceless – these are the kind of ideas that motivate me, and not just as an employee. As a philosophical thinker.

That is the distinction, for me. The “reformed” piece of “Reformed Philosopher” is not a commentary on Philosophy – it’s a commentary on me, and on my mindset. I pushed away from academic philosophy to dive into almost pure praxis, literally knocking on doors in Binghamton’s First Ward. I’ve found for myself a middle way, a place where I can engage with Big Ideas and still find ways to act on them in a way that is impactful and meaningful.

There is a shocking amount of space in business today for Big Ideas, and for folks who can chew on them and find ways to apply them in practical and meaningful ways. Reformed Philosophers who are dedicated to thinking philosophically and acting efficiently will always have a place in American business.

As always, Automattic is hiring.

Internal and External Hospitality

4246E9904E-1400x927

As I write this, I’ve just LinkedIn connection request blasted my incoming colleagues from Woo – Welcome aboard, all! – and it brings front-of-mind something that I’ve been thinking about for some time; the way that we offer hospitality not just to our customers, but to our colleagues.

I’ve written before about how Hospitality and Service are different ideas, and should be thought of as different tools in a broader toolbox. Another distinction, and one that I think is even easier to miss, is the paired concepts of internally and externally directed Hospitality, and internally and externally directed Service.

The distinction between internal and external is a line drawn around your customers. Any hospitality or service efforts that are in place for the sake of your customers are external efforts. In general, this is where many people and companies stop thinking about hospitality and service – after all, it is called customer service, right?

The way that your company, your employees, treat everyone outside of the customer bubble, that is internal. That means that the way you interact with your vendors? External, both hospitality and service. Let’s talk through some examples.

Let’s say you work for a dairy company. There is a real us vs. them divide, with folks who work in the office generally behaving somewhat rudely to the delivery drivers and warehouse staff. That’s poor internal service. If that bad attitude spills over into internal systems and processes – say, forms that are difficult to use or requiring new and cumbersome busy work – that then becomes poor internal hospitality.

Let’s say you work for a top restaurant in your city. Servers are required to take ‘Kitchen Courses,’ which expose them to how the back of house staff work, and in turn spending time with the servers improves the kitchen’s understanding of the stresses of the serving floor. The interactions between the two teams are considerate and generous – excellent internal service. However, the company has a strict no-side-jobs culture, strongly discouraging employees from pursuing employment elsewhere – I’d argue that is pretty poor internal hospitality.

Let’s say you work at a small software startup. Your software is hugely popular, and you’re hiring staff as quickly as you can. These new folks are onboarded into a highly collegial and tight-knit community that is happy to have them (good service), but the administrative, HR and process debt is adding up, meaning that the internal tools that do exist are shoddy and poorly maintained, and the company is weeks behind on 401K paperwork – poor internal hospitality.

I would argue that not only is there more to hospitality than your customer facing efforts, I would also argue that, of the people to whom you want to offer outstanding hospitality and service, your customers should be the last in line. But that’s a topic for another time.

Lattice Style Organizations

photo-1418479631014-8cbf89db3431

I recently read about the lattice style of organizing a company pioneered by the folks at Gore – I’ve had “google gore lattice” on my free-moment to do list for a few weeks, so I’m not entirely sure where I originally heard of it. A More Beautiful Question probably.

If you’re interested in the way that businesses are organized, you should take a look at the way that they’re doing things at Gore. A flat structure, leaders chosen by the folks who follow them, and a culture of continuous questioning.

Here’s how they describe themselves. Here’s the Wikipedia Page.

I’ll warn you now – if you’re a wonk about this stuff, Gore can be a real rabbit hole 🙂

“Buy vs Build” and the Employment Contract

Reflections on "buy vs build"

The post Reflections on “buy vs build” from the Domino Lab blog got me to thinking about how building homegrown solutions vs. buying a solution from another party can be seen through the lens of the employment contract.

Plenty has been said about the modern day employment contract, especially in terms of loyalty (both to company and to employee). The idea that modern employees are more like short-term contractors, looking to both gain personal value and add value to their employer, is one that really resonates with me.

I expect this will grow into a longer piece in the future, but at least on first glance, a tendency to build in-house rather than bring in more general solutions shifts power in the equation from the worker to the employer.

Imagine we have two workers, one of whom uses a commonly employed solution at work – we’ll say Oracle HR software. The other uses an entirely home-grown HR software solution, which is not seen anywhere outside of their current company. Both employees are ambitious and word hard, and become skilled and savvy with their particular solution.

In three years, when both of these folks decide it’s time to go on the hunt for a new job, who has gained more real-world, marketable value?

Considering Bernie

Screen-Shot-2015-05-20-at-8.32.48-PM-300x139

TL:DR – go to http://www.considerbernie.com and share it with your friends. Thanks!

As some of you know, I am mildly obsessed with the prospect of Bernie Sanders, United States Senator from Vermont, making a run for the Democratic nomination for the Presidential election in 2016.

When Bernie officially announced, and this is serious, I called his office in Washington, I called his office in Burlington, I emailed every email address on his website, and I posted to Reddit, hoping to use my weird collection of internet and technology skills to work for his campaign – Google Analytics? Done. Growth engineering? Give me the keys to Optimizely and _get out of the way_.

I never heard back. I was, and am, seriously disappointed. As an employed tech professional offering a valuable skillset for $0, it’s a real bummer to make a genuine, heartfelt effort and have it fall upon deaf ears.

So, I built a thing: www.considerbernie.com – it’s a simple WP site that displays different reasons on each refresh. Reasons, that is, to consider Bernie!

So check it out – if you think it could use some work, let me know, I’m happy to make it better. If you like it, let’s get some legs on this thing, maybe I’ll finally hear back from the campaign!