
Silicon Valley firms are increasingly hiring chiefs of staff - e15ctr0n
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/meet-the-new-chief-of-staff/2016/06/24/c82b614c-3348-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html
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redahs
> Myhrvold is chief executive of a company called Intellectual Ventures, which
> sells patents

'Sells patents' is the most polite possible way to describe their racket.

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horsecaptin
Today I learned that a Chief of Staff is basically a secretary with fewer
responsibilities.

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aoki
i don't think that's quite right. when i was at intel the chief of staff role
was the "technical assistant" or TA (as opposed to the administrative
assistant or AA/EA); some TAs were business types but many had advanced
engineering degrees, even PhDs. a well-aligned TA seems like a massive
multiplier for execs. the main peril with a chief of staff who is less
technical than the exec is that they are gatekeeping (filtering meetings and
proposals) based on a pattern-matching level of understanding about
technology, as opposed to actual understanding, and that's sort of asking for
leadership to drift off in their own filter bubbles.

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horsecaptin
I have very similar things to say about skilled secretaries and more. Good
secretaries are master organizers and information gatherers. And yes, they're
incredibly effective gatekeepers too.

