
The high-return activity of raising others' aspirations - jseliger
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/10/high-return-activity-raising-others-aspirations.html
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wallflower
I saved this comment from jlcfly from an AskHN that was answered a long time
ago and have reposted it many times, as I feel it is an excellent philosophy
for making your team better.

> "Teach them to be better than you. That may seem counterproductive. I have a
> type A personality, and I have decent coding skills.

I've been in your situation a number of times. I also know there's these
mythical expert developers out there that I can't seem to find (or afford).
So, what to do? A few years ago I realized that if I continue down this path,
I'll end up with some serious health issues due to the stresses that come
along with having a reputation for being a really good developer.

So, I decided that instead of searching for developers better than me, I would
teach developers I work with how to BE better. It's taken a lot of patience.

And it's taken me quite a bit to LET GO of my way of doing things. I had to
take my ego out of the picture. (VERY hard to do.) Nowadays, I realize that
developers don't have to BE better than me. I simply have to ALLOW them to do
what they do without being so obsessive about it. Turns out, even junior
developers really CAN do good work. They just need a little guidance that only
comes with experience, and then they need me to get out of their way.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8649415](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8649415)

~~~
DenisM
How do you separate cases where it's your ego acting up from where you are
actually making better design decisions? Long-term better.

~~~
wallflower
I’m not the OP but I would probably enlist other individuals at a tech lead
level from other teams for a design review. Remove yourself from the decision.

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kippinitreal
I appreciate that this route can help counteract the self-selection bias for
narcissists in higher level roles. Most managers/directors/VPs/CEOs etc only
become such because they think they belong there. We probably want more humble
individuals to get pushed into those roles because others think they belong
there.

~~~
kopo
We don't really need a lot of the leadership positions we currently have.
Hierarchies are possible/required when networks aren't fully connected up. As
an extreme example to convey the point, Genghis Khan and Napolean play a huge
role when the world is disconnected. But today the world is hyperconnected, so
what does society do with its Genghis Khan characters? These people are busy
trying to assert their innate Genghis-ness (see Mark Zuckerberg) but the
network is so much more massive it will steamroll them sooner or later. Whats
important in hyperconnected networks is consensus on direction. We are going
through a transition from hierarchy to a fully connected network and we still
have too many self deluding/self important characters trying to resist that.

~~~
PacifyFish
What makes you think that now, rather than all points in history, our
"transition from hierarchy to a fully connected network" will work? Seems to
me entities made up of many people are organized hierarchically for good
reason.

~~~
kopo
Yes there are very good reasons for hierarchy.

Stability of the group being the main one (i.e. preventing it from
splintering). Who ever is at the top of the hierarchy is expected to resolve
the battles/differences unfolding at the lower levels to keep it stable
especially when it is in competition with another hierarchy.

Will the transition work? Yes it will because we are at a point where no one
individual or org has the power to dominate the network anymore. The network
has grown orders of magnitude larger than any single hierarchy within it. And
the pressure on each hierarchy to NOT splinter away is huge.

Just watch the guys at the top being overwhelmed. The 2008 financial crisis
showed what happens when the network is threatened. It just pushes people to
keep the larger network intact. It doesn't matter what their job titles are or
where they individually stand in the hierarchy.

Same pressure you will see coming to bear on one Genghis Khan type character
after another try to wrestle for overall control or disconnect to maintain
control. Things will keep blowing up in their faces with all kinds of
unintended and unpredictable consequences. Look at Facebooks fakenews response
from 2 years ago to today. Look at whats happening with Brexit pushback. Look
at Iran and North Korea not wanting to be isolated. Look at China realizing
the impact of a trade war. Look at Saudi feeling the pressure to change. Look
at Google unable to get its own employees to build a Chinese search engine.

All these are signs the guys at the top of all these hierarchies are
struggling to get their hierarchies to do what they want because these
hierarchies are now part of a much much larger network. And the only way they
maintain its stability is to keep that network intact.

At these scales we aren't operating like a troupe of chimps or a pride of
lions anymore with alphas. We resemble more a shoal of fish or a wildebeest
herd. There is no central leadership.

And thats not a bad thing if you have ever seen a bunch of murmurating
starlings. It will take some time for the Genghis Khan types to get with the
programme though, at a cost to lot of people at the bottom of the food chain.

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tomrod
I 100% agree with this approach and the pleasure at seeing the successful
outcomes.

This is something more than continual encouragement or simply being a mentor
or sounding board. This is looking at the universe of possibilities and,
seeing a good potential, pushing a small stone down a steep angle of repose.

I'm a senior data scientist, and occasionally come across exceptionally bright
but self-limiting people. If we get to know each other a bit, I've taken
several under my wing and sponsoring their transition into statistics/data
science activity. It's my absolute favorite thing to do as a mentor, both for
selfish and selfless reasons.

I'm careful with this, of course. The antithesis to this notion is encouraging
to work towards something then wasting your and the person you're
encouraging's time. Much of this is self-selecting.

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areed
This reminded me of an assignment I had for health class in my senior year of
high school to help someone. I chose to encourage another kid in my dorm to go
to college after graduation (he wasn't from a family with a tradition of going
to college). I would just talk to him about where I was thinking about going
and all the different options. By the end of the semester he was talking about
going to college too. No idea what became of him, but I like to think I had a
positive impact on his life.

~~~
harlanji
I dated a girl who went to MIT at the end of high school, myself as a drop
out. If not for her I’d probably not have considered education seriously. “Why
would anyone go to more school?” was my attitude. She never pushed me to do
anything, but imagining her trajectory was inspiring. She’d had immigrant
parents who got educated in the US. 8 years later I finished a bachelor’s
degree, full time during my major courses. My path gets no love from the
outside, but I am happy with it when compared to outcomes of others sofar from
similar backgrounds.

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pjmorris
Two of my favorite stories about my life are examples of this kind of
thinking.

Once, during the doldrums after the dot com bust when our old firm had gone
out of business, I interviewed for a position that was a bit too junior for
me, but a reachable step up for a friend of mine. I left the interview, called
her, she applied, got the job, and it trained her for the next one.

In grad school, one of my brilliant classmates had an intern offer in hand
from a bank, and they were rushing her to accept it. We, but especially my
wife, the guidance counselor, urged her to believe in herself and hold out for
one of the big tech firms. She did, had two very successful internships at one
of the biggies, and now works there full time. She gave us a coffee mug from
the firm, I smile every time I see it.

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stephengillie
How would you apply this advice to a drug addict or a person who just got
evicted?

