It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged and apologies for the lack of updates. As some of you would know, I got myself a 9-6 job, and other than getting involved with the a group fantastic guys who are planning a major tech conference next year that aims to bring the tech student community to the industry, I’ve met up with up with the local Singapore Ruby community, not to mention undertaking freelance web projects and even meeting a brilliant IBM sales executive!
You could imagine how little time I’ve left after the routine work day, evening jogs, project management and squeezing a short period for quiet time.
TGIF and having some time on my hands after finishing 2 mini projects, I thought it would be only appropriate if I blogged my thoughts, analysis and important bits that I’ve learnt along the way during my absence from blogging.
You see, I’ve been a firm believer in carrying a paper notebook around, doodling whatever thoughts I might have in the interim. It might sound trivial, but it really helps in brainstorming and connecting the dots of whatever points on paper. This happens something along the line, like when you have the points on paper, your brain don’t have to keep the points constantly in your head. Very much like Random Access Memory (RAM), once I’ve cleared and transferred whatever thoughts from mind to paper, ideas pop up easily, connecting the dots, which is pretty enabling to see new things that would never have materialized by mere mental idea bouncing ninjitsu.
One of the recurring thoughts I’ve been having during this period of working a day job (which was interesting in its own way, no doubt) and doing stuff you would normally classify as “extracurricular”, is:
Would I want to work for someone else all my life?
Why do a startup?
Are startups for me?
In the process of blogging about this and referring to the thoughts I’ve jotted in my notebook, I hope to form a clearer picture regarding this issue. Feel free to comment, or blast me in anyway. I always welcome constructive feedback! Honest!
I made this a draft 1 as it’s really a huge topic that would only get better with time and continual revisions. Feel free to comment and give suggestions for a better version 2!
Here goes.
Self Accountability
In a big company, you are inevitably accountable to your boss, and your boss is accountable to his boss and so on. Everyone is accountable to somebody else and are usually working on stuff that would matter to their boss. I’m not saying that you’ll be working on pointless assignments, just stuff that would matter more to your boss in place of stuff that would really matter.
Work on Stuff that Really Matters
Why can you work on stuff that really matter in startups? It’s pretty tied up with the previous point on self accountability. When you are accountable only to yourself or directly to a small group of people (and vice versa), it would be easier to bounce your idea off 3-4 people rather than whole hierarchies of hundreds or even thousands of people. Why? Again because an important decision would affect them and their bosses. This would inevitably result in dilution of the original plan, taking a less risky route with less potential pay offs.
The Big Corporation Image
Working in a big corporation, image, and standardization matters a lot. Putting the military example aside, big companies understandably have to uphold standards too, as it speaks something of their professionalism. As with word “big” in big companies intrinsically meaning many people in the organization, there are bound to be stuff that needs a consistent feel to everything, be it for productivity purposes (for massive collaboration/information exchange), or for branding. You might argue that the initial standardization can be handled and maintained by an administrative staff, thereby “outsourcing” the standardization task, apart from the knowledge workers. But don’t the standards somewhat come across as rules that might be restrictive?
Cubicles and Zones
Been quite much of a knowledge worker myself, I know what it feels to be in the zone. Being in the zone would roughly mean in a state of high productivity, a certain momentum where you just keep on producing, be it coding or designing an awfully creative piece.
The catch is, it’s easy to be interrupted exit the zone. Research has shown that it takes 15 minutes or even half an hour to get back in.
Cubicles, in my opinion, are quite bad for knowledge workers who need to be in the zone to get stuff done. Here’s an example I got from Paul Graham: Imagine programmer A and programmer B in cubicles.
A forgot how to use a certain piece of code. He has 2 choices. Spend 30 seconds reading it up himself or spend 15 seconds asking B in the neighbouring cubicle.
Naturally the latter would be an attractive option, since it would save A 15 seconds. However when A interrupts B to save 15 seconds, B is interrupted from his zone, and it would take him 15 minutes to re-enter it.
So there you have it. A saves 15 seconds while B wastes 15 minutes.
If both programmers were housed in their own rooms, it would take A more than time to get out of his seat, open his door, walk to B’s room, open B’s door and ask him than to check up the code himself.
This results in increased productivity too.
I’m not saying that knowledge workers should always be left alone. They just need a period of uninterrupted time and a private area to work on their stuff.
Communicate all you want and get the info you need, then be able to retreat into your own caves and zones to churn out value.
Averaging
With bureaucracy, understandable risk adversity going on in big companies where safety and accountability is of preeminence, everyone is going to take the surest safest route to doing things. When you discard things that are potentially disruptive (yet valuable), the most capable employee would naturally be averaged out, because they can’t do risky stuff that can potentially make them shine.
Get Done with Making a Living
Reading Paul Graham’s article, thinking of a startup not in terms of a way to get rich, but to get done with making a living earlier. Compressing 30 years of work you love into a short span of 4 years, earning all the money you need to make a living.
What happens next?
You can then continue the work you love with a slight difference, you are no longer hard up for the cash. You can afford to drop bad clients.
All this rather than drag the whole process of making a living over a span of 30 years, a slightly different route which can be seen as risky as your rice bowl is controlled by someone else.
Constraints
This point is probably the biggest red dot, bundled with the previous points of self accountability and averaging.
Personal Bubbles
With all the talk about accountability, constraints and rules to adhere to, staff in a big corporation would naturally have a personal bubble, to protect their self interests. There is only up till a certain point where you can ask them about stuff, suggest improvements, get things done differently with the mere intention of really making things better.
How about startups? Because the survival of the startup depends on the founders, they often have to step out of their comfort zone to make sure they have the competitive edge for the startup. This results in better acceptance of change, again linked to the point of self accountability.
Motivation, Productivity, Reward Cycle
If you’re sincerely passionate about stuff that you do, you’ll tend to do a good job. Sometimes in order to do stuff the best way, you’ll be better ready to take risks.
When you’re allowed to do so, you’ll see results.
This results in motivation to do even better, increased productivity and even more rewards.
And it repeats itself.
Some Lessons
Hierarchies
You must know where you stand in a big company. Be aware of personal bubbles, read body language and don’t get carried away in exploring possibilities when it could potentially be unpleasant for someone else.
Big Companies are Here to Stay
Big companies are everywhere and with an emphasis on safety which results in steady progressive growth, they are here to stay.
Have to Work with Them
Even startups would have to deal with them at some point or another. So it would be wise to learn how to interact with employees of big companies.
Advantageous to
Knowledge sharing is good, as you rarely can hardly get anything done alone these days. When you can contribute to the big companies in a manner they are comfortable with, it often leads to win-win situations.
Better EQ Skills
Since not only employees in big companies have personal bubbles, everybody has their own bubbles to certain extents where change would be uncomfortable. It would pay to understand body language better , understand unspoken feelings and signs. Then complement the situation accordingly.
The user centered soft approach works most of the time.
Thank You. Please Try Again.
Back off if appropriate. Thank for opportunity, don’t get discouraged and try again later.
