Andrew Sridhar’s Post

Possibly the best self-improvement book. In less than a day I've plowed through 'How to Be an Imperfectionist" by Stephen Guise. I've dog-eared seemingly every other page. I've scribbled throughout. If you like James Clear and Charles Duhigg on habits, I think you'll love this. (Guise also has a successful book called 'Mini Habits.' I may write up a list of takeaways another time, but I'm being imperfect here ;) My eye is swollen with pain due to allergies. But I lowered my benchmark for success and made it a binary outcome. Post = 1 = success! 🙌 Try it yourself 😊 #leadership #selfimprovement #productivity #habits #procrastination

One of the most prized leadership principles at Amazon is "Bias for Action." The distribution of outcomes in the developed world is overwhelmingly skewed to the right. Stir things up. #leadership #entrepreneurship #selfimprovement #getunstuck #startups

It's easy to forget that we are just our brains. Performance is all about rewiring our minds. This is especially true for leaders. These tips are built on decades thinking about these factors and on countless institutions, books, and mentors who seeded these thoughts. Hope they help! #mindfulness #mindfulleadership #leadership #culture #coaching

Can't believe it was so long ago that we lost Bobby. Feels like it was yesterday. Never forget.

Steve was immensely sharp and passionate about the mission. And he was great to be around. He was one of us. 🔱 Never forget.

From someone who was there, Jason was an awesome human and an outstanding operator, who left behind an amazing family. I was honored to call him a brother. We miss you, buddy. LLTB 🔱

𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐛 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. 🤦🏽♂️ If you're young and evaluating career prospects or looking for a change, don't ignore what I call "returns to intelligence." 😲 First things first: Don't fall prey to the 𝐦𝐲𝐭𝐡 our education system perpetuates: ➡️ No one pays you to be smart. Yes, some jobs more than others require smarter people. But what you get paid for is a 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭. And often, that result doesn't require brains. Life AFTER school could 𝒏𝒐𝒕 be more different than life IN school. [1] Yet a lot of people treat it that way. There is no studying. There are no tests. And as Alex Hormozi posted recently, "𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤." You can't assume you'll be rewarded commensurate with your potential. You must choose wisely. Being smarter allows you to solve more complex problems and create value at scale. Historically there was a societal shorthand to guide children into reaping returns: be a doctor or lawyer. Go into one of these professions if you want, but don't kid yourself. Except for a tiny fraction of entrants, being smart is 𝒏𝒐𝒕 going to yield far different results for your customers or your wallet. IQ is merely the 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 into these fields. These days people realize that there are other ways to get rich. This is where it gets tricky, though. Sure, you can be a developer at a FAANG. Or you can launch your GenAI startup like everyone else 😬 But most of success on even these paths is mundane. And consistent. And consistently mundane. There will be times that you have a clever idea or make a pivotal decision. But how much of a genius are you when you're making that 10th sales call of the day? 𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞: There are TONS of occupations with 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓-𝒛𝒆𝒓𝒐 marginal returns to intelligence. Ironically, K-12 teaching is one of them. 😱 If Albert Einstein was a high school math teacher 👨🏼🏫, he wouldn't make much more than the person who barely passed community college. Sad but true. So... 1. Assuming you are indeed smart, then consciously choose a path that heavily leverages that strength. You'll make more money 💵 and have more impact. Most importantly, you won't be wasting your talents! ✨ 2. Drop your ego, and improve beyond IQ 😊 #career #jobs #promotion #education ALL THE WAY WET In leadership being smart is not as big an advantage as you might think. Some might argue it's a liability 🤣 I skipped a growth-mindset disclaimer at the top. If you want to "get smart," I fully believe you can. [1] The myth I refer to is that the thing that matters most in life is having the right answer. The educational journey could simultaneously be more realistic on this note as well as more engaging, but we have a model that hasn't changed in centuries and ignores other possibilities.

I'm sure everyone knows Simon Sinek, but if you don't know Rich Diviney yet, you should! His book The Attributes is an extremely thoughtful guide for the components of an elite team. I'm sure their event together will be epic. #leadership #teams

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 🔥 😬 I usually don't repost to criticize another's work, but the Bridgewater notion of critical feedback and its sister "radical candor" get so much fanboying that 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 needs to offer differing perspectives. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: I do love Ray Dalio's book Principles, and I have a ton of respect for how much he and Bridgewater pioneered in terms of how organizations can work. If you recruit people who love being direct and who can take it, then radical candor can work. But that doesn't generalize well to the rest of humanity. My issues are with #1, #4, and #9 in the original post: 📍#1: Evaluating kindly is not mutually exclusive with doing so accurately. At Amazon especially in the people-intensive operations division, we used to say "assume positive intent." This nugget alone has helped me deal effectively with countless workplace issues, and I was happier while doing it. I lead with heart, and I expect my team to do so as well. ❤️ ↳ 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Smart, ambitious people who have never led feed on stuff like this. They love the idea of sucking kindness out of the souls of their employees. "If only everyone could be reduced to an analytical machine, they will be optimized and serve my purposes. Beep. Boop. Profit." 🤖 💰 🤮 📍#4: "achieving 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 goals." [1] I prefer to focus on the organization's goals(!). A charitable explanation could be that #4 was shorthand on the author's part. Maybe it should read, "...worry about achieving your goals 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧." ↳ 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: What we need more of is bros only out for themselves. There are plenty of selfish, toxic people out there, so please don't encourage them. ☠️ 📍#9: This one seems in conflict with the hint of empathy elsewhere in the author's guide (e.g. #2). Style in leadership is 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. Okay, not everything but close. Word choice, body language, and the context of how you give the feedback 𝒂𝒓𝒆 important. Don't overprepare or spend hours drafting a note, but treat people like the humans they are. They'll take the feedback better and not fear or resent you. ↳ 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Startup bro says to himself, "Beep boop. I give other robot much needed data. Why they not react like good robot?" 🤖 🤷🏽♂️ ⭐ Let's get split-hairy. 💇🏻♀️ Terms. I'm not super namby pamby about things in the workplace, but using the term "critical" for a key process in a workplace culture is immediately going to turn many people off. "Constructive feedback" is an improvement IMHO. ✅ I've worked with the toughest, most direct people you can imagine: the SEAL Teams, Wall Street, Amazon. So I'm not being thin skinned here. Feedback is crucial. But too many people use this idea as an excuse to feed their own ego and be a jerk. Your people are humans. Act like you're one, too. 💙 -- #feedback #evaluation #performancemanagement [1] emph added