The Cost of Self-Improvement

August's weekly threads, in one tiny e-mail

Hello dear readers,

It’s the end of a weird summer; yet, life marches on. I have a first grader now, and sent her off on her first day of school wearing a uniform and a smile underneath a mask. On the work front, our team has been diving into the deep end of the feedback pool—from interviewing our network to doing our first round of peer 360 feedback, from customer sessions to prospective client calls. Fertile ground for learning new insights about our space as well as the way we learn—this month’s themes.

Why you should always show in-progress work

Show it. Get feedback. Even if you think it sucks and wish you could keep tweaking it for far longer in the silent comfort of your isolated mountain hut.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

I meet a lot of people who think: I should only show work that is good and meets my (internally high) bar. But doing the opposite tends to get you further: 1) Faster execution 2) Deeper feedback 3) Process learnings 4) Improved trust 5) Team learnings Thread below 👇

The Power of Searching for your Unk-Unks

Far easier to say than “unknown-unknowns,” and cuter sounding too (I imagine them as soot sprites from My Neighbor Totoro).

Julie Zhuo @joulee

The case of the unk-unks, a thread. In product development, we often focus on what we know and what we don't know. For example: I know... How to design software How to articulate my point of view in writing How to run a recruiting process

When you write off someone as ‘this person is bad at their job,’ your assumptions are probably incorrect

Can you peel back the layers to understand what’s really going on?

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Is a team member underperforming? What can you do to turn it around? First you have to understand why they aren't meeting your expectations. There are only 3 reasons why.

The Price of Greatness

A reminder whenever you think to yourself, “If only I were as skilled at/or as well-connected as amazing athlete/superstar/founder/investor Y, life would be so easy…”

Julie Zhuo @joulee

If you surround yourself with great people, you're going to get better faster. But the price you pay is the constant feeling of inadequacy. 1/5

Here’s to a lovely entrance into PSL season.

~Julie