go bold

I think the world should be a meritocracy.

There, I went and said it. Come and get me, I’m ready.

First, my definition of merit: the quality of a person’s contribution to a given environment for the role they have been commissioned to fill. This means hiring someone or rewarding someone based on what they can do, rather than what they represent. This means pressing every member of the team to step up and distinguish themselves in some way, rather than hiding in the back trying to blend into the background.

What about rewarding “hard workers”? People should be held accountable for the work they took on, and measured on the quality of the work they produce. In my environment – in a software development environment – if I’m lacking in a ‘knack for things,’ then I should go make up for it in any way I can find: reading books and blogs about my craft and industry, keeping on top of new and relevant changes, finding some way to fill some niche in my environment that has not yet been filled. A meritocracy is no place for complacency (and is apparently not very friendly for work-life balance, either) – everyone should be pushed to be better.

And what about encouraging destructive competition within a team? I think people are big enough to recognize that working together allows everyone to achieve more (I sound like an inspirational poster in a second-grade classroom). Helping others does not detract from the quality of your own contribution, and can often improve skills in other aspects of your life – ones that may become valuable in surprising ways.

More to come next week. Possibly not on the same subject. Can you stand the anticipation?

Note: I’ve formed a blogging support group (pair?) of sorts with a friend. So we’ll now find a way to meet up and/or blog together once a week, as we both recognize the value in: 1) writing down our thoughts in some structured way, 2) exposing our thoughts in a public forum, and 3) company while miserable. Or, at least, company while doing things that all too easily get pushed to next week’s to-do list. Hopefully practice will make perfect – and the quality of these posts will improve.

I saw this line recently in the middle of a job posting, and I had a strong reaction – two, actually, in opposite directions. First, one of amusement and being mildly taken aback. Sure, they’re honest, but that’s a bit of an aggressive and unrealistic requirement, isn’t it? I almost wanted to scoff, ‘Who are you to demand to rearrange my priorities?’

But of course, the other side had its say as well – why, after all, shouldn’t these founders (who were looking for their third) hold any new teammates to standards as high as those that they themselves adhere? At least they list their expectations out for everyone to see, and hopefully avoid problems further down the road.

I’m torn – what is the right way to handle your pet project? I came into this summer wanting a ‘real startup experience,’ one with late nights and young techies bonding over their mutual misery labor. I complained about most people in my office heading home by 7, despite the smaller and otherwise generally ‘startup-y’ feel. But then, faced with an opportunity to interview with a company that would expect more of me – expect me to make it the primary (only) focus in my life. And I don’t know, after all, if that’s what I want anymore.

I do want to care a lot about my work, be heavily emotionally and professionally invested in my product, and I wouldn’t mind it if everyone stuck around until 9 or 10 most nights… but I also appreciate having good friends outside of the company, and coming home to a roommate who cares more about my personal and emotional health than necessarily the health of my professional career.

In any case, I think this is going to be something I’ll be revisiting over and over again in the coming years, and something that will be heavily dependent on my professional focus. We’ll see what happens… and I’ll leave with a quote from a serial entrepreneur’s thoughts* on “Rules for Web Startups”:

#10: Be Balanced

What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food-fueled, balls-to-the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights? Answer?: A lot more enjoyable place to work. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. And yes, crunch times come and sometimes require an inordinate, painful, apologies-to-the-SO amount of work. But it can’t be all the time. Nature requires balance for health—as do the bodies and minds who work for you and, without which, your company will be worthless. There is no better way to maintain balance and lower your stress that I’ve found than David Allen’s GTD process. Learn it. Live it. Make it a part of your company, and you’ll have a secret weapon.

* I actually hate the term ‘serial entrepreneur.’ But I suppose Evan Williams has done pretty damn well for himself, and while I want to resent him for trashing this style of working, some part of me supposes he can’t be entirely wrong about everything.

I’ve been working with kindergarteners once a week as part of http://www.scienceclubforgirls.org/ , an absolutely amazing after-school program here in Cambridge focused toward helping girls explore science and become confident in their own abilities, and I think the number one thing I’ve learned thus far has been how much I can learn from these kids.

Not only have I been learning my own limits — like the fact that I’m awful at exacting discipline from them, and that I’m incredibly susceptible to the emotional manipulations of little girls — it’s been interesting watching them interact with each other and us.

The first week, when the girls saw me and the 8th grade helpers, a couple yelled that they hated us, that we looked funny, and (most strangely to me) that we hated them. As the semester went on — it was clear that that first session was just a testing of the waters, behavior-wise, and how much some of them liked us seemed to vary with the color of their shirts.

It’s funny — one of the 8th graders, Rowan, is a little less smile-y than the others, and so usually doesn’t get a ton of affection from the girls in return. Today, though (our last group session for the year!), we went to the playground for the last ten minutes of session and everyone was having fun — running, screaming, and generally playing. Most interestingly, the girls seemed to have the most fun pulling her in all directions, sitting on her, tickling her, etc.

At the end of the day, I was amused — I was chatting with my co-mentor and brought up how fickle I thought the kindergarteners were, and how flighty… then thought a little more. Firstly — I realized that the girls’ behavior was probably actually affected less by fickleness than by a lack of prejudice and grudge-holding. Their main priority is having fun — not in being right, not in associating only with people like them, not in holding onto snap judgements. Secondly — why was my first assumption that they were being fickle?

Why was I so quick to judge them? What happens to us as we get older — this cynicism in people?

I’m looking forward to going back in the fall — I’ll have a bit more time with my Master’s next year, and want to see what more I can learn from them about myself and the people around me. :)