Seven Plus Three Equals Ten

A Philosophy of Building Better - Chapter 3: There is an Objectively Correct Way to Build

The School of Athens by Raphael

“When I perceive something with the bodily sense, such as the earth and sky and the other material objects that I perceive in them, I don’t know how much longer they are going to exist. But I do know that seven plus three equals ten, not just now, but always; it never has been and never will be the case that seven plus three does not equal ten. I therefore said that this incorruptible truth of number is common to me and all who think.”

St. Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will

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Hi all 👋

In a previous post, I introduced my new writing project, Building Better. This will be my final post that I will cross-post onto A Berg’s Eye View, so if you would like to subscribe to future posts, please consider subscribing to support my work!

Thanks!
Erik

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Today we continue our series outlining the Philosophy of Building Better:

• Chapter 1 - Building is the Pursuit of our Lives

• Chapter 2 - The Purpose of Building is to Further Human Flourishing

• Chapter 3 - There is an Objectively Correct Way to Build

• Chapter 4 - Building is Fundamentally Contextual

• Chapter 5 - The Builder Must Learn from the Great Builders of the Past

• Chapter 6 - Building Better Supports People’s Best Impulses

• Chapter 7 - The Better Builder Refuses to Ethically Compromise

• Chapter 8 - The Better Builder Strives to Repair

• Chapter 9 - The Builder’s Oath

• Chapter 10 - The Building Better Checklist

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The purpose of this post is to convince you that there is an objectively correct way to build.

In order to do this, I first need to convince you that objectivity exists. This is a massive question (one of, if not the, most important questions in the history of philosophy). You could write an entire book on just this topic alone, and trying to settle it in a digestible post is ultimately impossible. I am going to do my best by highlighting the arguments of some of the great philosophers of history, but just know that I’ll be scratching the surface and that there are countless opportunities to explore further.

If you pay attention to the popular narrative in our modern society, you would likely come away with the impression that objectivity doesn’t really exist. The modern discourse explicitly and implicitly suggests that “perception is reality”. It advocates for a form of subjectivity that precludes the expressing of judgment on whether an action is right or wrong. Not “the truth”, but “your truth”. This narrative may seem new, but attempts to challenge objective truth are as old as recorded history.

Early Ionian nature philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus all developed beliefs about how the world worked based on observing natural phenomena.1 Parmenides was one of the first thinkers to raise questions about the veracity of observed reality in a world where he believed nothing was ever created or destroyed.

The first philosopher to address this tension between perception and reality was Plato who created a metaphysics that synthesized the two seemingly incompatible concepts. He does this, not by attacking Parmenides’ idea that perception is flawed but by synthesizing it with a view of unchanging, universal truth more akin to Heraclitus’ logos.

In Plato’s metaphysics, most popularly captured in his Allegory of the Cave, the perceived world is transient. All things change and eventually wither away and die. But there is another unseen world where objective, universal truth exists. Plato calls this the World of the Forms. If you were to look out your back window at a tree, you would be observing a particular tree. This tree would be in a constant state of flux as parts of it grow and other parts die, never being exactly the same at any point in time as it was at a previous point in time. But if you sat inside and thought of the idea of the tree, you would be contemplating the Form of the Tree. The Form of the Tree is the universal understanding of what a tree is and all particular trees receive their “tree-ness” by participating to various degrees in that universal form of the Tree. Unlike any particular tree that you may observe, the Form of the Tree does not change over time and will never decay. Plato’s metaphysics is a critical step forward in the case for objective truth as it allows for both flawed perception of the physical world around us and the objective truth of an unseen and unchanging world.

Plato’s next argument for objectivity is based on the objective truths of math.2 In the dialogue, Meno, Socrates claims that truth exists outside of our individual perception. He demonstrates this by asking a servant to find a square exactly twice as large as one that he has drawn on the ground. Through trial and error, the servant eventually arrives at the correct answer.

Plato uses this example to show that math is an undeniable objective truth that exists outside of perception. A square formed by the diagonal of another square is always exactly twice the area of the original square. It doesn’t matter how big the first square is or whether it is drawn in sand or simply imagined in your mind. This truth is true in all circumstances. In math, Plato finds an example of the existence of objective truth, and if objective truth exists, then the assertion that everything is subjective is demonstrably false.

A proponent of subjectivity may argue that while objective truth exists in some fields such as math, physics, or musical theory, it does not exist in other fields such as ethics or building.

The philosopher and theologian St. Augustine of Hippo addresses this argument by asking the question:

You surely could not deny that the uncorrupted is better than the corrupt, the eternal than the temporal, and the invulnerable than the vulnerable.3

Augustine argues that in all things there is an ordered gradient. Some qualities or things are objectively better than others. You can judge the quality of something by how well it fulfills its purpose. If the purpose of an apple is to be eaten, then a ripe apple is always better to eat than a rotten apple. It is not a subjective matter, but an objective one. Once we understand the purpose behind something, there will always exist an ordered gradient of better ways to fulfill that purpose than others.

To discuss how this objectivity applies to building better, I want to tell you about a timeless way of building.

Christopher Alexander was an American architect, professor, and theorist. In his book The Timeless Way of Building he explores why we seem to have lost the ability to build great buildings and how we can get back to doing so. All the great wonders of the past were built with far less technological knowhow and sophisticated techniques, and yet they contain an awe inspiring quality that is unmatched by modern construction. Compare the Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris to the Neo-Gothic Hallgrímskirkja. Both are striking examples of religiously inspired architecture, but there is a lifelike quality infused into Notre-Dame that is utterly lacking in the striking but sterile Hallgrímskirkja.

We can make buildings faster, bigger, and more efficiently than ever before and yet there is something that has been lost in the scaled, modularized, approach to building that is so commonplace today. Alexander refers to that “something” that has been lost as the “quality without a name”.

There really isn’t a word that perfectly captures it. Alexander tries the words alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, and, eternal. They all capture aspects of the quality without a name, without any being able to fully encapsulate its meaning. For example, the word “whole” captures the self-sustaining aspect of the quality without a name, but it gives off a connotation of being too self-enclosed. The word “comfortable” captures how we feel in spaces that contain the quality without a name but there can be things which are too comfortable and become overly static.4

The quality without a name is the quality that occurs when the competing forces in a given context are resolved and the system is whole. It is at one with itself and free from inner-contradictions. Alexander argues that all the great buildings of the past, and in fact most pre-modern buildings, contain this quality.

Alexander does not, however, think of this quality as some subjective matter left up to an individual’s personal taste. He believes this quality to be objective, discernible, and measurable.

There really are good acts of building and bad ones. Ones that nudge the world in a better direction and ones that shift it in a worse direction. Even if we accept that objectivity truly does exist and that there can be good and bad acts of building, we are left with another question: how are we to determine whether a building is good or not?

Alexander’s answer is to be aware of how we feel in that building. When we are in a place that contains the quality without a name, we feel better. We are filled with a sense of connection to the world around us. A sense that things are as they should be. This feeling can be felt both somewhere majestic like Notre-Dame and in a sleepy log cabin. Alexander argues that this feeling is not some wishy-washy personal preference, but instead that it is measurable, repeatable, and shockingly consistent across people and cultures.

If we accept that there really are some buildings that are objectively better than others, Alexander’s work provides a roadmap for us to apply to all of our various acts of building.

I believe that there really are better patterns.

Patterns for building things that make us feel whole and resolve the inner forces surrounding us.

In Chapter 1, we discussed how every single one of us is a builder. In Chapter 2, we argued that the ultimate purpose of all acts of building is to further human flourishing. In today's post we have examined the concept of objectivity and how it can be applied to recognize good building patterns from bad ones.

In the future chapters we will discuss much more about how to recognize this timeless way of building and strategies to apply it to all of our acts of building.

Let’s Build Better,

Erik

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1 - Unless otherwise stated, background information comes from the Fifth edition of Norman Melchert’s The Great Conversation. I highly recommend this textbook to anyone who is interested in developing a broad understanding of the historical development of philosophy.

2 - From Meno

3 - Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will

4 - Apparently in his later work Nature of Order Alexander begins to call this quality “wholeness”

The Pursuit of Happiness

A Philosophy of Better Building: Chapter 2 - The Purpose of Building is to Further Human Flourishing

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire

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Hi all 👋

In a previous post, I introduced my new writing project, Building Better. I will cross-post my first few posts here, but if you would like to subscribe to future posts, please consider subscribing to support my work!

Thanks!
Erik

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“It is clear then that all men aim at happiness and the good life, but some men have an opportunity to get it, others have not. This may be due to their nature, or to some stroke of fortune, for the good life needs certain material resources (and when a man’s disposition is comparatively good, the need is for a lesser amount of these, a greater amount when it is comparatively bad). Some indeed, who start with the opportunity go wrong from the very beginning of the pursuit of happiness.”

Aristotle, Book 7 of The Politics

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Today we continue our series outlining the Philosophy of Building Better:

• Chapter 1 - Building is the Pursuit of our Lives

• Chapter 2 - The Purpose of Building is to Further Human Flourishing

• Chapter 3 - There is an Objectively Correct Way to Build

• Chapter 4 - Building is Fundamentally Contextual

• Chapter 5 - The Builder Must Learn from the Great Builders of the Past

• Chapter 6 - Building Better Supports People’s Best Impulses

• Chapter 7 - The Better Builder Refuses to Ethically Compromise

• Chapter 8 - The Better Builder Strives to Repair

• Chapter 9 - The Builder’s Oath

• Chapter 10 - The Building Better Checklist

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One of the most misunderstood phrases of all time may be “the pursuit of happiness.”

These words were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776, when Thomas Jefferson wrote that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The pursuit of happiness has been a fundamental part of the American ethos ever since. It is easy to see how this drive to “be happy” defines so many of the decisions we make in modern society from where to live, to whom we marry, to what to do on our weekends, to what we do for work.

How is it that this phrase that is so etched into the cultural fabric of America is so misunderstood?

As the starting quote of this post shows, it is Aristotle, not Jefferson who originally coined the phrase “the pursuit of happiness.” It is hard to imagine that someone with Jefferson’s educational background is not being intentional when he uses the same phrase for one of humanity’s unalienable rights. We must assume that Jefferson understood the source and context of this phrase and chose it, not despite, but because of that very meaning.

So why is this phrase so misunderstood?

When Aristotle says “happiness” he does not mean “happiness” as we conceive of its modern definition.

Aristotle’s original Greek word which we translate into “happiness” is eudaimonia. As with so many Greek words, eudaimonia is much more complex than its common translation would suggest.

Eudaimonia literally means having “good spirit” in Greek. In English, it is often translated as happiness or well-being, but it has a more holistic meaning compared to either of those words. Perhaps the best English word that captures the more holistic connotation of eudaimonia is flourishing.

Eudaimonia encapsulates the holistic welfare of the human being. Someone has eudaimonia when they are flourishing.

When we think of happiness, we generally think of it as a momentary feeling. We think of “feeling” the emotion of happiness often in relation to a specific event or some kind of entertainment. But a life characterized by true eudaimonia will certainly contain a range of emotions, not just happiness. In fact, a life that optimizes to feel the emotion of “happiness” as much as possible may easily end up being a life that does not contain much, if any, eudaimonia.

When Aristotle, and therefore Jefferson, discuss happiness they are referring to happiness in this more holistic sense. A happiness that captures the entirety of the well-being of a person, not just their emotions or what feels good in the moment but what is good for their long term well-being.

In this context, the pursuit of happiness isn’t a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure or even the positive emotion we call happiness. Instead, the pursuit of happiness is seeking the things that enable us to flourish.

This isn’t just for individuals either.

Aristotle claims that the purpose of the state is to enable its citizens to pursue their happiness. In other words, the purpose of the state is to facilitate human flourishing.

In my last post, I wrote about how we are all builders and that one of the things we participate in building is the institutions and society of which we are a part.

If the aim of building the institution we call a state is to further human flourishing can the same not be true for other building projects?

What else could the aim possibly be when we build a home for a family to live in? To provide them, not only with four walls and a roof to keep the rain off, but a sense of place and an environment to flourish.

What else could the aim possibly be when we build an organization? To accomplish some specific goal or test yes, but also to provide the members of the organization with an ideal to strive towards. A path towards self betterment, shared connections, and ultimately, flourishing.

What else could the aim possibly be when we build a product? To solve some sort of problem or provide some kind of value to a customer. What is that value or the solution to that problem if not an aim at their flourishing?

I contend that the fundamental aim of all building should be the same: to further human flourishing.

Building takes effort. That effort is never applied without an aim in mind. In many of the examples we discuss, that aim is directed at someone else, such as a user, customer, or resident. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there must be some economic rationale. There are other examples like with art or a hobby where the aim of building may simply be the enjoyment of the process as reward unto itself.

So does all building promote human flourishing if we accept that as its aim?

Obviously not. In fact, I think most of our modern building does just the opposite.

We need only to look around us to see how often we get building wrong.

Apartments that make us feel claustrophobic and separated from our neighbors. Tech products that riddle us with anxiety and the fear of missing out. Societies increasingly feel strained at the seams between competing ideologies. Cosmetics filled with harmful chemicals. Food filled with cost cutting preservatives. Entertainment meant to consume as many of our waking hours as possible and to keep us tethered to our screens. Financial products designed to keep us in a cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Appliances that are purpose-built to fail more frequently.

More and more it seems hard to find anything but companies selling us products we don't need, that make us worse off, and in increasingly creative ways designed to get us to pay more than we expect.

That doesn’t mean we are destined to suffer from bad building. Most of the things I mentioned above were built initially with good intentions, but they strayed from the aim of furthering human flourishing. Maybe their incentives got hijacked by short-termism. Maybe they had to race to the bottom of quality in a highly competitive environment. Maybe they justified their business model behind convoluted half-truths like their users making “rational purchasing decisions”. Maybe they started thinking of the people using their product simply as economic “daily active users” instead of real, unabstracted human beings.

Whatever the reason, just because some have strayed from the path does not mean that all those who wander are lost.

I believe that there is a way back.

We can get our acts of building working for us again.

We can construct buildings that help their residents to thrive.

We can offer services that support people’s best impulses, not exploit their worst.

We can charge our customers a fair price for a high-quality product that isn’t designed to become obsolete.

The way to do this isn’t a secret. If it is hidden at all, it is done in plain sight. We all know good quality products from bad. We all have the experience of feeling good about something we buy and we know all too well its inverse; the sinking feeling in our stomach that comes from knowing we were taken advantage of.

In my next post I will argue that there is an objectively correct way to build. That it doesn’t require fancy tools or a special degree. That you and I can start doing it in all our various acts of building.

But as we embark on this journey to build better we must always keep the end of building front and center. We must follow the north star and set our compass heading.

If we are to successfully build better, the ultimate aim of our building must always be to further the flourishing of the real human beings impacted by it.

Let’s Build Better,

Erik

If you enjoyed this post and would like to receive more like it, please consider subscribing to Building Better to support my work!

Builders by Building

A Philosophy of Building Better: Chapter 1 - Building is the Pursuit of our Lives

Golden Gate Bridge painted by Ray Strong. Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Hi all 👋

In my previous post, I introduced my new writing project, Building Better. I will cross-post my first few posts here, but if you would like to subscribe to future posts, please consider subscribing to support my work!

Thanks!
Erik

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“Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it: people become builders by building and instrumentalists by playing instruments...

So it is a matter of no little importance what sort of habits we form from the earliest age - it makes a vast difference, or rather all the difference in the world.”

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

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Today we begin our series outlining the Philosophy of Building Better:

• Chapter 1 - Building is the Pursuit of our Lives

• Chapter 2 - The Purpose of Building is to Further Human Flourishing

• Chapter 3 - There is an Objectively Correct Way to Build

• Chapter 4 - Building is Fundamentally Contextual

• Chapter 5 - The Builder Must Learn from the Great Builders of the Past

• Chapter 6 - Building Better Supports People’s Best Impulses

• Chapter 7 - The Better Builder Refuses to Ethically Compromise

• Chapter 8 - The Better Builder Strives to Repair

• Chapter 9 - The Builder’s Oath

• Chapter 10 - The Building Better Checklist

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Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whatever you do for work, you are building something.

Everyone is a builder, because everyone builds.

Today, I will try to answer what I mean when I say “building”, why I am so interested in this concept, and why I think it warrants the dedication of all this effort.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines building as: “the art or business of assembling materials into a structure.” It further describes the verb “to build” as “to form by ordering and uniting materials by gradual means into a composite whole”, “to cause to be constructed”, and “to develop according to a systematic plan, by a definite process, or on a particular base”

We often think of building as taking physical raw materials and assembling them into another physical structure. A home builder is someone who uses physical raw materials like timber, brick, and cement and uses them to assemble a home.

When we think of other examples of building, it is clear that we are not simply constrained to building material things. We often talk about a leader “building a team” or a politician “building consensus”. Just because digital products are put together with code and software doesn't mean they aren’t being built. We also frequently discuss “building one another up”. Here, “building” is used in an emotional context.

Given the broad ways in which we regularly discuss building, it is appropriate to discuss building more holistically than simply assembling physical structures.

I define building as the act of combining physical or nonphysical raw materials and, through an exercise of will, forming them into something greater than their initial state or component parts.

Let’s break this definition down a bit.

We have discussed the fact that building can be done in both a physical and less tangible context. Including the exercise of will in the definition is critical. Building is never some random accident. Building always requires an act of will and it is done in the furthering of some desire. It is important to acknowledge that this desire may be explicit or implicit. Humans are masters at doing the mental gymnastics necessary to justify their actions. All acts of building are motivated by one or many desired outcomes or products, but those desires can be healthy or destructive, greatly impacting whether what we are building ends up being good or bad.

The final part of our definition deals with the combining of our initial raw materials into some more substantial form. The word “greater” here is descriptive of the transformation from raw materials to a more refined form, but does not necessarily imply that the building process is always for the better. This new form can take its initial ingredients and create a state that is better or worse based on whether it was built well or built poorly (more to come on this concept in Chapter 3).

When observed through this lens, it is clear that we are all not only participating in one act of building, but a multitude.

For my work, I build digital products, but in my role as a Father/Husband I am also responsible for helping to build a thriving family together with my wife. Further, I am a member of the community within which I live and I play a role in building that community.

When I cook, I use ingredients to build a meal.

When I write, I use words to build an essay or story.

I am sure when you think about it, you are engaged in a variety of different acts of building every day as well.

If you are a doctor, you are attempting to build your patients towards better health.

If you are a teacher, you are helping to build the minds and character of your students.

If you are an executive, you are working to build your company/team.

My argument today is not to convince you that you should be building in a different way (that will come later).

No, my goal with this post is simply to convince you that, no matter who you are or what your profession, you are a builder.

You take the raw materials around you, whether they are physical things like pieces of brick, the thoughts bouncing around in your head, or people like your coworkers, and you exert effort in an act of will to fashion them into something greater than they are individually.

When viewed through this lens, it is clear that building is the fundamental driver of all work, cultivation, craft, or self-betterment.

You may also ask the question, if the definition of building is so broad, what is the point of defining it at all? If everything is an act of building, how can we possibly discuss it in a meaningful way?

As we continue our exploration of the philosophy of better building I think you will find that, while it does apply to a vast number of areas, this general relevancy doesn’t lead to a lack of precision or applicability.

The concepts we will grapple with in coming posts will have just as much relevance for the home builder as for the community organizer. For the product manager as for the chef. For the person trying to get into shape as for the manager trying to improve their team’s performance.

In many ways the reason I am so drawn to building, is because I believe building to be one of the fundamental acts of our lives. Nearly everything of consequence that we do during our limited time on Earth is an act of building. Yet, we act as if so many of the things we build have no consequence. As Aristotle outlines in the quote above, that could not be further from the truth. Even as we build, the things we build impact us. If we are disciplined and strive to build well, we build good things, and through that process become better builders. If we take shortcuts, the things we build become worse and worse and we become poorer builders for it.

A story from the book Chop Wood, Carry Water that I have written about before helps to drive this point home.

“One of the stories in the book is about a master architect who has made a career building some of the most beautiful houses in the world. After a long and storied career, he decides to retire but his boss asks him to build one last house. He begrudgingly agrees but he doesn’t put his usual love and care into the project. Once the house is built, he goes back to his boss to finally resign for good and his boss gives him the keys to the house he had just built as a thank you for a career of excellence. All this time the architect had been building his own house and he had no idea. If he had known he would’ve put much more effort into it than he did.

It’s easy to forget that we are building our own house. It’s so easy to get caught up in where we are going for our next move or what we will do after school.

What’s hard is to remember is that much more important than what we are doing is who we are becoming in the process.”

All too often, our building is an act of going through the motions as we allow ourselves to be dragged along by the current of our lives.

I believe there is a different way. A way of thinking about building that has nearly been lost. A timeless way that has been practiced long before there were product managers or construction workers or chefs.

In the coming posts I will explore some of what I have learned about this way of building. My goal is to help you see how you can apply it to what you build every day. For today, it’s enough for you to acknowledge that you are a builder. The next question we will explore is what the purpose of building really is.

Let’s build better ,

Erik

If you enjoyed this post and would like to receive more like it, please consider subscribing to Building Better to support my work!

Introducing: The Building Better Project

Hi all,

I am excited to pull the curtain back on an effort that I have been working on for the past year, The Building Better Project.

The Building Better Project is a new writing project that will seek to answer the question: How can we build better?

I have linked to my first post below and will likely continue to do so for my early posts to give you a taste of whether or not it is something you would like to subscribe to.

The Building Better Project: A Nobler Strain

Timeless Building Furthering Human Flourishing

But I also wanted to take the time to address a few questions specific to readers of A Berg’s Eye View

Will this replace A Berg’s Eye View?

No. This will be a separate writing project that I will write in parallel. In fact, I have already been writing it in parallel over the past year, I have just been waiting to begin publishing until I felt that the ideas undirgirding The Building Better Project were fully formed.

Why are you posting seperately?

I decided to keep my two writing projects seperate. I love having this be my personal blog where I can write about whatever I want. If you subscribe here, you are subscriing the following along with my story. Building Better is a fundementally different valuey proposition. It will be more niche and focused and be exploring a singular (though broad) topic.

What are your goals for The Building Better Project?

My goal for this blog is to share the concepts I am thinking and learning about in an approachable, applicable, and actionable way for modern readers. I want to explain complex topics in ways that make timeless truths accessible to a modern audience. I also hope that this blog can be a medium to share what I am building. To discuss the decisions I am making and how you can also put into practice the ideas of what it means to build better. My ultimate goal is to convince you that there is a better way to build and showcase how you can apply this approach to your own life.

What is the topic of The Building Better Project?

The tagline for the project attempts to sum it up: Timeless Building Furthering Human Flourishing. In subsequent posts I hope to convince you that:

Timeless - There is a timeless way of building that is best learnt by examining the wisdom and ideas that have stood the test of time rather than current events or the lastest trends.

Building - Humans are fundamentally builders, whether they are building actual buildings, technological products, societies, or their very lives.

Furthering - When we build things that are good, true, and beautiful their qualities reflect back upon us. Not only do we become more likely to build well in the future, but we become better as a reflection of building well. When we build poorly, the opposite happens.

Human - The philosophy espoused on this blog will seek to grapple with humans as humans. Humans as they are, not as we would have them be. Unabstracted mankind with its infinite capacity for joy and despair, good and evil, hatred and kindness, surprise and predictability.

Flourishing - True kindness is seeking someone’s long-term interest. Too often our modern decisions and discourse are guided by what feels good in the moment without regard for the impact to long-term well-being. I hope to convince you that some things really do enable us to flourish and others don’t and that those things are objective, discernable, and have the potential to be applied to every act of building.

How often will you be publishing each?

I am not sure. I haven’t exactly focused on publishing on a set schedule and I think my writing is the better for it. I have tried publishing with a set deadline in the past and it tended to incentivize me getting something published just for the sake of getting it out into the world. The Better Building Project is going to be my chief focus for a lot of my free writing time for the forseeable future, but I have plenty of half-formed posts for A Berg’s Eye View that I have on the backlog ready to be invested in. Without commiting too stringently, I would expect posts on Building Better to be published more consistently with the occasional post on A Berg’s Eye View to share something I have learned or am grappling with that is more personal in nature. I expect this to be the division of my effort for the forseeable future and we will re-evaluate based on how that goes.

Should I subscribe to The Building Better Project?

I hope you do! If you enjoy my writing style I expect you will enjoy this new project. It will likely be a bit more contemplative and toned down than you will have come to expect from ABEV , but the concepts I will discussing will be what I view to be some of the most interesting and importing topics that I have explored in years. Despite it’s niche focus, one of the fundemental hallmarks of my Philosophy of Building Better is that every single one of us is a builder at heart. So no matter who you are or what you do, my hope is that Building Better will include insights that you may find relevant and helpful.

Thank you for all of your support over the years. Thinking of myself as a writer has become a core part of my identity and it is only through the support and feedback from all of you that I have continued to invest in this craft and made it this far. I am more excited about writing than I ever have been and more sure that no matter what my future holds, it will include me writing my thoughts and analysis of it.

I’d love to hear what you think of The Better Building Project and feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback!

Erik

The Books That Shaped Me

Photo by Brandi Redd on Unsplash

Hello friends 👋

Recently I was having a discussion with some friends about “canonical reading lists.” The concept is simple. If you wanted someone to learn as much as possible about you based on reading a handful of books, what books would they be? 

This got me thinking about my own canonical reading list and the books that have had the most lasting impact on me. It helped me to view the question through the lens of, “if I could only read 5 books over and over again for the rest of my life, what would they be?” It took me far too long to whittle my list down to manageable size, but I wanted to share the output with you.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I have been a lover of fantasy books since I first began reading, but reading The Way of Kings during my sophomore year of college stands out as a watershed moment in my love of fantasy. On a more superficial level, it was the first book I ever read by Brandon Sanderson. Brandon Sanderson has gone on to become my (and seemingly everyone else’s) favorite author. I’ve read essentially his entire catalog of books (most of them multiple times). There are very few authors who I have simultaneously learned more from and who have brought me more joy while reading. Way of Kings wasn’t just an enjoyable read, it spoke to me in a way that few other books have. 

Roshar, the world upon which The Way of Kings is set, is a brutal one and the characters who live in it are deeply flawed. Amidst these flaws, they still find a way to strive toward higher ideals of honor, virtue, and conduct. In the eponymous book The Way of Kings, the Alethi War Code, and the Oaths of the Knights Radiant, I found inspiration that I still carry to this day. The heroes in this story are flawed and in many ways doomed to fail. Some may have supernatural powers or be capable of incredible feats of strength, but I find that their true heroism is their willingness to get knocked down, to fail, to hurt those around them, and yet still be willing to get back up and try to be a little bit better tomorrow than they were yesterday. That’s an ideal I think we can all strive towards.

The Republic by Plato

Plato’s magnum opus, The Republic starts by asking the question is it better for a man to be just or unjust, and winds its way through discussions of the ideal state, the metaphysics of reality, the afterlife, and more. I am in a book club reading through the great books of western civilization, and of everything we have read so far, The Republic is the book that I think most belongs in the pantheon of greatest ever written works.  

When reading The Republic I was most struck by how much it has to say that is relevant to our modern age. Questions about censorship, freedom, societal roles, work, leadership, and more have just as much relevance today as they did 2,500 years ago. I especially loved his concept of how to train his philosopher kings, the Guardians, the parable of the cave, and his myth of Er exploring the underworld. Plato is the world’s first thinker that developed a system able to square the unreliability of perception with a metaphysics of objective truth, and many of his ideas help to form the bedrock of western civilization. Reading The Republic not only was one of the most enjoyable and interesting books I have ever read, but it really is transformational in the way you see the world. I'm not sure there is another book that has fundamentally changed the way I view the world like The Republic has.

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

I picked The Timeless Way of Building up about a year ago and have been so enamored with it I have reread it twice since. Author Christopher Alexander was a Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and asks the question: Why do the great buildings of the past have this special quality that we cannot seem to replicate in modern building efforts? His answer is that what sets the great buildings of the past apart is that they contain “the quality without a name”. A quality partially captured by the words alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, and eternal but which cannot be fully described by any of them individually. Not only does this quality inhabit the great buildings of the past, but he claims that, “the search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story.” Alexander contends that there is a way that we can recapture the ability to build buildings, towns, and lives that include this quality without a name and prescribes his process to do so over the course of the book.

There are some books that you read at the perfect time and I think this was one of those books. If I had read it years ago, I am not sure it would have inspired me in the same way, but reading it in this moment, has been a lightning rod around which so many of the concepts and ideas I have been pondering over the past year or two have coalesced. I still find myself thinking back on this book nearly every day and it has even inspired a new writing project which I am excited to tell you more about soon…

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Jayber Crow is a book I only read recently but I can already tell that it is one that will stick with me for a long time. I have found it coming up again and again in conversations and have been regularly recommending it to others. Wendell Berry’s Port William series is centered around the life and people of a fictional small town in Kentucky with each book/short-story focused on a resident of the town. Jayber is Port William’s barber and though the book is ostensibly about his life story, at times it feels like the town itself is more of the main character and Jayber is simply the observer. Jayber is born in the country surrounding Port William and after an odyssey away, finds himself drawn back and forced to come to grips with his role in the fabric of the small town where he was born. 

Jayber Crow is perhaps the most beautiful exploration of the glory of the ordinary I have ever read. The novel flows in a slow, meandering way but touches on deep topics such as love, faith, ambition, work, technology, and our relationship with nature. The book is a wonderful encapsulation of a viewpoint that I find myself being drawn more and more towards. A viewpoint that places special emphasis on people, relationships, community, and living in balance with nature. It has left an indelible mark on me and made me question some of my previously held assumptions. I am excited to read more Berry and to also come back and reread Jayber Crow further down the road.

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni 

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the list. When I was assigned this for a book club, a 19th century novel about 17th century Italian lovers sounded like the least interesting book I could possibly imagine. It started out slowly with the inner workings of village politics involving Renzo and Lucia, a young couple with the intent to marry in the village near Lake Como. As the novel evolves it becomes a sprawling epic capturing the ethos of historical Italy through the lens of religion, duty, family, politics, and crisis. The book is exceptionally written and would definitely belong on the short-list of Italy’s canonical books. For modern readers, The Betrothed presents an incredibly rich tapestry through which to discuss modern issues of faith, family, work, and the obligations we have towards one another. In particular, there is a scene where Cardinal Borromeo is chastising Don Abbondio for the failure to perform his duty that is among the most powerful passages I have ever read. Another element that makes the book especially relevant today is the occurrence of the Black Plague that struck Milan in 1630. One cannot help reading about this pandemic and draw startling parallels to what occurred in our modern society in 2020. 

Honorable Mentions

The only way I was eventually able to achieve a shortlist of five was if I mentioned all the other books that were in contention for one reason or another. This is the list of books that just missed out on my canonical reading list in roughly the order of how close they were to being included. 

• Chop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf 

• This is the book that I look back on as the point where I started maturing into the adult I am today. It is a book about how falling in love with the process of becoming who you want to be is far more important than striving for specific goals, status, or accolades.

• Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller 

• Every good endeavor is a book about the interaction between faith and work and how Christians should think about their work through a biblical lens. My biggest takeaway is our calling to be gardeners or cultivators. We may not have a say in the plot of land we are given, but we always have the opportunity to cultivate it for better or worse

• The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

• My favorite completed fantasy series. Come for Jordan’s epic world building including unique peoples, cultures, and magic systems. Stay to spend time with the all-time great cast of characters, many of whom start out incredibly annoying but over time grow to represent some of the most standout character work in the genre. Reading the Wheel of Time feels like hanging out with best friends. 

• The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

• After reading every one of Brandon Sanderson’s works (some many times), I consider this to quite possibly be his crowning achievement. This Hugo award winning novella is equal parts engrossing and thought provoking as it explores questions of whether people really can change and the impact our lives have on those around us.

• The Great Divorce by CS Lewis 

• The Great Divorce is a powerful short describing souls in Hell taking a field trip to Heaven and the various choices they make to return to damnation. Best summed up by the quote “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”, The Great Divorce is my favorite of CS Lewis’ works and nearly impossible to beat in terms of how impactful it is in such a short amount of pages.

• The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis 

• The Abolition of Man is CS Lewis’ scything take down of moral subjectivism. It remains strikingly prescient over 80 years after it was written and reveals the rotten underbelly of much of the modern scientific and philosophical project. “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” 

• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

• I have a confession to make, for over a decade now I have been a card-carrying Lord of the Rings hater. Hate is probably too strong of a word. I just found it generally overrated. In recent years I finally committed to reading through the books. I still found Fellowship to be obtuse and overly grandiloquent. Two Towers started to grow on me, but I was still not quite sold. The Return of the King was a stunning Tour de Force that somehow redeemed the prior two books and justified Tolkien’s  place in the pantheon of writers. In some ways I really think the Lord of the Rings series is better read as a single epic book as opposed to broken up into three partial and imperfect short novels. 

• Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Inspired by his own sysophisian pursuit of literary perfection, Tolkien’s short story, Leaf by Niggle, is about a man’s struggles to see his life’s work realized on Earth and the realization that though his Earthly legacy may fade away, the impact he made through his relationships, echoes into eternity.

• Springboard by G. Richard Shell

• Springboard was written by one of my favorite professors at Wharton and is a guidebook to helping you explore some of life’s biggest questions. I participated in and subsequently led a discussion group based on this book, and it was one of the most formative experiences of grad school.

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

• Taken at a surface level, this book is a flawed, confusing, convoluted tale of one man’s simultaneous struggle with mental health and parenthood. All of those things are true, but the reason this book has had such a lasting impact on me is that Pirsig’s discussions of his Metaphysics of Quality were my first exposure to philosophical ideas like objectivity, telos, and virtue. Concepts which, years later, I am spending an increasing amount of time exploring. 

• Inspired by Marty Cagan

• The first book I recommend when speaking to any would-be product managers. Inspired is the quintessential book for understanding the “product mindset” and why building with the customer in mind matters so much to building successful technology products.

• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller 

• A book about why you should think of your life as a story and the benefits of setting yourself on a path for adventure. This is a really helpful book for developing an agentic mindset and not falling prey to the overwhelming societal narrative that we are all victims of circumstance. 

• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt 

• The Righteous Mind argues that the values that undergird political ideology might not be as different between parties as you’d expect. This book really helped me to see people who hold opposing views, not as bad or stupid, but as simply putting more emphasis on some values and less on others.

• The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant

• Will and Ariel Durant spent over four decades crafting an 11-volume collection of world history. They then distilled the most important themes and lessons learned from that endeavor into 100 pages. This has become one of my most recommended books ever and it is hard to compete with the richness of the insights especially when compared to the overall minimal commitment it takes to read this book.  

• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

• This was the book that taught me how to write. My favorite course in undergrad was an Introduction to Modern Political Theory class and Leviathan was one of the main works we focused on. The way Hobbes builds his arguments from basic building blocks up towards grandiose claims has stuck with me and continues to be a writing/persuasion style I seek to emulate.
  

I hope this list provides some insight into who I am, what I believe, and what I aspire towards. What is your canonical reading list?

Until next time,

Erik

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Life Lessons (re)Learned from Parenting

Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash

Hello there 👋

You haven’t heard from me in a while and that is due in no small part to the fact that my life has changed in a big way recently. About six months ago, my wife and I welcomed our first son to the world.

Unsurprisingly, this has caused a certain amount of introspection on my part. As I’ve reflected on the experience of becoming a parent, I’ve found that parenting hasn’t necessarily taught me a bunch of things I didn’t know, as much as it has absolutely hammer home many concepts that I (thought I) already knew. Here are some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned (or relearned) after six months of parenting.

It’s better to do the hard thing now, rather than hoping it will go away

Problems don’t tend to go away just because we wish they would. I don’t know if there is any other lesson that parenthood makes more clear. Your kid’s diaper isn’t going to become less dirty if you leave it. If your kid is hungry, waiting and hoping won’t make them less hungry. Rolling over and wishing they will stop crying in the middle of the night rarely pans out (though this is becoming less true with the advent of Son’s increasing self-soothing prowess).

No matter how much you may want a problem to go away, it often won’t cooperate. Usually, the problem just gets worse. Full diapers cause rashes. Crying babies struggle to latch. A bit of fussiness quickly becomes a full-on galactic meltdown.

The best approach I’ve found is to just get yourself used to doing the hard thing right away. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still unpleasant, but both Son and I are almost always better off if we just get the hard thing over with instead of dragging it out hoping it will go away.
This lesson holds true for life. Procrastination has never made anything better. If something needs doing, better to suck it up and bite the bullet as opposed to hoping it will fix itself.

Growth is non-linear

Parenting is the ultimate lesson that progress is often two steps forward and one (or two or even three) steps backward. Each time you feel like you've made a breakthrough you can be sure there is some sort of regression lying in wait around the corner.

If we are honest, I think we will all admit that life tends to follow a similar pattern. A constantly repeating series of incremental gains and intermittent backslides. It may feel like a roller coaster in the moment, but the key is to keep pushing through. It is only in hindsight that you can chart out the continual trend of progress over time. Whether we are talking about exercise, reading, relationships, faith, learning a new language, or careers, things always feel hardest in the moment and look best only when you take the time to zoom out and compare yourself today to where you were in the past.

Comparison is the death of Joy (and parental sanity)

Speaking of comparison, parenthood is an area where it is so easy to drive yourself crazy comparing you/your kid to others. Everyone else seems to have everything figured out. They seem to have perfect babies that never cry,sleep on command, and eat enough to be nurtured but not so much that you feel like you have to constantly be feeding them. There is so much pressure on parents to be perfect (especially moms). We all of course want what is best for our kids, so we look up the best approach for every possible scenario. For each individual thing, whether it be food or sleep, it may be within our power to optimize for that recommended approach, but it’s impossible to do that for every single aspect of a human life. You have to pick and choose the things that you really care about and what is important to you. As with parenting, so with life (sensing a theme here?). If you try to be perfect at everything, you’ll struggle to be good at anything. You have to prioritize the things that are most important and be ok with letting other things go or -gasp- just being ok at something.

The Art of Flexible Prioritization

This brings me to my next lesson. Parenthood has forced me to learn the art of flexible prioritization. Prior to becoming a parent, I relied on lots of structure, systems, and planning in order to be productive. The only way I could maintain discipline was by waking up at the same time every day, having the exact same morning routine, reading my bible in the same little study corner, doing the same kind of exercise.

And you know what? It worked pretty darn well. This approach has been awesome for someone like me who is great at building habits and terrible at exhibiting willpower in the moment.

The issue with this approach is that it is extremely fragile to exogenous shocks. My perfect little ideal structure for my days would work great on perfect little ideal days, but the issue is that perfect little ideal days don’t come around all that often. The second that real life would actually happen, all of my structure would go out the window. Vacation? Sickness? New job? Any road bump and I’d feel like I had to start back at square one.

Having a kid is the ultimate shock to the system. Allegedly, at some point we will be able to build routines and have very specific structure but for now, our life is much more jazz than sheet music. I’ve found that the best way to handle this is to adopt a new principle-based way of orienting my life. Instead of prescribing that I am going to be doing X at X time and Y at Y time, I now have a list of things that I prioritize. I know I want to get to them, but I try to be flexible in terms of when I do and how they look.

I call the following my “ordinal priorities”. They order how I try to invest my time. Their order doesn’t necessarily reflect their relative importance, but more the optimal path to ensure I am giving my best to the areas that need it.

🤲Faith

If I don’t take care of my spiritual health and relationship with God, I can’t be the leader my family needs me to be

🏋️‍♀️Health

If I don’t take care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally I can’t be at my best for my family

👫Husband

If I focus on enabling Caitlyn to flourish, she will ensure that our family thrives

👨‍👩‍👦Father

If I focus on being present, emotionally available, and earnestly seek to be a good parent, my son will turn out well, despite the fact that I am going to make mistakes as a parent

👷‍♂️Builder/Writer

If I focus on following my curiosity and working on my craft as a builder/writer then I will feel professionally fulfilled.

I know I am only at my best after I've exercised so every single day I prioritize getting some form of exercise in. On an ideal day when things are going well, that looks like lifting weights for 45m-1hr, but ideal days don't happen every day. Some mornings are tough and I have an early meeting or we are in a rush to get to church. With my prior structure, this would've meant I wouldn't work out at all that day. Now I try not to sweat it  and make sure to get a quick 30-minute run or yoga session later in the day.

There’s a certain way I like to do things, but not every day is an ideal day, and being flexible, allows me to invest in my priorities, and to fulfill the needs I have for myself and my family without over-indexing on exactly how it looks in the ideal set of circumstances, because I know many days won’t be ideal

We are on the same team

My wife and I spoke a lot about parenting while she was pregnant. We talked about the kinds of parents we wanted to be. The kinds of parents we had and the behaviors we wanted to emulate. The sort of things we wanted to change from our upbringing. One of the things we talked about was how we would handle inevitable conflict especially when we might both be tired and feeling overwhelmed. During this conversation, my wife said something that has become a mantra for us.

”We are on the same team”

Any time one of us gets frustrated with the other this saying helps us to de-escalate and remember that we are rowing in the same direction. It helps us remember that we are ultimately teammates. That we are both tired and anxious and stressed, but we are working towards the same goal of trying our best to be good people, parents, and partners.

Killing Time-Killers

Having a kid really drives home the value of time. Instantly, a meaningful portion of the time you had for yourself just disappears. Don’t worry would-be parents, it is not as if free time is a thing of the past, just that the time you do have for yourself is much more limited. I’ve found it crucial to intentionally make an effort to kill the time killers in my life. I have realized that those little things I would do because I wanted to “just chill” or because I “had nothing better to do” can so easily become the only things I do in my precious free time if I let them.

The wonderful silver lining of having less free time is that the time you do have becomes so much more precious. If I am going to have any chance of investing into the priorities I outlined above, I have to be laser-focused on making time for them. The stakes are simply too high to spend every night vegging out in front of the TV or mindlessly scrolling social media.

For me, the biggest culprits were YouTube and Twitter. These were the sites I would open up when I wanted to “zone out” or “do nothing”. Now I haven't cut these sites out cold turkey. If someone shares a Twitter thread with me or if I want to look up a how-to video on something, I can still access them, but I've blocked them on my phone and computer so the effort required is much higher. High enough that they aren't what I immediately turn to whenever I have a free second.

The Joys of Living in the Moment

The lesson most imprinted on me after six months of parenting is the joy of living in the moment. It’s always been easier for me to focus on where I’m going than where I currently am. One example was how I spent the majority of my professional career aiming at going to Wharton for my MBA. It was a goal I had for so long, and I worked and worked towards it for years. The day I got in and got to tell my parents I’d been accepted was a moment that I am going to cherish forever. It was a culmination of so much hard work and effort, but guess how long I enjoyed it.

A day? Maybe two?

Instead of taking time to relish my achievement, I immediately started to think about my classes, how I would optimize for internships, and what my post-graduation career path would be. I had reached the mountaintop I had so long aimed for, but rather than taking time to enjoy the view, I headed straight for the next mountain to climb.

To some degree, I think this is just part of the human condition. We are wired to think about what’s next, and I think this is especially true for ambitious people. It’s so easy to think of goals as a checklist and once you check one off, you’re thinking about what comes next. The danger of always focusing on what comes next is that so much of the joy of life is being present in the little moments. When I look back on my most cherished memories, they’re often not what you’d expect to make the highlight reel. They are time spent being present with people. Enjoying relationships, conversations, and the outdoors. Little everyday moments are often the memories that have the most lasting impact on us.

When you have a kid it’s amazing how your world just shrinks. All of a sudden the mindshare you used to give to your career ambitions, your five-year goals, and your next vacation just disappears. Your time horizon shrinks down to the next day, the next hour, the next minute. Suddenly, (and in some cases by sheer necessity) you’re forced to live in the moment and just focus on what you need to be doing right now. After our son was a couple of weeks old, we started being able to think ahead a little bit. Starting to plan for the next day and maybe even next week. Even though we can now plan a bit further ahead, it has still been such a joy and relief to shrink the aperture down to focus more on the here and now. This sense of presence has been so refreshing and it’s something that I want to take with me even as we get into more of a routine with our family and are able to think more long-term.

Prior to having a kid my biggest anxiety was that if I took my foot off the gas, I’d never be able to put it back on. What I realize now, is that just because you set some ambition on the shelf doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. It just means that right now, you’re where you’re supposed to be and that down the road, when the time is right, you can pick that goal back off the shelf.

And that’s what I am doing today. Over the past year or so, as I have experienced some of the biggest changes of my life, I’ve become more and more sure that my calling revolves around two things. Building and writing. At points over the last six months this realization has stressed me out as I inevitably failed to do it all. After many conversations with my wife, and a miniature existential crisis or two, I decided to give myself 6 months of solely focusing on Son and our new little family. Six months to not stress out about writing or building. To not think about what my career was going to look like or what impact I was going to make on this world.

I write these words on Son’s six month birthday. I am still not 100% sure what I will be writing and building, just that I am going to be more intentional with my limited free time to write and build. And hopefully, I will figure out exactly what that means somewhere along the way.

Thanks for being part of the journey and hopefully some of these lessons learned can help all of us be, not only better parents, but better people.

Until next time,
Erik

Bedside Manners

On of the biggest lessons I have learned so far as a product manager is the importance of solving real problems for real people. When you boil it down, I think the idea of “solving real problems for real people” is about as good of a five-word encapsulation of what “product” means as you are likely to find. It sounds so easy. Find people, preferably current or prospective customers, and solve a problem they are facing. The more acute and/or widespread the problem the better. Easy right?

If only. The challenge of “solving real problems for real people” is figuring out exactly what those problems are and who to prioritize solving them for. One of the difficulties with this that I didn’t anticipate is that often, even if you find the right customer, getting them to articulate what they actually want can be exceedingly difficult.

Put simply, “the customer” is not always right.

Sometimes they say they want one thing, when in reality they want something else. Other times, they know exactly what they want but it is something ephemeral and hard to put into words. A feeling. A sense. A realization only when something is missing.

An example of this that I think of frequently is the seat belt alarm.

If you are anything like me (or especially my wife), just the mention of the seat belt alarm “feature” may be enough to make you cringe. You know exactly what I am talking about.

The SCREECHING that begins if you haven’t buckled your seatbelt within the first 0.73 seconds of entering a motorized vehicle built anytime in the last decade. And once it starts, boy does it seem to never end. Not to mention the uncanny way that time seems to slow down so you are able to hear every. single. beep. until you are finally able to find the sweet, sweet release of a silencing click.

Heaven forbid you are trying to enter the navigation on your phone or are just turning the AC on while you wait to pick up your kid.

Can you imagine the person who designed that thing?

No, John, I told you I need it TWICE as loud and THREE times as annoying!

As much as many of us may roll our eyes whenever the seat belt alarm goes off, I would argue that the seat belt alarm is actually an example of a well-designed product feature.

If you asked drivers what features they wanted in a car, I think the world’s most annoying seat belt alarm would nestle itself at the bottom of the list right between an airhorn for their backseat drivers and replacing the airbags with giant metal spikes.

But I am hazarding a guess that the designers of the seat belt alarm, didn’t ask customers whether they wanted a seat belt alarm, they asked customers whether they wanted to be safer on the road and then came up with a solution that saved lives, albeit at a high cost to our sanity.

The seat belt alarm is a good product feature because it solves what customers actually want instead of what they would tell you they want.

Dr. Product

The challenges of bridging the disconnect between what customers think they want and what they actually want came up in an unexpected conversation recently. I was talking to a doctor friend of mine about some of the issues they were facing at work and I was struck by some of the same phenomena occurring in both of our professional spheres.

Just like customers, patients often come wanting something from a doctor. Usually that something is a diagnosis or a test. It is nearly always the result of some sort of action. They want to see the doctor do something (anything) to help them with whatever they are struggling with. But what if the thing a patient wants isn’t really what is in their best interest? Should a doctor prescribe a costly test they deem unnecessary or unhelpful if it might make a patient “feel” better?

Patients want a bias toward action from their doctors, but doctors are required to see through what the patient says and determine what is actually in the best interest of the patent. This is a challenge in and of itself, but to further complicate things you have the way that message is delivered. Just as problematic as a doctor doing things that aren’t in their patient’s best interest is communicating what is in a way that belittles the patient. Maybe there is a self-selection bias at play, but it never ceases to amaze me the degree to which many practitioners of what surely must be among the most giving of career paths struggle to display even basic patient empathy.

Bedside manner matters.

You need to build trust. Build a connection. Take the time to get to know them and what makes them tick.

Product is the same way. Building trust with your customers and a connection that allows you to see through what they are saying to the obfuscated need underneath.

Most really successful products are built by people who spend a lot of time getting to know their customers and developing a robust understanding of the problems they are facing. They take the necessary time to understand their customers, what they care about, what they are afraid of, and what get’s them up in the morning. Only once they have reached that level of grounding do they take the time to design a solution.

In my former life as an investor, the entrepreneurs I always found the most compelling were the ones who fell in love with the problem they were trying to solve, not their specific solution. They felt like they had found this massive problem that needed to be solved and that if they didn’t do it, no one else would.

Starting a company is hard. But these entrepreneurs generally had more drive, purpose, and creativity than many of their peers. They were able to pivot much more easily because they were focused more on solving a problem than on having their initial assumptions proven right. They didn’t feel threatened when they received feedback but instead got excited that someone else was looking at their pet problem in a different way.

If you have ambitions of starting a company be that kind of entrepreneur. Take the time to get to know your customers. Treat them with respect and don’t belittle them just because of your experience in a space. Build something that meets their needs, even if they may not be able to articulate it. Find a problem and fall in love with it. An idea that keeps gnawing at you, one that you just can’t seem to get out of your head, that tends to be one worth pursuing.

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Hi all, Erik here 👋

Thanks for reading my post. You may have noticed it’s my first one in awhile. I am working on trying to get back into the groove of writing. There may be some fits and starts but hopefully you should start to see posts more consistently. Thanks for following along and being part of the journey.

Monsters in the Closet

I recently did something I didn’t want to.

Last month my wife and I flew back to Colorado for a weekend so that I could attend my 10-year high school reunion. This was something I went back and forth on for a while and I only decided to attend last minute. It was an experience that I am still processing and I thought it might be helpful to share.

High School

High school was a hard time in my life. I never really felt like I fit in. I was self-conscious, anxious, and self-absorbed. I struggled with my weight and even more with my opinion of myself. I was a social jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none. I had many friends and could generally get along with just about anyone. But my childhood best friend was a few years older than I was and when he left for college I felt like everyone else had their tightest friends and I was relegated to the periphery of a few different friend groups. I spent an altogether unhealthy amount of time pursuing girls who weren’t interested in me and I failed to invest in the things that made me feel good about myself. I coasted off my intellect and backpedaled from challenging courses that made me stretch. This whole experience culminated in a handful of episodes that made it anything but an accident that I looked far afield for college. As high school ended, I was ready to slam the book on that chapter of my life and move on without looking back.

College

And move on I did! College was an altogether different experience for me. It was scary and new, but it allowed me to carve out a different persona. One that was still riddled with some of the same anxieties and self-conscious feelings, but to who they were a simple burden versus a crushing weight. My parents stuck around during orientation and I remember we went out for dinner on the day they left. I vividly remember weeping in the car not because I was sad to see them leave or because I would miss them, but because, even after only a handful of days with people who were still largely strangers, I felt like I had found a place where I fit in for the first time in life. And that initial feeling ended up being born out. At William & Mary, I found a home for myself in a way that I never had before. I had the dumb luck of getting the world’s best freshman hall which has stayed extremely close a decade later and still makes sure to get together for reunions once or twice a year. I grew in confidence and matured into an adult. I stopped chasing people who were wrong for me and became the kind of man who was ready for a level of relationship with the woman who has now become my wife. There were stops and starts and it wasn’t always a smooth path, but I found my Tribe in my friends, my classmates, my fraternity, and most of all, my wife. I still look back on my senior year of college as the best year of my life.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive experience, I still carried the scars that had formed in high school. I continued to have social anxiety in situations that were new or where I didn’t have a “comfort blanket” of a close friend (this made rushing a fraternity an unbelievably painful experience until one of my closes friends essentially dragged me towards his fraternity knowing it would be the right fit for me even if I didn’t know it myself.) The hurt I felt feeling like I was always on the outside looking in during high school manifested in status-seeking behavior and a need for attention and recognition. My identity became more and more intertwined with my intellect. It grew more and more important to me to be seen as smart by others. As my need to appear intelligent and logical grew, my empathy towards others diminished. It was more important for me to win arguments or point out the logical inconsistencies with others’ stances than it was to build relationships or try to understand where people were coming from.

Grad School

For the sake of brevity, I will skip ahead to grad school. It’s not that I didn’t grow in the intervening 4 years between undergrad and grad school. I did in a lot of ways. Personally, professionally, and spiritually. But I didn’t make much progress on my high school baggage. I was mostly well-adjusted and mostly happy. And that was good enough for a long time.

Things changed when I got to grad school. For anyone that has explored getting an MBA or some other graduate degree, the value of said degree is often discussed in terms of a golden stamp on your resume or setting a high floor for your compensation, or the incredible network you will build. All of those things are true, but I think the piece of the MBA value equation that had the biggest delta between its impact on me and how much it is talked about is the space that grad school provides you. It is really hard to grapple with life’s big questions when you are working full-time and simply trying to do what you need outside of work to maintain your sanity and some semblance of a social life. Like the decanting of a fine wine, grad school gives you time to breathe. To sit there with your thoughts and goals and aspirations and ask yourself the big questions. What do you want to do? What kind of person do you want to be? Where do you want to live? What are your values?

This mental breathing room and the amount of personal growth I experienced as a by-product of it was one of the biggest surprises of the MBA experience. Two experiences in particular were crucial for my personal growth.
The first was a program called P3: Passion, Purpose, and Principles. During P3, small groups would meet and read through Springboard. Springboard was written by Professor Shell, one of my favorite Wharton professors and a leading expert on success. The book is an incredible guide along the journey of figuring out what is important to you and how you can craft a life that aligns with those values. First as a participant and then as a leader, P3 helped me to clarify my innermost beliefs about the kind of person that I wanted to be. This process coalesced around 4 core values (or non-negotiables as the world’s greatest football coach would say).

My Non-Negotiables

1. Be Grateful

   • Life is a gift and without gratitude, it is far too easy to forget that I have so many things in my life I once prayed for. I have an incredible wife that inspires me to be a better man every day. I have a family who loves me. I am financially secure and healthy. I have a father in heaven who loves me so much that he sent his son to die for my sins. My life is truly blessed and as such, I choose to be a blessing to those around me.

2. Live Simply

   • “Everything we need to be happy is easy to obtain”. I choose to live within my means and avoid upgrading my lifestyle. I choose to opt-out of pie-eating contests where the only prize is more pie. I find joy in the little everyday things and never lose a sense of childlike wonder. I am happiest in life spending time outside with people that I love. Other things that make me happy are reading a book, making a cocktail, and listening to my record player. None of those things are expensive or hard to achieve and I can do them whenever I want. I choose to practice mindfulness and meditation to remember that I have all that I need to be happy, I just need to remember to be aware of it.

3. Journey Before Destination

   • Half of life is showing up. I choose to put the journey of my life before any destination. The journey of my life is an ongoing pursuit to be a slightly better person/husband/father/leader every single day. I know I will never be perfect but I choose to work hard and with discipline toward the pursuits I believe in and to be there for the people I care about. I choose to be an ethical and faith-focused leader for both my family and in my work. I choose to chop wood and carry water, knowing that every day I am building my own house. I choose to eat healthily and regularly exercise knowing that maintaining my health is the only way I can excel in other aspects of my life such as being a good husband and father.

4. Be Empathetic

   • My default is to be self-centered. I know that being empathetic toward others doesn’t come naturally to me, but I actively choose to be empathetic and forgiving of others. I invert the fundamental attribution error. I forgive others’ shortcomings and attribute them to environmental factors while taking responsibility for my own failures. When I succeed I give other people the credit. When I fail I take responsibility. I know that I have lived a privileged life and as such, I hold myself to a higher standard. To whom much is given, much is expected.

Those words may or may not resonate with you. But every single one of them resonates to the core of my being. Those values represent, not who I am today, but the person I hope one day to be.

The other experience at grad school that I got immense value out of is my sessions with a school-funded executive coach. This ended up feeling much more like therapy than professional coaching, but whatever it was, made a massive impact on me. With my coach I was able to sift through some of the scar tissue I still carried from high school. I dredged up and examined the aspects of my persona that had their roots in the hurt that I experienced in those days. In particular, I came face to face with two aspects of my personality that I had previously refused to acknowledge. The first we jokingly referred to as “Whiz Kid” and the second as “O.L.I.” (Outside Looking In). Whiz kid was the part of me that always needed to be seen as right. It was the face I would show when I was in the classroom or having a philosophical debate with friends. It was the part of me that would rather be seen as smart than kind. Who would rather win an argument than uncover what was actually true.

Whiz kid represents some of the parts of myself that I am least proud of, but I can’t feel too much antipathy towards him as his purpose was to protect his little brother, Oli. Oli was the hurt part of me that felt like I didn’t belong. The part that felt like I wasn’t adequate and didn’t deserve to be included. It was an inner part of my psyche that my 28-year-old self had largely forgotten was even there. I had become so used to living with it and had come up with so many coping mechanisms that in my day-to-day life, I didn’t feel the bite of those wounds any longer. But just because I had learned to cover up the wounds didn’t mean that they had ever truly healed. It took me coming face to face with Oli and one critical realization about him to finally begin the healing process. Oli was created out of a place of hurt, yes, but in that place, he had become a seed for many of the parts of myself that I was most proud of. Oli knew what it felt like to not be included and because of that, he didn’t want anyone else to share in those feelings of exclusion. Oli was the small ember of my inner kindness, empathy, and inclusiveness. Feelings that I didn’t (and still don’t) show the world nearly as much as I should, but feelings that when expressed, caused me to feel more wholly myself than anything else. For over 10 years, I hated Oli and tried to forget about him. It took me doing the not-so-pleasant work of coming face to face with him to realize that there was nothing to hate in this anxious, hurt, kid that I used to be. I now feel nothing but warmth towards that part of myself. Yes, I was hurt, but in that crucible, the best parts of myself had many of their beginnings.

10-Year Reunion

Which brings me back to my 10-year high school reunion. This post has been a long, winding, cathartic, and probably altogether overly personal journey but I promise I will tie it all together. As mentioned, I went back on whether I should go or not. I felt like grad school had finally afforded me an acceptance of my high school years and how they were a critical episode of my journey, even if they had been an unpleasant one. Should I really go back and face people who I had so recently let go of grudges against? Should I risk re-opening old wounds that had only recently begun to heal?

A part of me tried to put off the decision long enough that it would be made for me, but in the end, I decided that, at the very least, going to my reunion was something I wanted to have done if not something I was especially excited about actually doing.

So my wife and I fly out to Colorado so I could face some of my inner demons.

The day of the reunion I was nervous. There was an undeniable pressure to try to portray a certain picture of myself. There was a part of me that wished I was further along in my weight loss journey and that my beard had grown to cover even more of the baby face that I still sometimes felt self-conscious about after seeing a high school classmate years after graduating who exclaimed that I looked “the exact same as I did in high school”. But leaning on the one person who I trusted most in the whole world, I decided to simply try to go as I was. With all my strengths and all of my weaknesses. All the growth I had experienced and all the ways I still felt like I fell short.

And it was incredible.

It truly was a shockingly positive experience. After a wonderful dinner with friends I had barely spoken to in a decade, we went to the reunion itself and even my most optimistic of expectations were surpassed.

I felt like I knew everyone there and everyone there was genuinely excited to see me. And in perhaps the biggest surprise of all, I was genuinely excited to see them.

Over the course of a couple of hours, I spoke with more people from my high school than I could possibly recount. Some old friends who I hadn’t talked to since graduation. Some folks I didn’t remember being especially close with who still went out of their way to track me down and catch up. I even spoke with multiple people who I was nervous about seeing.

And in not one of those conversations did I feel anything other than genuine warmth. Everyone was kind and seemed genuinely interested in me and my life. They were thrilled to meet my wonderful wife and truly seemed happy for the life we were building together.

There wasn’t any ill will or awkwardness.

Just a level of familiarity and comfort of seeing people who knew me before I became who I am today and who were excited to hear about the path that I took to get here.

I had thought the personal growth I had experienced in grad school had finally allowed me to write the last chapter on my high school experience. But attending my 10-year reunion is what allowed me to finally close the book.

That night, I realized that all the perceived injury I had experienced, whether real or imagined, came from kids who were just as anxious, immature, lost, and self-absorbed as I was. It may sound obvious in hindsight, but all the hurt in my story came, not from some sort of malicious intent, but from teenagers who were struggling just as much as me to navigate the transition from child to adult.

I was struck by how normal everyone seemed. A bunch of teenagers who didn’t have anything figured out had become a bunch of adults who, while further along, were still largely trying to find their way. Just like I was.

Perhaps even more surprising than the warmth I felt from others, was the warmth I felt pouring out of myself. I talked with people whose insults I had held onto for years. People who had failed to include me or spurned my advances. And I felt nothing but happiness toward them. I maybe never uttered these exact words, but that night I was finally able to forgive and let go of all the hurt I had felt as a teenager.

Monsters in the Closet

It was funny listening to my wife’s perspective on the evening as we drove back to my parent's house.

“If you hadn’t spent the last 8 years complaining about high school, I would’ve thought you were the Prom King! For as much as you seemed to have thought you were left out and not included, you sure seemed to have a lot of friends who were happy to see you and catch up.”

With the clarity it took me a decade to find, she’s probably right. I had a lot more friends than I had been telling myself and I hope to do a better job of staying in touch with them over the next 10 years than I did over the last.

I am so happy with my life and high school was a part of what shaped me into the person I am today. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

The best way I think I have been able to articulate the experience is through metaphor. For over a decade it felt like there had been a monster in my closet. I largely ignored it, but it still caused me to feel uneasy anytime I thought about it. At my 10-year reunion, I finally turned the lights on only to discover that the scary monster was nothing more than an old sweater. A sweater that brings feelings of comfort and a smile on my face as I remember a younger, more naive me who took the monsters in the closet far too seriously.

I am so glad I went to my 10-year reunion.

It was the final chapter in a journey of letting go. Of finally accepting that I am enough. I feel like I can finally put the book of my high school experience on a shelf. And when I take it down and reflect on my teenage years in the future it won’t be with spite or frustration, but with a smile.

I hope you go to your reunions. Maybe they won’t have the kind of earth-shattering importance for you as they did for me, but I’d still recommend it. You never know what kind of monsters you may have in the closet that simply need to be brought out into the light.

Thank you to all my friends from high school. There were many more of you than I had previously given credit for. Best of luck and I hope our paths cross again. I wish you nothing but happiness and joy and success and satisfaction along whatever trail life takes you down.

Gratefully yours,

Erik

How Far I'll Go

This is not the post I expected to write.

It has the right title, but the content is very different.

The summer before I started my MBA at Wharton I thought about what a successful experience would look like. Two years ago I wrote a blog post talking about starting grad school. As I did so, I imagined what I would write two years later when it came time to graduate.

I knew I would write about Moana. I just didn’t realize it would be this post.

Wait so Erik for the past two years you have been planning on writing a blog post comparing yourself to a fictional island princess?

Yep. Be honest, you would’ve been surprised if I hadn’t.

I freaking love Moana. Great movie. Even better soundtrack.

As I pictured what a successful MBA experience would look like, I couldn’t help but think of the song How Far I’ll Go.

Much like Moana has spent her whole life called by the horizon of an endless sea, I have felt compelled to pursue entrepreneurship. That’s been my line where the sea meets the sky.

I entered Wharton expecting that a successful experience would be something like starting my own company to pursue post-graduation. At the very least, I thought I would be joining a high-flying startup ready to experience the world of hypergrowth. This post then would’ve been about how entrepreneurship has been calling to me my whole life and I couldn’t help but climb into my little sailboat and make for the horizon with the Disney princess-esque confidence that my destiny lay somewhere beyond the reef.

But this is not that post.

Please don’t be distressed, my faithful reader. Though this is not the post that I was expecting, it is not a sad post. Quite the opposite in fact. My MBA experience turned out very different than how I expected it would.

And I couldn’t be happier.

But before I get to what is next, I want to discuss the path that got me here.

The Path Revisited

I’ve written before about my belief that the mystical “path” that everyone tells us we need to be on is a lie. I have taken a professional path less traveled. Whenever the opportunity presented itself I opted to veer away from the well-worn path. This strategy got me where I am today, and I don't regret it, but I do sometimes wonder if it was the right one.

Part of me wonders if it was motivated by a lack of patience on my part. I can have a tendency to spend too much time thinking about what is next instead of living in the present. In some ways, this can be a good thing. It motivates me and helps me think long-term. In other ways it hampers me. It keeps me from being content with what I have and it causes me to become frustrated if I don't feel like I am growing and progressing.

This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing. Hmph! Adventure. Ha! Excitement. Ha! A Jedi craves not these things.

From the outside looking in my path may seem nice and clear. You get good at making it seem that way when applying to MBA programs.

If you ask me my story I will tell you how everything I have done is according to a north star. How each step in my journey set me up perfectly for the next one and how each has marched me towards my goal of being a builder of great things.

There is truth in that story. A lot of truth in fact. But isn’t the whole truth.

The whole truth is that my path has looked far straighter and more purposeful in hindsight. (As I am guessing most people's do). I haven't always had a grand plan. Whenever I thought I did, those grand plans have inevitably been discarded as I have grown and matured and realized they were facsimiles of what I thought I wanted.

When I first graduated from undergrad I thought I would spend my career as a venture capitalist. I thought I would be the person to say “yes” to entrepreneurs trying to change the world. I thought that’s how I would leave my mark. Then I became disillusioned with a world that, to quote a good friend, had an altogether too high “ratio of noise to substance.” I became frustrated by seemingly ever-present grifters and entrepreneurs more interested in being the modern rock stars our society labels “founders” than in actually building a business.

Eventually, I realized I didn’t want to be a VC. I wanted to do something more substantial. I wanted to work on the other side of the table. I thought I would take everything I had learned as an investor and catapult myself to success as an entrepreneur. The fact that I didn’t have any real expertise or a problem I wanted to solve was inconsequential. I would go to grad school and slingshot myself onto the stage at conferences wearing my company’s logo t-shirt beneath a sports jacket so I could wax lyrical about how my company was changing the world.

Well, I tried that. Didn’t work.

In my first year at school, I worked on my own startup idea. The idea had some promise, but it was in a space that was quickly growing too hot, serving customers I didn’t really understand, and leveraging absolutely zero unique insights or connections that made me the right person to start that company.

So I scrapped that and spent my MBA summer interning at a promising startup in a space I was passionate about from my time as an investor. I enjoyed the work, the team, and the fast-paced startup environment, but something still didn’t feel quite right.

I realized with my background as an investor and my MBA education startups would love to hire me. But only for general business/operational roles. Roles that required someone who was smart and good at problem-solving. Roles that would further cement my status as a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none. I realized I didn’t want to continue being a mile wide and an inch deep. I wanted to develop skills, expertise, and know-how that I could leverage no matter what I did in the future.

In some ways, I think I have been too harsh on "the path". I see other people who paid their dues and built a foundational skillset in a particular area or industry and I can't help but be envious. In contrast, sometimes I feel like an anchorless ship drifting upon the currents of my own aspirations.

After two years at Wharton, I see the path a little bit differently now. Instead of a pre-ordained beeline directly to your life’s great work I believe it is instead a much more iterative process. A series of experiments.

Have a hypothesis. Test it. Learn from the outcome. Re-orient and plan your next experiment.

I thought I wanted to start my own company. I tried that and realized I needed to have more of a unique insight/skillset to anything I might one day start.

I thought I wanted to work at a startup. I tried that and realized that I didn’t want to be a generalist or part of the crew on someone else’s ship.

In some ways, the next step in my career seems like a far cry from what I expected to be doing post-graduation. But if you zoom in a bit, the journey from there to here has been a series of iterative stepping stones as I learned more about myself and what I wanted from my career.

The Next Experiment

Earlier I said that my path only really looks clear in hindsight. The truth is that the only real undercurrent my path has ever had has been my desire to build something important. I didn’t know what that would be or how I would build it. I just knew I wanted to build something and that I wanted that something to matter (defining what matters is a conversation for a different time).

This desire to build was what motivated me to be an investor. It’s what motivated me to try being a founder and then an operator.

It’s taken me a long time to realize that if I want to be fulfilled professionally I need to build something.

And so for my next experiment, I am going to a place where I can actually learn how.

This week I’m starting as a Product Manager at Capital One and I couldn’t be more excited.

I am excited to learn how to build products. How to work with engineers and to guide software development. How to delve deeply into the needs of customers and prioritize solutions that solve their biggest problems.

For all of my career, I have wanted to “build” without really knowing what that entailed.

And I am excited that I am finally taking the time to learn.

When I started at Wharton, I didn’t really expect to be taking this kind of role or joining this kind (or size) of company post-graduation. But I am confident in the path I have followed to get here and that this next step is the right one for me and my family. Here’s why.

It’s A Wonderful Life

One of my all-time favorite movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. Besides being a Christmas classic, it also is an evergreen story of a man who finds meaning, not in what he thought he wanted, but in the relationships he stumbled into following a path he was pressured into. I’ve written about how my biggest surprise from my Wharton experience has been my lesson that what I do matters less than the person I become along the way.

I am trying to be more like George Bailey. I am trying to build a wonderful life. A life that is less focused on what seems cool or what I think I want and more on becoming the best man, husband, father, and friend I can be. And I believe this job is the next step in that journey.

When I started at Wharton, I expected my next steps to be defined by the Moana song “How Far I’ll Go.”

At the end of the experience, I now realize that what I am looking for in the next stage of my career in life is better explained by a different Moana song, Where You Are.

Moana, stay on the ground now

Our people will need a chief and there you are

There comes a day

When you’re gonna look around

And realize happiness is where you are

In an ironic twist, my MBA journey actually represents the opposite of Moana’s. She was held back by feelings of family pressure and longed for the adventure of the sea. I started Wharton longing for the status and adventure of entrepreneurship and unexpectedly found myself in a place where my priorities had shifted towards family, relationships, and seeking contentment.

I believe in the principles with which I decided to join Capital One. I believe that it is a role that will allow me to focus less on where I am going and more on the person I am becoming along the way.

Three quick anecdotes (that may or may not become full-blown blog posts at some point) that I think hammer home the transformation I have experienced over the past two years:

Opting out of Pie Eating Contests

One of the most transformational experiences I had at Wharton was participating and then being a leader in a program called P3. P3 stands for Purpose, Passions, and Principals. It is a small group program where we read through the book Springboard by the legendary Wharton Professor Richard Shell who created Penn’s famous “Success Course”.

The program entails spending six weeks discussing big questions such as “what do I want from life”, “what are my core values”, and “why am I pursing the goals I am”.

I think it would be a useful book to read for anyone at any stage in life, but it is especially appropriate during a time of transition such as grad school.

The book includes a variety of memorable anecdotes, but my favorite is about an entrepreneur who goes to his trusted lawyer asking for recommendations on who to hire as an in-house counsel. The lawyer, who is a partner at his firm, offers to take the job himself despite the offering being for much less money than the lawyer is currently making. Surprised the entrepreneur asks why the lawyer wants to leave his high-powered role and the lawyer responds that “It is just a question of more pie.”

He goes on to explain:

“Working the way I have all my life is like a pie-eating contest. I worked in high school to get into a great college. Then I worked in college to get into a great law school. Then I worked at the law school to get a job at a top-flight law firm. Then I worked at the law firm to make partner. I’ve finally figured out that it is all just a big pie-eating contest. You win, and the price is always… MORE PIE. Who wants that?”

For most of my career, I have been chasing more pie and boy, is it easy to continue to do that at a place like Wharton. When everyone is interviewing for the upper echelon of banking and consulting firms you begin to wonder if maybe you should be too.

I am going to Capital One because of what I intend to learn there. But I am also going to Capital One because it is a place that treats its employees like people. A place that prioritizes balance and where I can live in the area my wife and I have always talked about building our family. Capital One represents an opportunity for me to opt out of pie-eating contests. I still want to work hard and ambitiously, but my focus isn’t simply the accumulation of more pie, but on personal fulfillment and growth.

Gryffindor to Hufflepuff

This one is quick but revealing. You know those sorting hat quizzes that tell you what house you would get sorted into in Harry Potter? Going into school I always was a Gryffindor. I wanted to be the hero in every story. I wanted to be the person in the limelight for having saved the day. Recently on some post-graduation travel, my friends and I were taking the sorting hat quiz and discussing our results for fun. For the first time in my life, I was sorted into Hufflepuff. At first, I was indignant.

I am not a Hufflepuff, I am a Gryffindor!

But even as I heard myself thinking that I realized that it was an incredibly poignant example of the growth I had experienced over the past two years.

When I entered Wharton I wanted to be a courageous leader. The daring knight who saved the day.

As I leave Wharton I am much more focused on being a better person. Being a kind, loyal, ethical, and hardworking man.

Maybe you’ll find this anecdote a bit silly, but for anyone who is familiar with Harry Potter, I think it does a great job of capturing my changed priorities.

A picture of the lake next to my family’s cabin in Norway.

The Mondays and Tuesdays

Post-graduation I got to spend some time traveling around Europe. A big highlight was getting to go to Norway to spend some time with my relatives on my dad’s side of the family. While spending some time at the Berg family cabin in the mountains, we went for a hike and I ended up spending the bulk of the time talking with my Aunt Hilde. She wanted to hear about my Wharton experience and we discussed many of the topics I have written about in this post. I told her that my priorities had shifted and that I was more focused on my family and on finding contentment versus always looking toward the horizon.

That’s when she told me about her husband Leif. Leif passed away from cancer when I was younger, but his presence still looms large in my family. On top of being my Aunt’s husband, he was also my dad’s childhood best friend and so his loss hit my family hard. He was an exceedingly kind man with a larger-than-life sense of humor that brightened any room he entered. My aunt told me about how when he was diagnosed with cancer, she asked him what he wanted to do with the time that he had left. Did he want to travel? Were there items that he wanted to check off his bucket list?

I’ll never forget what she told me his response was.

“I just want the Mondays and Tuesdays.”

Here was a man with limited time left. And all he wanted was as much of his normal everyday life as possible. He wanted to work for as long as he could and spend time with his family and friends as he always had.

There are rare moments in life when someone tells you something and you immediately know that it is going to stick with you for the rest of your days.

My Uncle’s idea of “the Mondays and Tuesdays” was one such moment for me.

I don’t know where my path is going to take me. I don’t know if I am going to stay at Capital One for three years or thirty. I don’t know if we are here to stay in Virginia, as we expect, or if something unforeseen will draw our family elsewhere.

But whatever happens, I know that if I can find a way to fall in love with my Mondays and Tuesdays, I’ll have a pretty good shot at leading a worthwhile life. Admittedly, this is probably something that is easier said than done, but I think my newfound strategy of prioritizing relationships and the journey of becoming a better version of myself every day is as good of a path to a good life as any.

Thank You

Thanks for following along over the past couple years. I wrote with less frequency and regularity than I would have liked, but my priority was fitting this blog into my grad school experience and not the other way around. I am sure I will have more thoughts and insights on this transition in the weeks and months to come. I’m not sure how this blog will change as I re-enter the working world. I’d love to keep writing and I hope you continue to follow along.

Journey before destination.

Erik

A Letter To My Fellow Graduates

Well, that was fast.

Wharton graduation is this weekend and, as with many things in life, it felt ages away until it suddenly was tomorrow. I’ve got a lot of things to say about the past two years, the MBA experience in general, and what is next for me. There’ll be a time and a place for those kinds of posts (especially as I want to get back into a better writing habit as I re-enter the real world.) For now, I thought I would sign off from the Wharton experience with a short letter to my fellow graduates.

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To my fellow Graduates,

There’s an inside joke in my family that I didn’t know where I wanted to go for undergrad but that I always knew where I wanted to go for grad school. My dad graduated from Wharton in 1991 and my whole life has been spent hearing stories about my parents’ time at Wharton. Growing up I saw the massive impact Wharton had on his career. He started a company with one of his classmates, his grad school buddies became my mentors, and we even would regularly go on family vacations with their respective families.

For me, Wharton was always a goal unto itself. I’ve always had a plan in life and Wharton is where that plan culminated. It was where the sidewalk ended.

Achieving a big goal like that is always a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Excitement to have reached the mountaintop and trepidation as you find yourself staring at the even larger mountain that is now in your path.

This trepidation was exacerbated by the state of the world two years ago. My classmates and I were getting acceptance letters and making big life decisions from within the confines of quarantines caused by an unprecedented global pandemic.

Our classes’ experience wasn’t a given. With the cloud of COVID looming, we didn’t really know what we were signing ourselves up for. I remember being nervous. I remember talking with my wife about whether this was an intelligent investment given all the uncertainty. I also remember believing that the sort of people who would be willing to make such a big life adjustment in the face of such uncertainty were EXACTLY the kind of people that I wanted to build relationships with. The kind of people who knew that there would be unknown challenges presented by the pandemic and who chose to take it upon themselves to make the most out of the situation anyways.

And make the most out of it we did. We learned a lot and laughed even more. We’ve traveled the world and built friendships that will last a lifetime, all while of course adhering to all the health guidelines of the University of Pennsylvania.

When I look back on where I was two years ago, the biggest surprise isn’t the things we did against the backdrop of a global pandemic. We all knew we would make this an amazing experience. The biggest surprise was that the true value of a Wharton MBA isn’t the things you do, but the people you become along the way.

I really believe that is true. Yes, there’s the golden stamp of approval on the resume, and the cushy post-graduation job, and the confidence of saying you went to one of the best schools in the world.

But so rarely in life do you get the opportunity to take a step back and to ask yourself the big questions. What do you want to do? Where do you want to do it? Who do you want to do it with? And most importantly, who do you want to be while you are doing it?

The reality is that if you’ve navigated your way to a school like Wharton you will likely achieve some baseline level of success (whatever that means to you). Does that mean we should feel entitled to our success? Absolutely not. But it does mean that questions about whether or not we will be successful aren’t especially interesting.

The far more interesting questions are how we will be successful? Doing what? And most importantly what kind of person we will be in the midst of that success?

That opportunity for self-reflection presents itself as a challenge for us going forward. To not think of our MBA experience as a self-enclosed moment in time. A perfect little snowglobe of memories and intellectual stimulation. The challenge instead is to think of it as a stepping stone.

Over the past two years, I’ve realized Wharton isn’t where the sidewalk ends. It’s not a destination unto itself, but simply a part of the journey.

I’ve also realized that if you spend your life chasing accolades and jobs and money, every mountaintop attained will simply leave you staring up at the next rung on the ladder.

I hope that you have experienced tremendous growth over the past two years.

Even more than that I hope that your growth won’t end when you collect your diploma.

Wharton has taught us that experiences are what we make of them.

But even more than that, Wharton has taught us that we are what we make of ourselves.

And that the journey of becoming the best version of ourselves is far more important than anything we may achieve along the way.

Good luck to you class of 2022.

Thanks for the memories.

Thanks for saying yes to a challenge in the face of so many unknowns.

And thanks for being a part of the most transformative two years of my life.

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Ok, that was a bit cheesy. But just because it is cheesy doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Motivational graduation speeches are one of my favorite genres so I couldn’t help but try a hand at what I would say if given the chance. If you too are a fan of the genre, here are 1, 2, and 3 of my favorite all-time commencement speeches.

Until next time.

Journey before destination.

The Tactics of Ethical Influence

At Wharton, there are a few "famous classes" that every alum recommends you try to take. This semester I had the opportunity to take one such class. Influence, taught by Professor Cade Massey was about the theory, strategies, and tactics of exerting influence on others both personally and professionally. Now, this was a class I entered into with a not-small degree of skepticism. I have worked in highly-political environments before and hated it. I viewed political behavior as the sort of brown-nosing and maneuvering that people did when they didn't have the skill to succeed on their own merit. I have always tried my best to be genuine and direct about my thoughts, feelings, and positions on things. So what was I to gain from a class all about politics and power?

Turns out, a lot.

Three things changed my mind about the concept of influence. In our first class, the professor hammered home the idea that influence is not a substitute for merit, but an accelerant. A point of leverage when you already are in a position of strength. The ability to outmaneuver an opponent when backed into a corner. An option to win against adversaries who are larger, more powerful, and backed by better resources than you are. Throughout the course, this concept that neither merit nor influence will likely be sufficient for you to accomplish your goals on your own was hammered home. We also explored how influence was itself a skill that needed to be honed and so really was an aspect of your merit itself. It opened up my eyes to the fact that utilizing influence wasn't something that people did when they didn't have anything else to rely upon, but an important part of anyone's professional development.

Second, we talked about the "Just World" hypothesis. The idea that too often people operate as if the world was perfectly just and that there were cosmic scales that automatically balanced out every act with an equal reward. Do good, good happens to you. Take the expedient route, it'll come back to bite you. The danger with the Just World hypothesis is that it hinders people's agency. If you believe that what goes around always comes back around, there is little reason for you to take it upon yourself to improve circumstances. Now I personally think that in the long-term, there is an aspect of balancing that occurs. If you spend your life burning bridges, eventually you are going to lose our credibility, reputation, and any goodwill from others. But one need only turn on the news for 5 minutes to see that bad things happen to good people and vice versa. Now, this isn't to say that the world is completely unjust, just that it is a bit rough around the edges. Good and bad things happen to both good and bad people. Hard work and good intentions usually pay off, but not always. Merit matters, but it isn't the only thing that matters. In the "rough world" that we live in, influence matters. We may not like it, but to argue otherwise is naive. And I feel confident saying that as someone who has made the argument myself all too often.

Now I know what you are thinking. "Oh great, a bunch of Ivy League MBAs learning how to manipulate people. What could go wrong?" The same thought crossed my mind and that is why I was so glad that ethical considerations were a crucial cornerstone of this course. At the end of the day, influence tools are just that, tools. And as tools, they can be used for good or ill. The matter of real importance comes from deciding when and how to use these tools. Whether to use them for expedience's sake or with honor. Whether to use them to treat people as means to your own ends or to use them with the conscious belief that others are ends unto themselves. Wielding influence is not only an avenue to accomplish your goals but also a defensive mechanism. A shield from bad actors who would spoil your cause for their own selfish gain. If you are like how I used to be and simply refused to participate in "politics" out of principle, you may open yourself, your friends, and your causes to manipulation by others who aren't as principled. It may not be ideal, but in the world we have, being aware and capable of wielding influence is especially important if you are a good person with noble ends. If these tools really are effective, we need the people using them to be thoughtful, ethical, and conscientious of their impact, not just those who will do whatever it takes to see their goals realized. In my first semester at Wharton, I wrote an ethical manifesto about how I wanted to be an ethical leader. Of the 6 pillars I highlighted, two are especially salient to the guidance of when and how to use influence tactics: Treat everyone with Honor and Don't take shortcuts. On the last day of our class we discussed the importance of integrity as it related to influence. Of making decisions by principles instead of simple cost-benefit calculations. Of the fact that not only can we exercise influence with integrity, but that sometimes, in order to act with integrity, situations will require us to exert influence and to do so effectively. The foundational importance of ethics and integrity in conversations of politics and power was a pleasant surprise to me and a throughline I wish that more of my classes grappled with. Often even more important than the question of whether or not we can do something is the question of whether we ought to.

What exactly are these influence tactics that I am referencing? Each class we would hit on one or two tactics and a figure whose behavior served as an example of them. I can't do them all justice in a simple blog post, but I will outline the tactics at a high level here. Our professors’ research broke the tactics into three buckets, hard power, soft power, and smart power.

Influence Tactics

Hard Power

Hard power is what it sounds like and what many of us first think of when we think of influence. Hard power is using your position or authority to get someone to do what you want. It is easy to have negative feelings about hard power, but a real challenge is thinking about how to use these tactics in a relationship-preserving way instead of burning bridges with them. The two tactics in the hard power bucket are Ethos and Might.

Ethos - Someone's credibility and a key element to persuasion. The trick with Ethos is displaying your credentials within an appropriate context so it doesn't come across as obnoxious.

Might - Coercive Power. Might is the ability to address difficult issues and to tolerate conflict or unpleasantness. Might may be the most challenging strategy to use the appropriate amount of and most people tend to over-rely on it or to completely neglect it.

Soft Power

Soft power is the more subtle side of influence. It is all about getting others to want to do what you want them to do versus forcing them to do it. It is about building bridges and relationships and using those connections to accomplish your goals. The six tactics in the soft power bucket are Coalitions, Pathos, Networks, Team Building, Exchange, and Allocentrism.

Coalitions - The ability to garner support from other actors and to align incentives towards a common goal. Coalitions are crucially important because they are the most effective way for someone with low power to overcome a more powerful opponent.

Pathos - Creating emotional resonance with an audience and the second key element to persuasion. Pathos is often created through the telling of stories and allows the user to relate to the topic or issue at hand.

Networks - Building bridges between yourself and others. Effective networks are diverse and contain both formal and informal relationships. People who have the most valuable networks sit at the leverage points between different network nodes and can act as an intermediary between otherwise separate groups.

Team-Building - Team-building takes the idea of coalitions one step further. It is often not enough to bring desperate actors together in pursuit of a common goal, the real trick is in keeping all the diverging interests from tearing the group apart. Effective team-building means creating a sense of cohesion and loyalty between members of the team and ensuring that everyone's unique strengths are able to be leveraged.

Exchange - Human beings are naturally inclined towards reciprocity. A powerful way to win allies is to do things for them knowing that most people will naturally seek to even the scales. Those who are most effective using the tactic of exchange go beyond simple transactions and develop habits of helping others without short-term expectations of anything in return.

Allocentrism - The opposite of egocentrism. Allocentrism means being cognizant of and orienting yourself towards others' perspectives versus your own. Allocentrism is key for exhibiting empathy or looking at a situation from someone else's perspective.

Smart Power

Smart Power is the bucket that may be the newest to you. It deals with meta-level tools that are more about the appropriate recognition of when to use what tools versus the tools themselves. Research has shown that smart power tools have the biggest impact on whether you are effective or not with Agency being the most effective tactic to cultivate out of all the tactics discussed. The four tactics in the smart power bucket are Situational Awareness, Agency, Intent, and Logos

Situational Awareness - The ability to understand one’s environment and how it is changing. Those skilled in situational awareness understand the interests of different actors and can reliably make predictions about how situations are going to play out.

Agency - The understanding that nothing in the environment is fixed and that you can exert influence to change circumstances. Agency is found to be the most impactful of all influence tactics which makes sense because if you don't think you will be able to influence a situation, you are unlikely to even try.

Intentionality - Intentionality is a complete focus on achieving goals. It is the ability to sacrifice the battle to win the war and to compromise tertiary interests in pursuit of a larger design.

Logos - The logic of one's arguments and the final key element to persuasion. Logos can take the form of facts and figures or a simple logical flow.

Developing My Influence

A major aspect of the class was evaluating our own influence abilities and seeing where there were opportunities for improvement. As someone who had eschewed "playing politics" I expected that I would have some areas to work on.

Little did I know how un-influential I really was.

We were rated on our ability to use influence tactics by both fellow classmates as well as by former colleagues. And my ratings stunk. I had one rating, Network building, that scored in the 80th percentile of my class, and everything else was much lower. In some cases, much, much, much lower.

This definitely was a bit of a blow to my confidence, but I have decided to look at the positive side of things. I have been relatively successful so far in my career apparently without the ability to influence people at all! Imagine what I can do if I develop even just one or two of these skills!

Joking aside, these assessments were definitely a wake-up call, and as I think about how to practice some of the things I learned in influence I want to make sure that I have concrete strategies and tactics that I can employ moving forward.

My Influence Action Plan

One of my favorite parts of Influence was how the professor emphasized the importance of making these theoretical ideas highly practical and building tangible habits to improve these skills. As someone who has so much room for improvement across so many of these tactics, part of the challenge for me is simply narrowing down what I should be working on. After reflecting on the various influence tools I learned in the class, two stick out as key areas I need to improve on, Agency and Situational Awareness.

I think the first step of improving both of these areas was simply taking this class. It has opened my eyes to the fact that influence matters. That these tools can be powerful and that they really can shape situations when applied directly.

To improve my Agency I plan to:

• Challenge myself to never assume that an environment is fixed. I know that the game board is constantly shifting and I need to act accordingly.

• Always question whether there is a "third-way". There are often alternatives that haven't been considered or opportunities to break with "the way things have always been done" if you are willing to take them.

• Take the initiative. I want to be someone who raises their hand and takes the initiative on things. Even when it doesn't work out I need to know that in the long-term, building that habit will be worthwhile.

• In an attempt to keep the importance of Agency top of mind, I added these qualities to an identity affirmation I regularly review that describes the kind of person I am working on becoming.

To improve my Situational Awareness I plan to:

• Practice regular mindfulness and meditation in order to be more aware of my own thoughts and to give myself the cognitive space to be aware of how others are reacting around me

• Set aside 10 minutes before meetings to think through what environment I am about to walk into and what my objectives should be

• Reflect on what has changed in my environment each week as a way to practice noticing any shifting ground

• To help me stay on top of improving my Situational Awareness I added all of these items to my weekly self-check-in

To keep the lessons learned from Influence top of mind I plan to:

• Send myself a quarterly recurring email containing this blog post as well as my ethical manifesto for me to review whenever it is in my inbox

• Add a to-do list item to my quarterly self-review check in to re-evaluate where I am with improving my influence capabilities and to set up new habits according to the tactics I want to work on next

• Add a to-do list item to my weekly check-in to ask myself if there are any little notes or thank you notes I should be sending to people in an effort to maintain my network

Influence was one of the most interesting, informative, and impactful classes I have ever taken. It challenged me and made me feel convicted about my attitudes and actions in ways that I had never even questioned in myself previously. If the hallmark of an excellent course is one that will stick with you long after your last assignment has been turned in, then I think Influence has the makings of a very excellent course indeed. Hopefully, you found this brief overview of what I learned interesting and informative!

Until next time. Journey before destination.

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The Modern MBA: A Halfway Point Review

As I sit down to write this, I am a bit more than halfway through my MBA experience. As such, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my thoughts on the experience so far. Both to capture a snapshot of my feelings at a moment in time as well as to hopefully serve as a helpful data point to anyone who may be asking themselves “Should I get an MBA?” I think this sort of reflection is important with any big decisions, but doing so halfway through my MBA is especially meaningful given just how different the two years are turning out to be. I plan to also revisit my MBA experience post-graduation as well as hopefully a few years down the road to see how my thinking has evolved given the outcome of my final year and some additional time to let the experience breathe.

Let’s jump in.

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Why I’m getting an MBA

To review this properly I need to start at the beginning of why I am pursuing an MBA in the first place. I have written about my motivations in-depth previously, but I will summarize them here:

First, and probably least outwardly applicable to any readers, is the fact that my dad went to Wharton and for as long as I can remember it has been something I have always wanted to do too. Growing up I saw the impact that a Wharton MBA had on my dad’s career and I listened as my parents talked about what had been a supremely formative experience on their careers and relationships. I sometimes joke in my family that growing up, I had no idea where I wanted to go for undergrad but I always knew where I wanted to go for grad school. Writing this motivation out, I am struck by how easy it is for us to sometimes forget how badly and for how long we wanted something once we get it. School has been such a whirlwind in so many ways that it can be easy to forget that every moment spent here is a little moment of triumph from the achievement of a lifelong goal. And that is nice. The fleeting joys of achievement is a bigger topic for another day, but I think it’s sufficient for the purposes of this post to say that going to the same school my dad did really has been special. Having my parents visit and walking around campus hearing stories from their time and how much Philadelphia has was changed will be something I never forget and I find a lot of significance in this bridge between both of our stories.

Okay, now on to the stuff that is probably a bit more relevant for you.

Outside of it just being a personal goal of mine, there are a few other major reasons I wanted to get my MBA and to get it from a place like Wharton.

In my prior post about my motivations for getting my MBA, I landed on three major driving reasons.

• To build my network

• To learn as much as I absolutely can

• To build my (internal & external) resume

In order to properly reflect on each of these and whether the experience has lived up to my expectations, I think it would be helpful to break these larger themes into their composite parts and address each of them in turn. We will use these reasons as our success criteria as I attempt in this post and subsequent others down the years to evaluate whether I was right to get my MBA and which aspects of the experience I found most valuable:

• Building my professional network

• Building my personal network

• Academics

• Personal Growth

• Prestige

• Career Acceleration

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Professional Network

I am thoroughly impressed by my fellow classmates. But maybe not for the reasons you might think. I think improving your professional network is a big reason why many people pursue their MBAs. Sometimes you hear people describe their MBA experience and say something like “everyone I am in class with is so amazing and inspiring! I don’t know how I got in!” There are two things wrong with this statement. First, it is without a doubt a not so subtly veiled humble brag (everyone who gets in here is so impressive -> therefore by the transitive property I too must be impressive). Second, it sets some pretty unrealistic expectations. I don’t walk around campus bumping into people who have cured diseases or started companies that have changed the world or patented technology that helps baby rhinoceros (rhinoceri?) survive in arctic climates (at least if I do go to school with those kind of people they steer far clear of me). My classmates are all smart and they have worked hard to get to this point but they are largely normal people. Just like me. And to be perfectly honest, I take a lot of comfort in that! Maybe I am just lacking for confidence but if everyone in my classes were mini Elons and Jobs I’d probably feel pretty out of place. The truth is that the people who have already changed the world probably aren’t going to business school, and you may disagree with me on this, but I honestly believe that we would be better off if more of the people changing the world did. No, I am not inspired as much by my classmates’ professional accolades. What impresses me is the kind of people they are. With small exceptions, my classmates are kind, inclusive, smart, ethical, and hard-working. They got to Wharton by making long-term plans and executing on them. Some of them stepped away from high-prestige, high-paying jobs in order to better themselves. And I think that is all pretty damn cool if you ask me. My classmates come from a vast array of different backgrounds. Some of them have been leaders. Many of them don’t come from “business” backgrounds. Some of them are genuine examples that the American Dream is alive and well. A few of them are honestly kinda pretentious jerks. But the vast majority of them are good people and I couldn’t be happier to have them as my peers as I continue forward in my career.

Personal Network

Outside of your professional network, I think building out your personal network is a huge benefit of getting your MBA. There aren’t many opportunities in life to meet and build genuine relationships with such a large number of peers. And a huge part of the secret sauce is that everyone being thrown into the mixer is highly motivated to meet and get to know one another. I honestly doubt there is a period in most people’s lives where making friends is easier. Now that isn’t to say it is always easy or streamlined. Between covid (more on that topic later) and some family commitments it didn’t feel like my wife and I really got settled socially until the spring of our first year. There were times early on where we were anxious that we hadn’t made the amount of deep, genuine relationships that we had hoped for. But we eventually found our tribe and it seems like just about everyone else did as well. Two pieces of advice for people. First, give it time. Genuine relationships don’t happen overnight but if you put yourself out there you will find your people. Second, go first. Be the one to invite someone to coffee. Be the one to invite people over for dinner or to organize an activity. Everyone else is probably just as worried about making friends as you are and it is a huge relief when someone else tries to include them.

I think the modern MBA can really be an opportunity to find people to journey through life with. And I am happy to report that I am 100% sure that many of the friendships my wife and I have made will last a lifetime. In some ways, that is probably worth the cost of admission alone.

Academics

Based on my experience, this category is not at the top of many MBA’s priority lists. And it probably shouldn’t be! One of the interesting things about grad school is that everyone is here for different reasons. And that is a good thing! For me, Academics aren’t my top priority, but learning is. After I graduated undergrad, I really missed the academic environment and I felt like I hadn’t really appreciated what I had till it was gone. I loved the learning and the discussions and the semi-structured way of living. I swore to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to be in the academic environment again I would really try to make the most of it. And I think I have been relatively successful in that. There are definitely times where I want to do something fun and instead, I am doing some busy work for a class where it is easy to forget my vow to appreciate school. But largely my experience has been that the more you put into your classwork the more you get out of it (intuitive but not always obvious). I think if I am being perfectly honest, my academic experience has been something of a mixed bag. I would say I have largely been pleased with most of my classes and professors. There have been a few stinkers where I felt like I was wasting my time, but I think the coursework has been pretty engaging for the most part. This is definitely partially being colored by the first couple of months of my second year. I really focused on knocking out my core requirements in my first year. I still enjoyed most of the classes, but the opportunity to take more elective classes based on my interests has definitely increased the average quality of the enjoyment and the applicability of the learning I am getting from each class (with one notable exception COUGHcomputationalstatisticalanalysisinrCOUGH).

For anyone interested in pursuing their MBA, the pedagogical structure is an interesting point of comparison between MBA programs and ranges from some schools where everyone takes all the same courses their first year to Wharton which is probably the most flexible in terms of what classes you can take to fulfill your requirements. It is hard to say which is best since I have only experienced Wharton’s “Choose-your-own-adventure” structure. I think the answer to what is the best structure probably depends on what your focus is. The more defined structure from places like HBS or Darden definitely seems to have the benefit of really creating strong bonds between your cohort (or whatever those schools call it). The downside of this is that, especially if you have a business background, you will probably be stuck taking some classes with material you are already familiar and it could feel like a waste of time. The benefit for structures similar to Wharton is the inverse. You have more flexibility to make sure that you are getting the most out of your limited window of time and not taking classes that are auxiliary or overly repetitive. The downside is that you probably don’t develop quite as tight bonds with your cohort since you are only taking a couple of classes with them instead of a whole year’s worth. I got really lucky and my cohort was unusually tight with one another, but I don’t think all the cohorts at Wharton had that same experience. Covid probably didn’t help.

I will address it head-on later, but it is impossible to discuss academics without mentioning covid. This year, our classes are fully in-person and the difference is pretty much night and day. I enjoyed many of my classes last year, but there is a nearly uniform step-function positive difference to having teaching in-person. The professors are more up for it, my fellow students are more engaged, the lectures are more interesting, it is easier to follow along, harder to get distracted. There is one class I prefer watching the recordings of (Intro to Computer Programming) so I can pause and rewind when I inevitably get confused and have to rewatch an explanation, but largely classes are vastly improved in-person.

The one area where I have been slightly disappointed with the academic side of the experience is just how much of a low priority it is for many of my fellow classmates. It’s fine that it isn’t everyone’s number one priority (again. it isn’t mine either), but there have definitely been times where my fellow classmates’ lack of engagement had a deleterious impact on my own experience. There are few things I enjoy more than a lively and vibrant discussion and it kinda sucks when it is clear that others aren’t prepared/engaged. I hope this doesn’t come across as holier than thou. There have definitely been times where I skipped a reading or turned in an assignment half-done because I was prioritizing something else (honestly I think I probably don’t do this enough given what my priority stack for Wharton is), but I do wish my fellow students would turn up the “student” knob at times ever so slightly. (I should note that this is definitely an area that has improved with being in person but this is supposed to mostly be a review of my first year so 🤷‍♂️)

Personal Growth

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the whole MBA experience is the personal growth I feel like I have gone through during my time in the program. It isn’t often talked about as a selling point for pursuing a graduate degree, but if I look at the value of the MBA so far, the amount of personal growth I have had is probably the number two most valuable category under the personal relationships I have built. I feel like I have grown as much in the past ~year as I have in the rest of my years of adulthood combined. The MBA really is relatively unique in that it is a time to take a step back from the hand-to-hand combat of everyday working life. To take a breath. To ask yourself big questions and grapple with what the answers mean for how you want to live your life. I struggle to think of one other time in life where you can take a step back from the rigmarole of life and not only have that not count against you but you are actually rewarded for doing so!

I have referenced it in other posts, but the past year has been pretty transformational in terms of what my priorities are and how I am orienting my life around them. And I am not sure that I would’ve been able to work through what I needed to in order to get to where I am today if I wasn’t getting my MBA. When you are working full time it is really hard to do anything but execute on what is urgent. I salute those of you who are able to work on your side project after work and travel on the weekends but I have never been able to do much more than spend time with my wife, walk my dog, try to exercise a little, watch some TV together, and occasionally string together a semi-coherent blog post. A great part of the whole MBA experience is that the application process itself actually gets the ball rolling on asking yourself some pretty big questions, but too many seem to drop their progress as soon as they get to school and the custome party circuit begins.

Maybe this is just me being overly self-analytical and other people simply haven’t experienced the kind of growth I am talking about or they are better equipped to do so during normal life and don’t need to wait until a water break like I did. Maybe I simply had more growing up to do than my classmates. Maybe people are simply unwilling to really sit and grapple with tough questions. It sure isn’t always easy or pleasant. Whatever the case, I think the personal growth you can do during your two years is one of the most underrated benefits of getting an MBA. And if any of my classmates haven’t taken the time to be intentional about pursuing that kind of work I would really encourage them to not let our final year slip by without doing so.

Prestige

This isn’t super comfortable to talk about, but I feel like I would be disingenuous if I didn’t at least mention the factor that prestige plays in the MBA experience. In some ways, this is more an input of which MBA program you attend versus the decision to attend an MBA program as a whole. If I am being completely honest with myself and open with you, I have got to admit that the prestige of getting my MBA from a school like Wharton did play a role in my decision criteria. And as uncomfortable as it can be to say something out loud, I don’t think it necessarily is bad or wrong. Prestige matters. We may not like it, but it does. I have felt like I didn’t really have a “gold stamp of approval” yet in my professional life and I thought going to a school like Wharton could fill that gap. I thought it would open doors for me and that people would use my degree, at least partially, as a proxy for my talent.

And so far, the initial indications are that I was correct in my thinking. Now how much it matters is a topic for another day and probably depends on a variety of factors (industry especially). But I think it is pretty hard to say it doesn’t matter at all. When I tell people I go to Wharton, I can tell they look at me differently. Sometimes that difference may be for my benefit and other times it may be to my detriment, but there generally is a difference all the same.

Now the one thing I will close with on this topic is that while I do think prestige matters, I don’t think it matters THAT much. No amount of attending a prestigious program will offset your actual capabilities or hard work, but I do think it probably can augment them.

Career Acceleration

Probably the biggest reason why people get their MBAs is for the acceleration/pivot point that it can play for their career. At this point where I am not 100% sure what I will be doing post-graduation, it is also probably the hardest category for me to really rate with any degree of confidence. What I can say is that it really does serve as an excellent way to pivot your career. I came to school because I wanted to pivot from being on the investing side of the technology world to being on the operating side. My career north star is that I want to be part of building businesses that create an impact by solving important problems for people. I didn’t feel like I was doing that as an investor and the MBA presented me with an opportunity to pivot into a more hands-on role in the building process. To a degree, the proof will be in the pudding depending on where I land post-graduation, but so far so good. I interned in an operational role for a startup my whole first year and then I got exposure to both operations and product work during my summer internship. Both of these have been really great experiences and have allowed me to show at least the initial indications of a skill-set in some of these areas.

One of the things I struggled with last year was my struggle to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life and my eventual conclusion that the answer is really only ever understood in hindsight and that career pathing is much more of an iterative process than a pre-scripted one. For others who take this more experimental approach to career pathing, the MBA is a perfect sandbox. It allows you to develop hypotheses around what you want to do and then actually go and test them in a low-stakes way either through classes or internships. This is massively valuable, both for the hypothesis you confirm and (perhaps even more so) for those whose conclusions surprise you.

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COVID

The 800-lb gorilla in the room. It is pretty hard to talk through the first half of my MBA experience without discussing the impact Covid-19 has had on it. A few thoughts:

My first year was quite a bit different than the first-year MBA experience in years past or even this year. All of our classes were virtual and there were no officially sanctioned, in-person, social activities of any kind. Most of our social outlets my first year were coffee chats and small group dinners. In many ways, this stunk. We weren’t able to participate in any of the annual traditions that accompany most Wharton students’ first year. It was harder to make friends and the quality of the class experience was inevitably diminished. But it wasn’t all bad.

The way I like to talk about it is that it seems to me like the MBA experience under normal circumstances is a bit like an amusement park ride. You must pass certain criteria to get on but then once you are on, you sorta are just whisked on your way, with networking, academic enrichment, and professional achievement in some ways being the default for showing up.

That was not the case last year. My wife and I had an awesome experience. As did many of my classmates. But that is because we were intentional about willing that experience into existence. It did not just happen on its own like I expected and my guess is that this review would not be nearly as positive as it is if I hadn’t been in Philadelphia or if I hadn’t been as proactive while I was here.

Do I think Wharton did a good job in handling the pandemic? No. The administration clearly cared more about covering their own asses than they cared about treating their students like adults. They did little to foster anything resembling a sense of community and actively stymied it when given the chance. They hid behind the veil of trying to keep everyone safe while making nonsensical policies that had little logical or scientific basis. They accepted their largest class on record without making any cuts to tuition and then, with their all-time greatest tuition revenue in the bank, proceeded to make constant cuts to the student (and ESPECIALLY the partner or “non-tuition-paying-members-of-the-community” in their parlance) experience. They refused to dip into their multi-billion dollar endowment to alleviate some of these challenges and in doing so dispelled any possible justification of these unfathomably large investment vehicles being anything that resembles a “rainy day fund” for the institution.

The actions of the school over the past year serve as a stark reminder that just because Wharton is, among if not, the best business school in the world, does not mean that it is in any way, shape, or form run like a business. Students are not treated as customers and they are barely even treated as stakeholders. I am sure the administrators and leaders of the school think they care about students, but their almost militant willingness to adopt a strategy of “wait them out, they are only here for two years” speaks otherwise. With all of that said, I doubt any MBA over the past two years would have glowing things to say about how their school handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Does that excuse their behavior? Not in my humble opinion. I wish the school had created realistic guidelines that students could abide within instead of creating these completely illogical and unrealistic rules which only succeeded in driving social events underground (and inside), thereby making them more exclusionary and less safe.

Now Covid’s impact on the MBA experience wasn’t all bad. Virtual class afforded a certain amount of flexibility for those students who wanted/were able to take advantage of it. I also think the modality of making social connections in smaller groups had some distinct benefits over the usual shouting to each other over the cacophony of packed night-club parties.

As much as I am enjoying this year, it is honestly exhausting. It is awesome and I am loving it, but I constantly feel tired and that I am being pulled in 10 different directions at once (part of the cause of my infrequent blog posts). I struggle to imagine keeping up this pace for two whole years. I also think there is something to be said about how different my two years will be and the stark contrast they will live in my memory with compared to the average MBA student under more normal times.

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Conclusion

I am really happy with my MBA experience so far. Parts of it haven’t been what I expected, both for good and ill. Parts have been hard and stressful. But I feel like I have gotten a ton out of the experience and I am really glad I decided to pursue it. We will see how much, if at all, that changes as I finish up my final year and figure out what I will be doing post-graduation.

I hope this semi-coherent rant was informative and maybe even a little bit helpful. A lot of the value I get from writing is that it helps clarify my thoughts on a subject and this was definitely a helpful exercise in that regard. Until next time.

Journey before destination.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

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If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

I'm Shipping Up

One of the key aspects of the MBA experience is the summer internship. This is an opportunity to get experience in your desired role or industry and it is especially important for people looking to use the MBA as a pivot in their careers (like me).

I couldn’t be more excited to announce that I’ll be spending the summer as a Product and Operations Associate at Catch, a Boston-based fintech startup building portable benefits for modern workers. In this post, I will talk about the journey that led me to Catch, but for anyone looking for a TLDR, I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to work alongside a seriously impressive team on solving the problem of how to make benefits work for modern workers.

Back to the Future (of Work)

Anyone who has read this blog before will know that one of the topics that has interested me the most in recent years is the future of work. Credit for my interest in this space goes to my wife. She is from a small town in rural Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay. When I say small, I mean small. We are talking 1 stoplight and 3 restaurants small. Her town is absolutely beautiful, but its charm is belied by the fact that her town is dying. What once was a robust example of small-town America has become a shell of its former self. The Northern Neck is one of the most beautiful regions you will find anywhere in the country, located only a short drive from DC and yet the area has been in a downward spiral for years. There simply aren’t the kind of economic opportunities in the region that there once used to be. The smartest and most ambitious leave for school and don’t come back, finding opportunities and a lifestyle more to their liking in the urban centers that have become magnets of modern culture and commerce. Those that don’t leave are forced to contend with an opportunity set that is constantly eroded by offshoring, poor public education, and decades of underinvestment in core infrastructure and services. I think this phenomenon of the divergence of economic fortunes and the feeling that so many workers have been left behind by the modern economy underlines much of the social, political, and economic strife that the US and many other countries around the globe find themselves facing.

The juxtaposition of the Northern Neck’s natural beauty compared to its bleak economic outlet was what first made me begin to ask questions about why this divergence was occurring. I thought about why our work hasn’t kept pace with our needs as workers. I thought about how you could bring economic prosperity back to small-town America and why opportunities were so limited during a time when technology allows almost anyone to work almost anywhere. I thought about the different aspects that compose work and how the preferences of modern workers differed from that of our parents and grandparents.

Ultimately, I kept asking myself “What would the corner store of the future look like, and what can be done to help more people participate in the modern, digital economy?”

As an investor, my interest in the future of work coalesced around two fundamental pillars.

1)      What can be done to increase access to the digital economy?

2)      What can be done to decrease friction for modern workers?

For me, the future of work was never about the latest and greatest productivity tool or as simplistic as work that is simply remote. Maybe those are aspects of the future of work, but I have been chiefly concerned with the larger questions of how workers are changing and how the role of work would have to evolve to keep up.

My interest in this space led me to spend time delving into the creator economy. My thesis was that creators monetizing their unique interests, skills, and resources was an excellent example of an onramp into the digital economy for non-technical workers. As I transitioned from an investor into a full-time student, the creator economy continued to dominate the lion’s share of my attention as an area poised for opportunities.

The Jobs to be Done by Jobs

My interest in the creator economy really came to a head during my most recent semester at Wharton. I took an innovation class that tasked us with developing startup ideas and doing the groundwork for reaching initial validation of our concepts. I started exploring the financial side of the creator economy and hypothesized that current financial solutions wouldn’t be able to serve the needs of this emerging workforce. I thought that the biggest pain point for creators would be difficulty getting access to financing based on the unpredictability of their cashflows and incumbent financial institutions’ utter inability to underwrite income from platforms like Youtube, Twitch, or Substack. When I actually took the time to talk with creators and experts in the space, what I found surprised me. Yes, financing was a pain for creators, but the far greater pain revolved around their access to benefits. The need to take out a loan was something that, while painful, occurred infrequently. Benefits were, on the other hand, were a top-of-mind issue on a nearly daily basis. I realized that income was only an aspect of the “job to be done” by our jobs. We also rely on our jobs for insurance, community, security, prestige, value, identity, and so much more. New platforms provide creators, gig workers, freelancers, and other modern workers with income, but what about insurance, paid time off, family leave, retirement savings, and the other benefits that have been supplied by employers for nearly 100 years (side note: Catch’s CEO has an excellent examination of the historical drivers that led to the creation of the modern system of benefits)

Ask me what the Catch is

As I continued to explore the impact of benefits on modern workers, I realized that, if anything their effect was understated. Yes, benefits are a pain in the ass for modern workers and that is a huge problem. But what about the traditional workers who want the freedom and ability to pursue work more in line with their interests but never take the jump because they feel chained to their desk by their employer-provided health insurance and 401k? What about the modern workers that never were because of the hurdle provided by the outdated benefits system? If you reduce the friction to pursuing modern work by providing benefits to people no matter where they are and where they work, not only will you make life better for the large, growing group of modern workers, but I believe that you would also unleash a wave of entrepreneurship and economic opportunity for people who previously never had access to the modern economy.

And that’s what got me so excited about Catch! I was discussing my exploration of the space with one of my friends from my time as a VC and he immediately recommended I try to connect with the folks over at Catch. He was a big fan and knew that there were among the leaders in the space of modernizing benefits for modern workers. One conversation led to another and, as fortune would have it, the team had a need for exactly the kind of generalist operational role that I was looking for.

Catch is attacking the massive opportunity of decoupling benefits from work and rebuilding a modern safety net that allows people to take calculated risks and make plans for the future even as they pursue modern jobs that didn’t exist even a handful of years ago.

I am excited to bring what I’ve learned as an investor, operator, and student to contribute as much as possible to the company’s mission. Most of all, I am excited to work next to seriously impressive people working on solving a seriously important problem.

Whenever I have evaluated a company as a VC or angel investor, I have always tried to do a gut check of asking myself “will the world be a better place if this company is successful?”

I honestly believe that the answer to that question for Catch is an unequivocal yes.

And I couldn’t be more excited to do everything I can to try to help make that happen.  

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning.

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

Builder or Investor?

The summer before my junior year was one of the most impactful couple of months in my life. I had two internships that summer, one at a PE shop in Chicago and one at a medical device startup in New Hampshire. Chicago was the first time I ever really lived on my own. As a social extrovert, this was hard but, ultimately, really good for me. My summer in Chicago was a step function increase in my personal growth. I don’t think it is a coincidence that I met the woman who would go on to become my wife shortly after returning to school in the fall. I was finally mature enough for that kind of relationship, and my time in Chicago had a lot to do with that. 

If Chicago was an accelerant for personal growth, New Hampshire was a catalyst for significant professional development. 

I was working at a medical device company while also living with the CEO and his family. It was an intensive business boot camp. During the workweek, I did a rotation throughout the company working on a new project each week. Combined with daily 1v1s with departmental heads, the internship served as a fantastic introduction to the various dimensions of a technology business. 

Outside of work, the CEO had me do his P90X workouts with him every day before work at 5 am. This may sound early, but it was a luxury compared to the 4 am wake-up calls I had on the weekends for fishing. 

I learned a lot through this experience. I learned the importance of being able to speak just as easily with a dockhand as with a CEO. I learned what a world-class culture feels like and the impact of working at a mission-driven company. I learned that if you want to be truly successful, it is more important to be among the world’s best at something than what that something is. 

I think I learned as much out on the boat talking with the CEO as I did in the office. One conversation in particular sticks out. He told me, “at some point, every successful person has to decide whether they want to be a builder or an investor.” 

The concept of builder vs. investor has informed much of my career thus far. 

After school, I had the opportunity to work at an elite, global investment shop like The Carlyle Group. I got so much from that experience, but I knew pretty early that I wanted to try to find a way back into the startup world as my next step. I knew that I wanted to be part of building companies that make an impact through solving important problems, but I didn’t know the first thing about actually working at a startup. 

I thought through my potential options as follows: 

1. I could go try to work at a startup. 

2. I could go try to work at a big tech company. 

3. I could try to get into venture capital. 

My only tangible skills were financial management and analysis, so if I did pursue being an operator, it would have to be in some sort of financial analyst role. As positive as large swathes of my Carlyle experience had been, it had also made me realize that I didn’t want to be a cog in the wheel at another big company. Spending the previous two years working on billion-dollar oil & gas transactions also made me want to work with more nascent companies. 

So I actually saw my options as follows: 

1. Try to find a startup to join. It would have to be in a financial analyst role, which generally only more mature companies recruit. I would be buying a single lottery ticket, but it would really pay off if the company became super successful. 

2. Try to become a VC. I hoped to leverage my investor’s skill set to land a role at a seed-stage investing shop working with early-stage companies. Instead of a single lottery ticket, I rationalized that I would have visibility on a whole host of different startups. I would develop a broad view of what success looked like, which could inform whatever was next. 

I decided to pursue the VC path. My logic was that I could be a real growth partner to startups. I may not be doing the building myself, but I would be an integral part of that process as an investor. I thought I could be a builder through being an investor. 

And I was wrong. 

Now I don’t regret my choice. It worked out well for me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a VC. I learned a lot, built a ton of great relationships, and ultimately ended up here at Wharton, which had been my goal for as long as I could remember.

I didn’t make a wrong choice, but I can see that my logic was fundamentally flawed with hindsight. 

The reality is that VCs aren’t builders. They may think they are, and maybe as partners on boards, VCs are adjacent to the building process, but they aren’t builders. Not really. Especially not junior-level VCs. 

I had this deep desire to build something meaningful. To be part of creating something new that I could hang my hat on, point to, and say, “I did that.” And as much as I wished it could, I realize now that VC was never going to scratch that itch. 

I think a lot of junior and would-be VCs fall into this builder trap. They want to be a company builder, but they don’t have any sort of technical or operational background, so they pursue being a VC. The career provides access to startups has a sheen of sexiness (to its ultimate fault, I would argue).

After a couple of years, all the associates who wanted to be builders end up pretty disillusioned because they aren’t making the impact they had hoped they would.

What generally happens next is these aspiring builders leverage the network they have cultivated and their knowledge of startups to land an operating role at a company. Going from VC to operator isn't a bad route at all (at least I hope not because it is the one I am pursuing!). You will leave VC with a robust network in the space, a high-level view of what it takes to build a successful tech company, and the ability to evaluate what strong companies look like. 

I don't think this path is as good as jumping straight into an operating role at a future unicorn, but it probably has a lower variance. Worst comes to worst, you can always go and get your MBA and use that as a springboard onto the operating side of the table 😊.

You can't really make a wrong choice when deciding between being an operator and an investor, but I do think you can make a suboptimal one based on your ultimate aspiration. 

The number one piece of advice I have for folks interested in pursuing venture capital is to take the time to think about why they want to become a VC. Do they want to be a builder or an investor? 

With the benefit of hindsight, my recommendation is only to pursue being a venture capitalist early on in your career if you want to be an investor. 

If you want to be a builder long term and pursue VC as a path into that world, you'll get broad exposure, but you'll likely be frustrated with how little impact you make on companies (the extent to which VCs make a tangible impact on companies in general is a debate for another post). 

Instead, join a high-growth company. Optimize more for growth and sitting next to brilliant people. Optimize less for the particulars of your role. You can always get into VC down the road. Operating experience will only make you a better, more empathetic, and more credible investor.  

If you want to be an investor and want VC to be your asset class of choice, then great! You won’t make as much money as being a PE bro, but the companies you work with are about 1000x cooler, and you may even be able to invest in some companies that change the world. 

As with most things in life, there isn't one ideal path. The path you choose matters less than what you do while on it. 

But before deciding to jump into the VC rabbit hole, think about what you really want. 

Do you want to be a builder or an investor?

The answer will inform a lot. 

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning.

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

Your Life's Great Work

There have been times over the last couple of months where I have been struggling.

I have written before about how getting my MBA at Wharton is a realization of a life-long dream. But sometimes there is a double-edged sword to achieving a dream.

I have been orientating myself towards getting my MBA for so long, now that I am here, I have been at a bit of a loss for what I want to do next. This question has caused me an undue amount of stress and anxiety over the past few months, but I am happy to say that I feel like I have worked through it and come out on the other side. I want to share how I grappled with some of these existential questions and where I landed.

The Green Grass of Measurability

There are a lot of things that make the MBA experience unique. One of them is how condensed it feels. Two years is a relatively short amount of time to pack in the learning, relationships, growth, and career moves that you expect to make. If we are being honest this probably creates challenges for all of us at one point or another. A common area where this rears its head is with jobs. Many of my fellow students started recruiting for their summer internship almost as soon as they arrived in the fall. Others are only now starting to work on figuring out their summer plans. This mismatch creates a recipe for comparison and anxiety. Maybe you are practicing cases while your friends are out celebrating. Or maybe you are anxiously twiddling your thumbs as all your friends start to receive offers and you are just getting started on your search.

I definitely fall into this second camp. Now, I knew this was going to be the case. I knew going in that I wouldn’t be part of a straightforward recruiting process. My chief goal at graduate school was and is to launch my own business. And even as I do explore less-entrepreneurial paths, there is absolutely zero part of me that is interested in the sort of jobs that hire using that kind of process-heavy structure. Even still, it is hard to not be envious of the clear feedback loops those processes entail. I have found myself envious of my peers’ ability to measure where they are at and how they are doing within their job search even if the jobs themselves are of no interest to me. The grass really is always greener.

The Great Work Trap

When it comes to big decisions about careers or life or marriage or anything else, the path forward is often littered with mental traps. One of the most common traps that I have written about before is the belief in a “path” that no longer exists (or maybe never really did). Another one I discovered for myself is the Great Work Trap.

My first semester at school I was mostly focused on making friends, getting my family settled in a new city, and remembering how to be a student again. As I started to find my sea legs a bit towards the tail-end of the semester, my attention started to turn to what I would be doing over my summer internship and post-graduation. For those who don’t know, your summer internship during your MBA is generally seen as a very important stepping stone towards whatever you want to do post-graduation. There is a lot of pressure to find the right opportunity over the summer especially for jobs with more structured recruiting processes like banking or consulting.

As I started to spend time thinking about what I wanted to do, I found myself getting stuck. First, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. Having previously worked as a VC, there were parts of the industry that I absolutely loved, but other parts that I didn’t love so much. I also am very interested in getting operating experience either at an early stage startup or through starting my own venture. Do I try to go back into venture and find a firm that is a better long-term fit? Do I try to get a taste for the operating side of things? Do I try to start my own thing at school with the guard rails, free-time, and lowered opportunity costs that it affords?

In some ways, I still don’t have the answers, but after spending way too much time thinking about it and talking with people who are a lot wiser than me, I have learned to let go of some of the questions.

I think I have looked towards getting my MBA as this inflection point in my life and career for so long that I have simply been putting too much pressure on myself. I had been trying to figure out what my Life’s Great Work would be so that I could launch into it like a slingshot after I graduated.

I’ve come around to realizing that life very rarely works that way.

I think the journeys towards the great works of our life tend to only appear in hindsight.

Very few people point to the distance, decide what their career will look like, and then unnervingly succeed in pursuing that vision. I now believe that when done right, careers are much more iterative processes. You run a bunch of experiments. You double down on the things that are a good fit and you cut out the things that aren't. I like to think of Boyd Varty’s concept of tracking. You explore and you find a clue of where you want to be. That clue leads you to the next one. Sometimes you lose the trail and have to circle back around. But if you are patient, you will eventually track your way to where you want to be.

We also put unnecessary pressure on ourselves because we lack perspective. Careers are long. Much longer than we give them credit for. Too many of us, myself very much included, place undue importance on figuring them out as quickly as possible. In undergrad, everyone acted like their first job out of college was the end-all-be-all that would define the course of their life. How many of your friends were still working at their first job even just a few years after graduation? 1? Maybe 2? And yet here we are again just a few years later acting like our life will be a success or failure solely based on the summer internship we get over the summer.

What I am looking for in my work

So now that the pressure is off a bit where have I landed? First, instead of trying to figure out exactly what I want to do, I set out to figure out the aspects of a job that were important to me. Probably the piece of content I have recommended to more people than any other is a great Wait, But Why post on picking a career. It is the first resource I recommend to friends or colleagues who are struggling to figure out what they want to do next and as such a few weeks ago I decided to work through it myself. If you feel like you are just going through the motions and want to try to find some direction in your life, give yourself two hours, a pen, some paper, and dive in.

The post includes a series of mental exercises to think through the “yearnings” that are important to you and slowly sort through what your priorities are. Here is my professional yearnings hierarchy for any job or career prospects.

My Professional Yearnings Hierarchy

The Non-Negotiable Bowl - Lines in the sand that I will never compromise on

1. To be valued

2. To be respected

3. To work with incredible people

The Top Shelf - Absolute priorities that I will be looking for no matter what I do

1. To learn something new every single day

2. To be intellectually challenged

3. To have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with people

The Middle Shelf - Things that are important to me but that I can compromise on so long as my Non-Negotiable Bowl and Top Shelf yearnings are satisfied

1. To be given autonomy

2. To have skin in the game

Bottom shelf - Things that would be nice to have

1. To be given a variety of work to do

2. To be appreciated

The Trash Can - Things that I may sometimes find myself tempted to want, but that I need to actively fight against letting have any bearing whatsoever on my life decisions

1. To be admired

2. To work at a prestigious firm

3. To work in a career where I can acquire status and fame

You are building your own house

Once I had thought through what I was looking for I had to decide what I actually wanted to do next. Instead of committing to a path, I have decided to focus on becoming the type of person who builds. The advice is the same as I give to anyone who wants to be in a relationship. Focus a little less on finding someone to date and focus a little more on becoming the kind of person someone else would want to date.

I don’t know what my life’s great work is. I don’t know what my career is going to look like.

But what I do know is that I want to be a company builder. That can look like a lot of different things and I can get valuable skills from all sorts of different endeavors. Instead of focusing on finding the exact right career, now I want to focus on going somewhere where I can have my work yearnings met and can build the skills to become the type of leader, builder, and entrepreneur I know I want to be. Whether I put those skills to use next year or many years down the road.

One of the most impactful books I have ever read is the book Chop Wood, Carry Water. One of the stories in the book is about a master architect who has made a career building some of the most beautiful houses in the world. After a long and storied career, he decides to retire but his boss asks him to build one last house. He begrudgingly agrees but he doesn’t put his usual love and care into the project. Once the house is built, he goes back to his boss to finally resign for good and his boss gives him the keys to the house he had just built as a thank you for a career of excellence. All this time the architect had been building his own house and he had no idea. If he had known he would’ve put much more effort into it than he did.

It’s easy to forget that we are building our own house. It’s so easy to get caught up in where we are doing or our next move or what we will do after school.

What’s hard is to remember is that much more important than what we are doing is who we are becoming in the process.

It’s taken me a lot of self-reflection and frustration to remember that.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning.

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

The Church of Reason

I was asked this week what I thought the future of MBAs will look like given the proliferation of online learning in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Would getting an MBA still be worth it? What will teaching look like in an increasingly virtual world? What is the impact of being in-person vs. virtual?

These questions were timely as we had our first opportunity to attend classes in-person this past week. I can’t answer all of these questions right now as my experiences are only my own and my MBA story is still in its early innings, but I did want to talk a bit about the experience of being in-person compared to being virtual.

The Church of Reason

To set the stage, I want to turn towards one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read, the part autobiography, part exploration of philosophy and metaphysics, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

In the book, Pirsig describes modern universities as “Churches of Reason.” He discusses the question of whether a roadside sports bar located in an old church is still a church? Is it simply the building that matters or something more?

Pirsig would tell you the roadside sports bar is no longer a church. Not really.

The object of a church is defined by its purpose. If a church is not being used for worship, it is just a building. We may continue to refer to the building as a church because of its familiar architecture or because that is how it has been known historically, but it no longer is a church. Pirsig believes that there is a deeper meaning to something being called a church. There is a required ‘spirit’ of the physical object. As that spirit leaves, the purpose and very essence of that object leaves with it. It becomes something else entirely. A simple building.

Similar to religious churches, Pirsig argues that Churches of Reason are intrinsically defined by their use or purpose. In the case of universities that purpose, that spirit, is to pursue truth through learning. To expand the boundaries of knowledge itself.

Pirsig would argue that, just as with religious churches, these Churches of Reason become simple buildings as soon as the Spirit of the University leaves. As soon as the pursuit of truth and expansion of knowledge stop becoming the purpose, the buildings become nothing more than a mausoleum to their former holy endeavor.

But what if we turn it around? What if the Spirit of the University is alive and well, despite not being able to meet within the confines of a classroom?

Zoom University

The past year has been an interesting exploration of that exact question. Can the Spirit of the University continue to live on virtually?

I believe that on a macro-level, the answer is a resounding yes. Over the past year, we have seen people adapt and evolve in an unprecedented way. We have seen the important roles that education plays in our society and I expect that long after COVID-19 has faded, its impact on education will continue to be felt acutely.

But I think the answer may be different on a mico-level. One of the things you realize when you start a graduate school program is that everyone is here for different reasons. There are some people who are just checking a box as they climb the corporate ladder at a bank or consulting firm. There are some people who want a two-year vacation where they can travel and party. There are others who are just focused on getting a job and others still who are deeply committed to learning in the classroom.

And I don’t want to try to prescribe which is more important. Everyone has their own reasons and they can all be legitimate depending on where you are at in your career/life.

For me, the value of the MBA revolves around three pillars: building lifelong relationships, learning as much as I absolutely can, and growing personally.

Whatever the reason someone is here, I do think it impacts the question of whether the Spirit of the University lives on. The reality is, that for a decent amount of my peers, the academic side of the MBA experience is a necessary evil required to access the other aspects of the experience.

Without saying whether this is right or wrong, I think I can say that it does make me a little bit sad. The opportunity to attend a school like Wharton is such an incredible privilege and it does make me sad when people ignore a part that, I believe, can drive so much fulfillment and accomplishment. I should note that this perspective is definitely colored by my intense love of both learning and the academic environment. I did not take full advantage of the academic environment in undergrad and it was one of my few regrets from those four years. I promised myself that, should I ever have the opportunity to be a student again, I wouldn’t take it for granted.

And I think it is impossible to look at the academic side of the experience without taking the virtual medium into account. It is clear to me that the Spirit of the University can live on virtually, but I think what the virtual medium does is that it makes it much easier to not really engage with the academic experience.

Even for someone as gung-ho about the academic side of things as me, there have definitely been times I gave in to the temptation to roll out of bed 5 minutes before class and passively listen while constantly refreshing my All Things Arsenal Twitter feed. (Side note: Thanks for the memöries Mesut! And Here-We-Gø-Confirmed that I will be getting a new jersey in the near future!)

As with many things in life, whether the Spirit of the University lives on for each individual is largely a choice. My belief and experience so far is that the more you invest into it, the more you’ll get out of it.

Come to class with me!

To my fellow Wharton students, I highly recommend you at least give the in-class learning opportunities this semester a try.

I get the temptation. It is extremely convenient to be able to roll out of bed and into class. Needing to walk back and forth between school and center city since there aren’t really places to hang out in between classes sucks. Wearing a mask is a pain and needing to drink through a straw seems a bit silly. And the Walnut Street bridge gets cold this time of year. LIKE REALLY, REALLY, REALLY COLD.

But I would encourage and challenge you to at least give it a try. I believe one of the great dangers we all face in life is the choice between doing what is easy and what is right. Between comfort and doing what is best for ourselves and the world.

And if my experience is anything to go off of, going back into the classroom is well, well worth it if you feel comfortable doing so given your own health/risk/life parameters.

Getting to be in class and on campus last week was simply amazing. It was a little window into normalcy and a reminder of some of the things we have probably forgotten we are missing out on. I loved simply being on the move on a beautiful (if brutally cold) day. Enjoying the sun on my face instead of on the window in my office. Serendipitously running into friends on the way to campus or in the bathroom between classes. Getting to look new acquaintances in the eyes when you introduce yourself and feeling the energy of a classroom filled with interested and engaged students.

You simply can’t beat it.

I can’t recommend trying to go in person highly enough and that was when A) I went to the wrong room for my first class and had to zoom in from a floor away anyway and B) there were only a handful of people who were brave (foolish?) enough to be the guinea pigs for the first week of classes. If we are able to get a critical mass of 10-15 students in each class (even our stream together classes!) I really think it will make for a huge improvement and provide much more value to most of us over the zoom status quo.

Maybe I am making too much of being in person.

Maybe the Spirit of the University lives on no matter the medium.

Maybe I am overreacting to what was just a nice day.

Maybe COVID has simply lowered the bar for what a good day looks like.

Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.

Until next week. Journey before Destination.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning.

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

2020 Review

What a long, strange trip it has been.

In past years I have analyzed predictions from previous years and made new ones for the year to come. I am going to stop doing that. The prediction game seems like just a bit too much of a shot in the dark and 12 months is often simply too short of a time frame for even the trends I am most confident in to come to fruition.

Instead, I just want to do a bit of a recap and a review of what happened in my life after the past year.

Big life events in somewhat chronological order.

Applying to Grad School

I don't know if this is how other grad school programs work but applying to your MBA feels like stumbling into a shockingly deep rabbit hole. As you start getting into it you find a massive world of insanely well-paid consultants and seemingly impossible best practices. Thousands of forums and blog posts on the topic. Profiles of applicants who had perfect grades and found cures to diseases and still didn’t get in. There is even a live ticker that shows the stats of people who do or don't get into various schools when it comes to decision time. It is all a bit intimidating. I'll probably write a separate post on this process one day but for now, suffice to say that it is a PROCESS. In October of 2019, I decided I was going to accelerate my plans and apply for schools' second-round deadlines in January. I ended up applying to 6 schools in what ended up being a tight, but not uncomfortable timeline. I had the great advice to take my GMAT the summer after I graduated so I had that score in my back pocket and it was one less thing I needed to deal with. I ended up getting interviews at 4 of the 6, I got waitlisted by two schools and accepted into two schools including Wharton. The onset of COVID immediately after my interviews makes the events loom especially large in my mind. Prior to visiting family for the holidays just a couple of weeks ago, our last getaway was when we took advantage of being in Boston for interviews and made it into a weekend visit. Similarly, my last time on an airplane was flying back to Columbus from Philadelphia after my Wharton interviews. My Wharton interviews, in particular, were an excellent experience. There ended up being a group of interviewees with late flights who all got drinks and burgers together after interviews had finished and funnily enough everyone in this group ended up getting into the school and have become good friends.

COVID

It's impossible to write about 2020 without writing about COVID. It caused a monumental shift in just about everyone’s life. For us personally, it had some upsides like serving as an impetus to get a dog, increased working flexibility which allowed us to spend more time with family this year than ever before, increased time with my wife, and the breathing room to focus on improving my physical health. The biggest silver lining was probably the fact that my wife was able to keep a job that she loves when we moved. It also presented some personal challenges. We weren't able to spend nearly as much time with our Columbus friends as we would've liked prior to moving. Travel plans were curtailed and we had to make a major life transition at just about the least opportune time ever (and ended up contracting COVID in early August as a result). Overall, we have been extremely fortunate to be in the privileged and blessed position that we have been where our life has been able to continue in an impacted, but not diminished way. We try hard to maintain the perspective that this pandemic is a lot harder for a lot of people.

Getting a Puppy

The biggest surprise of this year was our adoption of a puppy, Bulleit. Caitlyn and I had gone back and forth on getting a dog for years, never quite landing on the same space in the gameboard. Finally earlier this year, with grad school looming, we synchronized on a final decision. We would not be getting a dog.

In early March, when the world stopped spinning and everything was on fire we were kinda bummed out and decided it would be a good idea for our mental health to spend an afternoon playing with a puppy that one of my coworkers was fostering. It was going to be a fun afternoon with absolutely no long term commitment. As I am sure is of little surprise to anyone who has ever owned a dog we immediately fell in love and haven't looked back since (shoutout to Shannon for bringing this guy into our lives!). At the time, we thought that covid would be a great opportunity to get a new puppy since we would be home for a couple of weeks and could train him (hah).

I can say with absolute confidence and zero bias that Bulleit is the greatest dog to have ever lived. He is much better behaved than he has any right to be and is a constant joy to us and everyone who meets him.

Getting in Shape

I have written a bit about my focus on improving my physical health. I had a bit of a health wake-up call towards the end of 2019 and was really focused on improving my health in 2020. Overall this was a big success. I lost about 35 lbs before gaining about 10 lbs back over the holidays for an overall net loss of about 25 lbs. More important than the outcome was the journey it took me to get there. Eating healthier and being more active has led to me feeling better and being happier. Trying to be healthy has turned from something I do to part of who I am. I still have plenty of room for improvement but I am seeing physical, mental, and emotional progress and think 2021 is going to be an even more positive year than 2020 was.

Moving

Moving sucked. I hate moving so much. Next topic.

Getting COVID

Part of moving sucking was having our movers give us the gift that just kept on giving in the form of COVID. Part of the reason I want to talk about COVID and be open about it is that it is hilariously stupid that there is any sort of stigma attached to a highly infectious global pandemic. Maybe I would feel more self-conscious if we had been exposed due to wanton negligence but it's unfortunately hard to get around being in close contact with people packing and then unpacking all of your earthly possessions. COVID was not fun but also not terrible. 10/10 still would not recommend. It manifested as a bad cold for me. For Caitlyn, it was a bit more severe with flu like symptoms. The hardest part of COVID for me was the existential dread that I would never make any friends at grad school since I was isolating during the first couple of weeks of school. Luckily those fears proved to be overblown. Without making light of it, part of me is glad we got it. It doesn't feel like quite so much of an amorphous boogeyman as it did before. Having antibodies has increased our risk tolerance and allowed us to feel a bit more comfortable participating in social situations.

Philly

Philly has turned out to be a wonderfully pleasant surprise. We have really enjoyed our time in the city. There are a ton of shops, restaurants, and parks in the area we live in. All Wharton students live within a relatively small area so we have lots of friends around and it isn't rare to serendipitously run into people you know. The highlight for Bulleit (and maybe Caitlyn too) is definitely the off-leash dog park just a couple of blocks away from our apartment. For all the rumors of the demise of big cities over the past year, moving from an idealized mid-sized city to a coastal metropolis has done nothing but give me confidence that those rumors are overblown. On paper, it may be easy to focus on the downsides of big cities like the cost of living. But there is an energy and life in big cities that just doesn't seem to exist in other places. Maybe it is all in my head or caused by the grad school bubble I find myself in, but I believe that large cities will continue to be where the brightest and most ambitious people choose to live their lives. There just isn't a good substitute for the powerful network effects that cities create even in an increasingly virtual world.

Colossus

A pleasant irony of this year was that I pursued my MBA in the name of a belief in the power of serendipity and yet the most serendipitous thing to happen to me has had very little to do with school itself. Since the beginning of the school year, I have been working part time at Colossus. For those that don't know, Colossus is a startup media company that includes the popular business and investing podcasts Invest Like the Best and Founder’s Field Guide of which I have been a huge fan for years. A big reason why I wanted to get my MBA was in a hope of getting operational experience. Getting to be part of the Colossus team from early on has given me that in spades. It is a good reminder that there is no better way to learn than to do and it has been immensely rewarding being a part of building something. I've been happy with how my role has grown and I am excited for the trajectory the company is on. It's a unique position for a company that is in many ways very much a startup but has the benefit of having hundreds of thousands of highly engaged fans that tune into the shows weekly. Special shoutout to Damian for already teaching me a TON about hiring, firing, selling, building, and being more direct. Working at Colossus has also been an amazing example of the power of networking, social media, and being politely persistent (Don't ask, don't get!). It has been the perfect real-world supplement to my education in the classroom (and the fact that it is helped line the coffers of the "oh my god I am in college and drinking beer regularly again" fund doesn’t hurt either!

Wharton

Overall, school has been awesome. We have made some amazing friendships forged in the fires of shared experience. I have loved being back in the academic environment. In undergrad, I definitely did not appreciate being in the classroom for the incredibly privileged opportunity it was until I had graduated and missed it dearly. I am trying not to make the same mistakes again and really appreciate ever minute that I have to learn and engage with brilliant professors and fellow students. I don't always succeed. It's easy to get caught up with everything else going on personally and professionally, but I am really trying to be intentional about being grateful for my additional time in academia. Once again, school is an area where COVID's shadow looms large. All of my classes were virtual in my first semester (luckily all my classes should at least have some in-class components this semester). There are still friends and classmates I have only met over zoom. I believe the school administration’s lack of nuance and inability to creatively problem solve has had a deleterious impact on my feelings of belonging to the school community. Never the less, my time in grad school has gotten off to a successful start. The primary reason why I pursued getting an MBA was that I wanted to build relationships with super-smart, driven people and I couldn't be happier with how that has gone so far. I still have room to improve in "finding my tribe" of other students who want to pursue entrepreneurship, but I think the steps that I am taking on that front will help massively.

One of the things I undervalued in my estimation of the value of getting my MBA was the benefit of simply having some mental breathing space to take a step back, think, and ask myself some of the big questions in life. What do I want to do long term? Where do I want to live? What is my calling? What are my strengths? I am in the minority of my peers in that I don't have a clearly defined next stepping stone in my career that I am pursuing. This has led to the occasional existential crisis as they are going through recruiting and I am sitting over here twiddling my thumbs and trusting in the power of serendipity. It hasn't always been a pleasant experience grappling with the questions of life, but I DO think it has been massively valuable. When you are working full time, it is hard to just keep your head above water. In some ways, I am still struggling with figuring out what I want to do this summer, post-graduation, and with the rest of my life. I am sure you can expect a blog post on the subject soon. But what I have come to appreciate is that where you are going is much less important than the person that you become along the way. And I am trying to lean into that revelation as I get tactical about my summer plans.

As I look back on a year where so much has changed, I find myself most grateful for what hasn’t. Caitlyn and my relationship is stronger than ever. Our friends and family are healthy. We continue to look towards the past with gratitude and the future with hope. We continue to believe that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.

Thanks to everyone that has been part of our journey and here’s to 2021 being the best year yet!

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning (or the occasional Tuesday).

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

My Ethical Manifesto

Recently, I have been making an intentional effort to consciously shape my identity. I have a notion page that outlines a list of choices I make about what I want my identity to be that I read out loud to myself every week. Some of these choices, like “I choose to be a bridge-builder and I seek to find commonalities instead of differences,” are born out of self-awareness. Others, like “I choose to be encouraging and empathetic towards others” are more aspirational aspects of my self-identity that I am actively working on building towards. One of the items on my self-identity list is “I choose to act ethically in all things I do. I don’t take shortcuts and I don’t compromise on my morals.” This semester I took a business ethics course that gave me an excellent opportunity to think deeply about the ethical beliefs and values that I want to guide my personal and professional conduct. Our final project was to write a paper describing the characteristics of a responsible leader. Our professor encouraged us to think of this as more of a personal manifesto than a simple assignment and I thought it would be worth sharing and keeping updated. Think of this as a guide of the kind of leader I aspire to be and the characteristics I will be looking for anyone I choose to work for.

My definition of an ethical and responsible leader has coalesced around six main pillars.

1. Lead from a place of vulnerability

2. Provide others with an ideal to strive towards

3. Treat everyone with honor

4. Courageously challenge the status quo

5. Invert the Fundamental Attribution Error

6. Don’t take shortcuts.

Lead from a place of vulnerability

I believe that one of the most important things that a leader can do to promote a culture of ethical and responsible business practice is to lead from a place of vulnerability. From Enron, to WorldCom, to Theranos, we have seen the danger that comes from leaders who promote a culture where they are above reproach. The challenge for leaders must be to create an environment where immoral behavior is not given the opportunity to flourish. Otherwise decent people do bad things when their environment puts pressure on them be it from peers, authority, incentives, roles, or the system within which they find themselves. Those who are used to professional success are especially prone to suffering from the ‘Bathsheba Syndrome’ of thinking that they are entitled to special treatment and that the rules don’t apply to them.[1] Maintaining an air of humility and vulnerability is one of the most surefire ways to create an environment where there are no shadows for unethical behavior to fester. When a leader acknowledges that they are not always right and welcomes critical feedback they create an environment where issues are brought to light instead of hushed up in darkness. On the other hand, if a leader surrounds themselves with “yes men” and creates a culture where they cannot be questioned, the chances that they act unethically themselves, even if unintentionally, are significantly multiplied. As is the chance that their underlings will cover up unethical behavior out of fear of the leader’s reaction. By leading from a place of vulnerability, by looking at challenges or failures as an opportunity to learn and grow, leaders create a culture that encourages responsible behavior and discourages immoral actions.

Provide others with an ideal to strive towards

              A responsible leader should provide an ideal to strive towards for both themselves and their employees. In Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series, they have a word for the empire’s commander-in-chief: “Promachos” which means “The One Who Goes Before Us to Fight.”[2] I believe that the modern responsible leader should be one who leads by example. Someone who sets the bar high for themselves and provides their team with an aspirational ideal to strive towards. A Promachos. When given the chance, people tend to rise to the occasion. This is exemplified by the fact that people are more likely to act ethically when they are reminded of their morals or asked to take an honor pledge.[3] When a leader holds themselves and those around them to a higher standard and points their team towards an aspirational purpose, people will be drawn towards living up to those ideals. French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is quoted as having said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”[4] People are much more motivated by purpose or mission than they are from the rigid and dogmatic rules that seem like the strategy de jour of the modern workplace. A common pitfall of leaders is getting too involved in telling people what to do instead of telling people where to go. While working as the CEO of Expedia in 2003, Dara Khosrowshahi captured this ideal perfectly when he said a young engineer confronted him and told him that “you’re telling us what to do, but not telling us where to go. If you tell us where to go we’ll do it because we believe in you, tell us where to go and then we’ll do it.”[5] Great leaders create the vision for the company and then trust their people to do what it takes to accomplish that vision. This promotes people having the space to think for themselves and avoids situations where employees stop scrutinizing work through a moral lens or avoid thinking critically about whether their current course of action is the right one.

Treat everyone with honor  

              It is critical for leaders to treat others with honor. With fairness, respect, and empathy. The importance of this is grounded in my personal Christian belief system where all people are created in God’s image. As such, our value is intrinsically based, not on what we do, but on who we are and that means that everyone, whether they be an executive or a janitor, deserves to be treated with empathy, respect, and dignity. This requires us to treat people with honor regardless of what ethnic, social, sexual, or religious group they may belong to. Treating people honorably also means being fair to them. It means treating people like the adults they are and communicating with them in a direct way.  To dole out praise or criticism when warranted. To tell people the truth, not what they want to hear. Ambiguity in the workplace is opportunity for unethical behavior to flourish and a responsible leader must do their upmost to be clear and direct. Netflix is a company that exemplifies this brand of respectful, but direct communication perfectly. Netflix is focused on building a high-performing team and they think of themselves more like a sports team than a family. They honor their employees by treating them like adults and trusting them to make responsible decisions for themselves as exemplified by their 5-word policy for travel, entertainment, gifts, and other expenses: “Act in Netflix’s Best Interest.”[6]

Courageously challenge the status quo

              One of the more important things a responsible leader must do is promote a culture where people feel empowered to question the status quo. Speaking truth to power is never easy, but it is vitally important. A leader is responsible for doing what they can to empower their employees as much as possible and I believe that the best way to do this is to set a tone of questioning how things have always been done. Leaders must push themselves and their employees to always ask “why” and to reexamine previously held maxims in light of changing circumstances. In his inaugural address to students at the University of St. Andrews, philosopher John Stuart Mill stated that “bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”[7] If leaders do not promote a culture of questioning established orthodoxy and convention, the chance that their employees will stand up in the face of immoral actions is minimal. One way that leaders can do this is to consciously subvert the pressures that may lead employees to act unethically. An example of how this can be done on a personal level comes from my parents. A common refrain of theirs is to “always live within your means.” Part of this advice is given from the perspective of being fiscally responsible, but the second order meaning is to always have “screw you money”. Having a financial cushion gives you the ability to never compromise on your ethics if you are asked to do something immoral for work. If your boss is pressuring you to do something you know to be wrong, you are much more likely to be able to stand up to them if you have reduced the financial pressure of making ends meet by spending within your means. If you are left with no other option, you can always walk away. It is important to safeguard the optionality to leave, but the best option is to build an organization where people are willing to stand up for what they believe to be right. In the workplace, I think leaders can promote a culture that challenges the status quo by focusing the organization on pursuing “knowledge” over being “right”. A leader who sets the tone by challenging themselves and others to always critically examine why things are done the way they are and question whether they can improve will be a leader who empowers their employees to courageously stand up and be counted when they know that something is wrong.   

Invert the Fundamental Attribution Error

             The Fundamental Attribution Error is our tendency to explain away our faults or missteps while holding others to account for even the most minor of infractions. I believe that a responsible leader should seek to invert the fundamental attribution error by holding themselves accountable based on their actions while giving others the benefit of the doubt and allowing for the possibility of extenuating circumstances. In his 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of Kenyon College, American author David Foster Wallace outlines the practical application of this maxim in a speech titled: “This is Water.”[8] He discusses how easy it is to fall into the “default setting” of assuming the whole world is out to get you and believing that you alone are a victim of everyone else’s laziness and ineptitude. The challenge he prescribes is to awaken yourself to an awareness of the world around you. To not get mad at the car that cuts you off in traffic because you allow for the potential that they may be rushing their wife to the hospital. Just as a goldfish may live their entire life without questioning what water is, so too can people live their lives without taking agency for themselves and acknowledging that they are part of a larger human existence than the myopathy of their personal perspective would lead them to believe. I believe it is crucial for a responsible leader to cultivate this openness to giving others the benefit of the doubt. Even if sometimes they will be disappointed, I personally believe that it is better to be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right. Andy Rachleff, CEO of Wealthfront has a great philosophy for operating called “putting the gun in the other person’s hand.”[9] The idea is when entering a business deal or negotiation to give the person on the other side of the table the opportunity to set the terms. Either they do so fairly and you know that you would like to work with them again in the future or they act in an unscrupulous manner and any short-term pain from the deal is well worth the knowledge that you won’t expose yourself to them again. Inverting the Fundamental Attribution Error allows you to empathetically see the world through other people’s eyes and give them the benefit of the doubt. This may lead to pain in the short-term, but it is the responsible thing to do in the long-term as you will, over time, self-select out of relationships with people who take advantage of your or act immorally.

Don’t take shortcuts  

              It seems to me that much of corporate ethical misconduct stems, not from a place of malicious intent, but from simply making the decision to take shortcuts which compounds upon themselves and leads to situations where people feel forced into unethical behavior. One compromise leads to another and eventually a morally upstanding person can find themselves in unanticipated moral ambiguity before too long. Clay Christensen’s belief that “it’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time” rings true.[10] The slightest compromise of your morals or ethics opens the door to future misconduct. This can be a path towards destructive habits and behaviors for both individuals as well as organizations. An insidious form of this propensity to take the easy way out is seen not just in misconduct itself, but in organizations who are willfully ignorant and turn a blind eye to unethical behavior going on under their watch. Not only does taking the easy way out often lead to morally unstable ground, but it delegitimizes good efforts. In class we talked about how if a kid cheats during a soap box derby, he will never know if he could’ve won without cheating. It is obvious how cheating harms others, but I would argue that much more of the damage falls on ourselves. One of my favorite mantras to think of is the idea that “we are building our own house” from the book Chop Wood, Carry Water.[11] The story told is about a famous architect who is asked to build one final home on the eve of his retirement. Begrudgingly, he goes about the project without his usual precision and enthusiasm. Once the home is completed his boss hands him the keys as a thank you for his years of service. Unbeknownst to the architect, he had been building his own house the whole time and if he had known so, he would’ve put much more time, thought, and effort into it. Taking shortcuts in life degrades the house that we are building for ourselves. A responsible leader needs to consider the impact that their words and actions have on others, but just as importantly they must be cognizant of the impact it has on themselves. A career is a marathon and surviving it with your dignity and ethical self-identity intact is the real winners’ medal. When I think of a responsible leader, I think of someone who steadfastly refuses to give in to the temptation to take shortcuts. I think of one of my all-time favorite literary characters, Dalinar Kholin, and his self-realization that “the most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it? It’s the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar.”[12]

I hope this was interesting and that the transmission from paper to blog post wasn’t too forced. If you haven’t taken the time to lay out the ethical paradigms you aspire to hold yourself to, I can’t recommend the process enough. It is enlightens your own actions and helps you identify environments that align with your ethical compass vs those that may put you in a situation to compromise it.

As with everything I write, this is a snapshot of my perspectives at this point. I am sure that as I continue on in my career and find myself in positions where leadership is more of a focus, that these principles will grow and evolve. I still think there is immense value in charting them out and questioning what you think to be ethical.

Journey before destination and until next time.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning (or the occasional Tuesday).

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

Sources:

[1] Wyatt Olson, “Do Fired Navy Cos suffer from ‘Bathsheba Syndrome’?”, Stripes, March 14, 2002, https://www.stripes.com/news/navy/do-fired-navy-cos-suffer-from-bathsheba-syndrome-1.171525  

[2] Brent Weeks, The Burning White, (Little, Brown Book Group, 2019), pg. 27.

[3] Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—especially Ourselves (New York: Harper, 2012), Chapter 2.

[4] Randy Howe, 1001 Smartest Things Teachers Ever Said, (Lyons Press: An Imprint of Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, Connecticut.), Page 51.

[5] Zameena Meija, “Here’s the moment Uber’s new CEO pick gained confidence in himself”, CNBC, August 28, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/28/when-ubers-ceo-pick-dara-khosrowshahi-gained-confidence-in-himself.html

[6] “Netflix Culture”, Netflix, https://jobs.netflix.com/culture

[7] John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Addresse, Delivered to the University of St. Andrews. Feb. 1st, 1867, (Longmans, 1867), pg. 36.

[8] David Foster Wallace, This is Water, Farnam Street, https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/

[9] “Building Something People want to Buy, with Andy Rachleff,” Invest Like the Best, Episode 42, https://investorfieldguide.com/andy/

[10] Frances Bridges, “Lessons from Clay Christensen’s ‘How Will You Measure Your Life?’”

[11] Joshua Medcalf, Chop Wood, Carry Water, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), pg. 6.

[12] Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer, (Tom Doherty Associates, 2017), pg. 1132.

Venture has a Sexiness Problem

I have been talking about venture capital a lot recently.

A lot of my fellow MBA students are interested in getting into the industry so they are curious to hear my perspective on it. I also get frequently asked if I plan to return to the industry after I graduate. Anytime I find myself having the same conversation over and over again I have found it helpful to codify my thoughts in a blog post and so hopefully this can be a good resource to anyone interested in the industry as well as serving to get some of my feelings out of my head and into the open. Before we embark, I should say that this represents my personal thoughts and beliefs and could all be subject to change. I have spent a bit over 2-years working in the venture world and at least double that devouring everything I can about the space. My view is not ironclad, but I do feel strongly that my perspective is warranted and that it is my responsibility to share it.

I believe in Venture Capital

I believe in venture capital. I did three years ago when I was desperately working my ass off to try to find a way into the industry and I still do today. I believe that, when done right, venture is perhaps the greatest job in the world. You get to spend time supporting and working alongside entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world. It is extremely intellectually stimulating and it is an incredible job for anyone who loves to learn about new industries and technologies. When done right, it is one of the few true positive-sum professions where you only win when everyone else wins. When done right, incentives are aligned and I truly believe it is an example of a job where you can do well for yourself while also making a meaningful impact on the world.

Venture capital is great.

But it isn't perfect. And it's imperfections are exacerbated by structural and cultural issues that are pervasive within the industry. You'll notice when I was describing all the great parts of venture, there was a phrase I repeated a few times.

"When done right"

Therein lies the rub. Venture capital is an extremely compelling career path for a myriad of different reasons, but only when it is done right. What does it mean to "do venture right" and how does one do it wrong?

Venture done right

Doing venture the right way means optimizing for long-term incentive alignment between investors and entrepreneurs. It means focusing on maintaining relationships versus nickel and diming your way to a deal structure that optimizes for middling outcomes. Developing true conviction around the entrepreneurs you invest in and not simply throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Venture done right is about paying it forward because you know that your associate or the VP at one of your portfolio companies could be a founder or co-investor in the future. It means getting in the trenches alongside founders and supporting them however is most helpful instead of touting the benefits of a promising-sounding, but inevitably spurious "platform" model. Venture done right is about evaluating people on the basis of their ideas, drive, and accomplishments and not because they pattern match to what a successful entrepreneur or investor looks like. It means being able to have tough conversations and maintaining respect for the entrepreneurial journey. It means not assuming you know all the answers and avoiding becoming cynical after the 10th time you've heard a similar pitch because that just might be the time it finally works out.

Notice there are no parameters around fund size or industry or geography. There are a lot of ways to be successful doing venture, but if you look towards the upper echelon of funds that consistently outperform the rest of the asset class, I believe you will see that the "how" they go about the job contains many of the aspects I outlined above even if their specific strategies and focus areas may differ.

To answer the questions I get about my post-graduate plans, I would absolutely go back into venture. But only if I had the opportunity to learn from a master of the craft at a firm that did venture the “right way.”

Unfortunately, I have come to believe that those kinds of opportunities in the industry are relatively few and far between.

Venture’s sexiness problem

So why don't more firms do venture the "right way"?

I think it is largely because VC has a sexiness problem. It is so attractive from the outside looking in that structural issues are created or allowed to fester. There are a massive amount of young, smart, driven people who are fiercely interested in breaking into the industry. And as I outlined above, I believe that is for good reason! Let’s look at why this causes some problems.

On the demand side, you have an overabundance of smart, driven people trying to get into the industry. On the supply side, you have funds that only hire based on fund cycles every few years and are generally top-heavy with more senior-level investors than mid-level investors and more mid-level investors than junior level investors. These combine to make it incredibly difficult to go straight into the industry. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. There are plenty of industries that are competitive. But a commonality between many of them is that they treat people like crap.

Look at fashion, sports, media, and investment banking. All have way more demand to get into the industry than supply. And they treat people (especially junior-level people) not especially well. Why? Because they can. Because if you don’t like it, there are plenty of people riding the bench who would be more than happy to take your place.

I am not saying that everyone in VC gets treated like crap. Quite the opposite in fact with the collaborative nature of the industry generally leading to a kind of friendly “coop-etition” between firms. But speaking from my personal experience, as well as those of my friends in the industry, there is a dearth of mentorship, advancement, and opportunity for growth. And that is allowed to occur systematically because there are so many people who want to get into the industry. There just isn’t an explicit reason to give up time and resources to nurture talent when there will always be someone waiting in the wings to take their place. I’d argue that there very much are long-term reasons to develop junior-level folks, but this is an industry where feedback loops are long and most firms aren’t trying to build a legacy.

The recent sheen of the venture capital world has some other unintended consequences. When an industry seems too good to be true it has a nasty habit of attracting snake oil salesmen. I think venture capital is especially susceptible to this given the industry’s long feedback loops and general opacity. From the outside looking in, it is hard to tell the good VCs from the bad ones. Their branding and social media presences look largely the same. They use the same buzzwords and both talk about their love of innovation and working with entrepreneurs. There is a scorecard in the form of returns (which I believe largely accrue to investors who do venture the right way), but you have to be an insider before you really get a sense of where the leaderboard stands. Sophisticated LPs and entrepreneurs can smell the difference a mile away, but many other investors, entrepreneurs, and corporations don’t have nearly as discerning of an eye. This isn’t just a coastal tech hub phenomenon either. Go to any up-and-coming tech ecosystem and you will find it run by old white guys who last worked at a “startup” when AOL came on a disk.

Should you go into VC?

That depends. I am increasingly led to believe that, on average, venture is a good but not great junior-level job, a poor mid-level career, and a fantastic senior-level calling.

Let me explain what I mean by that. I think the value you will get from working in the venture industry follows a barbell and is a function of time spent in the industry.

On one hand, you have venture as a junior-level job. Like it was for me. The reason I got into venture was not because I wanted to do venture until the day that I died, but because I wanted to be part of building companies that make an impact by solving important problems. That's my north star and it is what guides every decision I make in my career. I thought venture would be an excellent introduction to the world of tech entrepreneurship especially given my background with finance and investing. The type of startup that I could've joined given my skillset a few years ago as a financial or business analyst would have been at a very different stage of maturity than the kind of startup I could be part of now. And I would have only had one perspective on how a company gets built instead of having at least somewhat of a view across the landscape. That was my thesis at the time and I think it largely came to fruition. I feel 1,000x more equipped to start or join an entrepreneurial endeavor than I was a couple of years ago. If you want an industry to go into for a couple of years where you can learn about a ton of different companies and sectors and get broad exposure to the technology industry, venture is a pretty sweet gig. In hindsight, I think I would have learned more by joining a successful startup during its hyper-growth phase, but finding a firm poised for that kind of growth is easier said than done and going the venture route was probably the next best thing.

Where the industry is challenged is from a mid-level career perspective. As mentioned above, opportunity for organic growth within firms is pretty tough to come by. You will see or meet people who are flying up the ladder at their firms, but that is because they belong to the minority of firms that do venture the “right way”. Who are willing to think long-term and know that developing talent in-house leads to long-term competitive advantages whether that talent stays, goes to another fund, or starts their own company. That means that this mindset is not pervasive in the majority of firms in the industry. It is a tough, tough climb to scale the venture capital ladder purely on the investor side of things. It can be done, but usually, it takes stops and starts and a decent amount of bouncing out to move up. Maybe my perspective is somewhat jaded, but from where I sat for two years, I’d say my experience was much more emblematic of other junior-level investors in the industry than not. There are better and much easier ways to make money and build a career than working in the venture capital industry. If that is your primary motivator, I think you will find yourself frustrated.

Where I think venture really shines is as a senior-level calling. I think being a GP or partner at a venture firm is probably one of the coolest professional pursuits in the world. If you truly view it as your life’s great work to support entrepreneurs and help enable them to build incredible business, boy is the payoff big. I think the investors who do venture capital the right way largely fall into this camp. They don’t do it for the financial rewards or the perceived pseudo-celebrity status. They do it because they are obsessed with the craft of building companies. Yes, venture capital is an asset class, but I believe it is, and will always be, much more art than science. It truly is an apprenticeship craft and if it is your life calling, becoming a master artisan is an incredibly compelling path.

What can be done?

So what can be done about these problems?

To would-be VCs: Be picky. Don’t settle for the first offer you are able to get. Really dig in and try to understand whether a firm does venture the right way. Do your due diligence on them just as you would if you were evaluating a company. You may think it is worth it to take any job just to get a toe hold in a competitive industry, but I can assure you it is better to bide your time for the right opportunity. If you are determined to make it as a VC the barriers ARE surmountable. What may not be is the damage done by going to the wrong kind of firm. As with any kind of apprenticeship, if you are learning the craft from practitioners who don’t do it the right way, then you are learning to read from the blind.

To founders: Be skeptical. Don’t sign your life away to the first term sheet you get. Venture capital is a long-term commitment and it is worth taking the extra time to do your due diligence on your investors. Talk to the references they provide you and then talk to the ones they don’t. Dig into the portfolio companies they cut ties with or who they didn’t follow on with. If you get a glowing review from an entrepreneur who a firm didn’t continue to invest in that is a strong endorsement indeed. Avoid incubators, studios, and accelerators who over promise and under deliver. There are firms in each category that are fantastic, but there are significantly more who don’t add nearly the amount of value necessary to justify the commitment (in time, equity, and energy). Be wary of anytime the public sector tries to start getting involved with directly funding or spurring innovation. It can be a recipe for misaligned incentives and bureaucratic optimization of all the wrong things.

Despite all of its issues, I still believe that venture capital holds incredible promise. Promise to really enable significant good in this world. In some ways, it shines so bright that it casts shadows, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a massive net positive on our society. If after reading this, you still want to pursue venture capital, great! You should go for it with eyes wide open to all of its greatness as well as all of its failings. When you are a wildly successful VC, I hope you take the long-view and do it the right way.

Venture capital is not the best career in the world anymore.

But if people focus on doing it the right way, by optimizing for long-term incentive alignment and taking the long-term perspective on nurturing talent, I believe it can be once again.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning (or the occasional Tuesday).

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.

The Future of Work is about Access

The future is here, but it isn’t evenly distributed.

How do we fix this?

This is one of the big questions facing our society today. I think most of the issues we face stem, in some part, from the fact that huge swaths of our population have been left behind by the modern economy. You have people building AI, robots, virtual worlds. People building applications and software by themselves. People building businesses around their brands and interests. And then you have Steel workers in Indiana. And artists in Portland. And assembly line workers in Detroit. And Fisherman in South Carolina.

It seems like the growing divide between the digital natives and the technologically illiterate is the elephant in the room of all of our modern discourse.

And what is odd is that the aspirational path of wealth creation through technology entrepreneurship has never been more attainable. I’d go as far as to say that never in the history of mankind has the path to wealth creation been possible for so many.

So why does it feel like it is anything but for so many?

Nothing good comes from people feeling like they have been separated from their chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They feel disenfranchised. They find themselves growing resentful and disengaged. They resort to pulling others down instead of trying to pull themselves up.

That is why I am so excited about the future of work. I believe that it has the potential to ameliorate so many of the woes in our society by providing access to the modern technology-based economy to those who have always felt it out of reach.

To me, the future of work isn’t just about productivity tools, remote work, and the next evolution of B2B SaaS. It is about all of those things to a degree, sure. And those things are exciting in their own right.

But what really gets me excited is the potential that the future of work has to increase access to entrepreneurship. It can do this in a lot of ways. It can remove friction and barriers of entry for people. It can educate, upskill, and equip people with the tools and knowledge to build technology-based businesses and income streams. It can allow people to unbundle their work from their employment and it can even allow people to make money practicing their hobbies.

The crazy thing is that the tools are all out there. The knowledge too! That isn’t the issue. Access to the modern economy is not some secret guarded by technocrats.

Instead, it is a diamond hidden under a metric ton of shit.

Google “passive income.” Go ahead. I’ll still be here when you come back.

Hey! Welcome back. If you spend 5 seconds browsing how to build passive income on the internet you’ll get a bunch of lame slick-haired-used-car-salesman types in video thumbnails with sportscars and beach houses they rented trying to sell you products and courses you don’t want or need.

It has never been easier for someone with zero technological know-how to learn how to use no code tools or platforms like Shopify to build businesses online.

And yet, we get these seedy con artists selling us snake oil.

I am optimistic though.

The hard part is building the tools and platforms to provide access to the modern economy. That is happening. There are more and more onramps for the technologically unsophisticated into the modern economy each and every day. Here is the list I maintain of my favorite resources.

I am not sure what I am going to do in my career, but I know that whatever it is I want to be part of the solution to helping people build wealth through technology-based entrepreneurship. That is what I am really excited to build. Either by investing in teams building it or building it myself, I want to provide the tools and platforms necessary to build the mom and pop corner store of the future online.

The future of work isn’t about SaaS. It isn’t about productivity tools or remote work.

It is about access.

Access to a lifestyle and a way of building that has been locked behind the doors of technical, financial, and ethnic privilege.

Until now.

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If you have thoughts on this post leave a comment below or reach out to me on twitter @abergseyeview where my DMs will forever be open.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe here to receive all of my posts delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning (or the occasional Tuesday).

If this is the first time you are reading something I wrote and you want to learn more about me, this is a good place to start. It includes some background on me as well as a collection of my top posts.