The biggest challenge when superstar engineers become executives that I've seen is they need to switch from being the person with all the answers to the person with all the questions.
Failure to make that switch leads to dysfunctional organizations.
Failure to make that switch leads to dysfunctional organizations.
Besides, should some 25 year old Mark Zuckerberg out there - the guy who really is going to take something from zero to billions of dollars - really be asking questions from (checks notes) the 21 year old Ivy League people he's hiring? What the hell answers do you expect to hear?
And then when you talk about people with lots of experience, are they going to take any risks? What kind of answer do you expect? "Sorry Mark, but we tried that at Friendster 10 years ago." How useful.
I don't really disagree with you. I'm just skeptical of any reductive framing of what executives do, most of all "Andy Grove's book," because that's a meme I've heard a lot. And while no one should ever go around crapping on books, reading is good, Andy Grove isn't going to have anticipated organizational structures like Valve's, a place where a lot of people are extremely happy and effective but where all the management books sort of go out the window.
> the 21 year old Ivy League people he's hiring
4 years is not such a large delta. It's certainly not sufficient to have all the answers (not even 4 thousand years would). If anything, however brilliant the 25 year old is, they are just barely old enough to have a functioning prefrontal cortex.
High level executives are supposed to be making decisions, setting directions and oiling the machine. They aren't supposed to have any answers. "Decisions" is the closest you may get. They are not in the trenches, they by definition know nothing more than the specialized workforce they are hiring.
> like Valve's, a place where a lot of people are extremely happy and effective
It's also a small place. And Gabe seems to be the sort of guy who asks for and takes lots of feedback.
https://www.ign.com/articles/gabe-newell-opens-up-about-valv...
“When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins. When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens“ Andy Rachleff
All because he was still trying to be the smart guy with all the answers, instead of all the questions.
Engineers tend to define their value by the answers they can provide while in many situations it’s actually asking the right questions that counts.
So eloquently put. I'm going to steal that :)