When people ask where I work, I sometimes describe myself as “feral”. It’s a joke…but also a real aspiration. Good things happen when I try hard to chase my sense of excitement, ignoring impulses to produce legible outcomes. This essay really captures it:
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A friend sent this to me a few days ago, such a great essay.
One of the most salient differences in "Silicon Valley" culture versus the rest of the world is the way this sort of open-ended exploration is understood and in the best cases celebrated.
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It's funny: my experience living in SV is mixed along that axis! Yes, people are absolutely more likely to cheer you on if you're doing open-ended exploration. But the dominant values of velocity and achievement often tacitly dominate conversation about this stuff.
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Great distinction, that feels right to me too – I also think it's hard not to impose those values onto yourself, even if it *seems* like nobody else is, and that's probably a symptom of the culture at-large?
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Also fwiw I consider you to be the hallmark example of type of open-ended exploring! You probably know more about this than anybody else 😄
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