'Failing up' is one of those well-known-to-insiders Silicon Valley concepts. Past a certain point in your career trajectory (not that I've experienced it), you reach escape velocity, and the gravitational rules of accountability no longer apply.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/technology/sexual-harassment-google.html …
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Completely screw up a product or business due to your own demonstrable mediocrity, and despite your illustrious pedigree? Up you go.... Commit egregious acts of sexual harassment in a company that claims to care about it. Here's your unvested stock on the way out...
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There's a certain class of Silicon Valley denizen (and I could mention a few from Facebook) who are at least somewhat incompetent. But there they flit, impervious to the laws of career physics, upwards from one failure to another, until they land in some professional Valhalla....
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...of a cushy VC post, or just boutique (and usually scattershot) angel investing, while posting Instagram photos of a custom-built house in a Valley hood where some junior hires choose to live at work or in parked RVs because they can't afford to live there otherwise.
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Replying to @antoniogm
What do you think the commonalities are among the ones who fail up successfully?
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Replying to @benwbear
This is me being a total outsider, who crashed this SV party via the back door (before being escorted out by the bouncer). But...everyone I know in this bucket had either impeccable credentials and fit a certain ideal of the ideal X (where X=engineer, PM, whatever)...
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Replying to @antoniogm @benwbear
...or, had some other magical in, like being present at the creation of the company, or super tight with the demigod CEO (FB would be an example here). They'd parlay that into a public perception of effortless superiority (even though their revenue dashboard said something else).
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Replying to @antoniogm
Similar observations on my side. Good people skills X sound smart X good school/employer credentials X just the right amount of gray hair (if an exec).
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The weird thing is, there are certainly people in the ecosystem whom you could tell: Here's a small boat, some oars, random instruments, and a pile of food and water. Get to Hawaii. And they'd get there. There are some magnificent doers. But then there are the hangers-on...
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Replying to @antoniogm
Doing great work and taking credit for it or rather making it so other people are willing or want to give you credit for it are different skill-sets. Some people are much better at making other people want to help them. Think about this a lot.
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