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patio11's profile
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11

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Patrick McKenzie

@patio11

I work for the Internet, at @stripe, mostly on accelerating startups. Opinions here are my own.

東京都 Tokyo
kalzumeus.com
Joined February 2009

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    1. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      Patrick McKenzie Retweeted Sophie Alpert

      Serious answer to probably other-than-serious question: caliber of performance is sometimes tied to individual but often more closely tied to individual/environment match, such that hypothetical Abe might be A in some environments but B in others, or Cindy might be A/B @ new gig.https://twitter.com/sophiebits/status/1101006496383393792 …

      Patrick McKenzie added,

      Sophie Alpert @sophiebits
      if A players hire A players but B players hire C players… who hires B players?
      4 replies 14 retweets 127 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      You can have someone who was an A player at Google be very good at doing X *at Google*, diagnose them as being very good at *doing X*, hire them to do X at your shop, and watch them get terminated for low performance. And if you're debugging that: hard for me to say 100% on them

      2 replies 5 retweets 37 likes
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    3. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      Partly that's a matching issue, partly it's an assessment issue, partly it's a training or other management issue after they've joined your shop.

      1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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    4. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      I think this observation is complicated by the observation that there do exist some folks who seem to succeed in any circumstance and there do exist some folks who seem to fail in any circumstance, but most of us are complicated and nuanced, like real life.

      2 replies 4 retweets 30 likes
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    5. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      "How can someone be an effective software engineer at e.g. Google but be an ineffective software engineer @ a startup?" One way is by their pathway to effectiveness being a really good understanding of the Google organization and how to work it to accomplish goals. A real skill!

      2 replies 2 retweets 33 likes
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    6. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      Another way is by delivering mission success at Google (to use a gross generalization: system scaled to the moon, took as long as it takes, doesn't have to be subjectively great because Google gets Google distribution) at company which dies if 1,000 people don't rabidly love it.

      1 reply 0 retweets 25 likes
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      Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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      My ambient impression: The best products at AppAmaGooBookSoft are some of the best products in the world. The median product is better engineered than the median startup product by a lot, but qua product, pretty mediocre. (This is one reason they buy product teams so frequently)

      2:34 AM - 1 Mar 2019
      • 3 Retweets
      • 44 Likes
      • Jacob Matthews Paul Graham Thomas "If in doubt, don't go out" Clarke Tristan Harward JD Ross Durchlass Kilometer 5,698 Kenji Iguchi Matt Secoske simon
      3 replies 3 retweets 44 likes
        1. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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          (Very opinionated list on the best products at AppAmaGooBookSoft, sorted per company by "Volume of physical tears I would weep if they went away": the iPhone, core physical e-commerce experience, Gmail (surprisingly, not search), core FaceBook, Excel.)

          5 replies 1 retweet 23 likes
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        2. Hasan Ali‏ @ha_san_ali 1 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @patio11

          What is a qua product?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @ha_san_ali

          "Qua X" is an English conjunction by way of Latin which means approximately "in the capacity of being X." So "If we evaluate Gmail qua product it is uneven but broadly one of the most useful business tools in the world."

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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        2. Rob Burke‏ @RobBurke 1 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @patio11

          Can you help me with your use of "qua" here? Their ability to "do" product in and of itself vs. their ability to occasionally build world-class product? Thanks!

          2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        3. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 1 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @RobBurke

          If you were judging the product solely by giving it to a user, the right user, at the appropriate level of sophistication etc etc, and if they were to evaluate it only on their experience with the totality of it, would they say "EFF YES I LOVE THIS."

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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