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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      Damn, just had a magnitude 5 insight that explains nearly 100% of my success/failure pattern in consulting. I think I can finally put together my full theory of (indie) consulting.

      6 replies 35 retweets 313 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      See, there are 2 kinds of consulting clients: 1. Confident people who want to pay for systematic doubt 2. Doubtful people who want to pay for systematic confidence. I’m so bad at serving latter, if I could reliably detect them up front, I’d run away every time.

      5 replies 13 retweets 146 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      Here doubt/confidence refers to EXTERNAL world (what’s going on outside your head, how to think about it, etc). INNER world doubt/confidence is a job for life coaches, therapists, philosophers, and spiritual advisors. I lack the empathy/interest/compassion to operate in this zone

      1 reply 0 retweets 41 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      (Nuance: it’s not that I’m uninterested in others’ inner lives; I’m just uninterested/ill-equipped to help with the doubt/confidence dimension of inner life, which is where most people need the help, dealing with too much or too little confidence)

      1 reply 0 retweets 28 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      Putting it all together, here is a 2x2 of who you should hire in what situation (and/or type of books you should read if your budget is limited). My market is the smallest and therefore obviously the most interesting and elite one. So elite, some months I have *no* client work🤣pic.twitter.com/lcRrFE7AA2

      10 replies 34 retweets 229 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      Note that the same person may have needs (and the $ to pay for support in) all 4 quadrants. When I started 7 years ago I was surprised by the % of clients who *also* hired people in other quadrants besides me. Now I expect it. Some spend 1000s of $s a month on a support suite

      1 reply 1 retweet 20 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      All 4 kinds of support can be valuable. The key is the systematicity. Injecting unsystematic doubt into somebody’s thinking is basically gaslighting and confidence-undermining. Injecting unsystematic confidence is cheerleading and foolhardiness amplifying.

      1 reply 2 retweets 44 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      It is easy for a well-intentioned but inexperienced consultant to *unintentionally* achieve those negative effects by being insufficiently systematic. Being *too* systematic is a sign of a fundamentally bad and/or exploitative consultant who should be doing other things.

      2 replies 0 retweets 20 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      It’s a self-correcting problem in the top half of the 2x2, because prospective clients are pretty good at detecting both failure modes. That’s why this is a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market. Bottom half is a lemon market because it’s vulnerable people ripe for exploitation.

      1 reply 0 retweets 30 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      The key to injecting systematic doubt is providing alternative ways of looking at things, breaking functional fixedness. It’s not so much that I’m good at this (I’m ok at it). It’s more that I *enjoy* it a lot, and it’s infectious/addictive if a good sparring session gets going.

      1 reply 1 retweet 36 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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      The key to injecting systematic confidence is reducing the number of ways of looking at things, by increasing belief in the *sufficiency* of a particular way of looking at things, increasing functional fixedness. “Don’t worry about other crap, just do this one weird trick right”

      11:00 AM - 16 Apr 2019
      • 2 Retweets
      • 46 Likes
      • wenjimi mutwiri Joel Louzado Raghav Agrawal michael kleyn Fides Umemura tonyjoyce Justin Brill os
      1 reply 2 retweets 46 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          It’s not so much that I’m bad at this (I’m ok at it). I just don’t enjoy it very much, and my obviously meh energy level is equally infectious. If a confidence-seeking client senses this, if they’re smart, they turn elsewhere for the need. Usually I sense it first and beg off.

          1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Wardley mapping is a good example of injecting systematic confidence in outer world. I briefly met a guy once (Andrew Taggart) who seems to do the philosopher thing well Therapy and life coaching, being the big market, are pretty commoditized+regulated, with certifications etc

          3 replies 0 retweets 34 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          The connection to fox vs hedgehog should be obvious. The 2 basic consulting demand sources are “make me more foxy”, and “make me more hedgehoggy.” The inner/outer possibly maps a bit to extroversion/introversion. Extroverts need help with inner life, introverts with outer life.

          1 reply 2 retweets 28 likes
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        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          The distinctions on the 2x2 are why I might seem unnecessarily pedantic about the labels I use, and why I resist the word “coach”. The word (and preferred use of it) is associated with the confidence-building side.

          2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          The outer/inner distinction is much easier to detect enforce. It’s generally obvious when somebody needs inner work, and shoo them away to therapists or philosophers or spiritual advisors or life coaches. Though it can feel cruel to do so.

          1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          When I inventory my consultant friends, most are in the outer+confidence-building world. I don’t know many people offering inner world services mainly because they mostly rub me the wrong way (lemon market operators) and piss me off. The few I know are actually good at it.

          1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          If you want to break into this indie consulting game, figure out what you’re best at providing. If you’re buying, clarify what you’re looking for and don’t look for incompatible support types from a single person. There are no good “platform” consultants who can do it all.

          2 replies 0 retweets 28 likes
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        9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          I'll add a couple more points. The zeitgeist drives the market far more than you'd think. The last couple of years have not been good for selling "systematic doubt." Systematic confidence otoh, has been selling like crazy.

          1 reply 1 retweet 22 likes
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        10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          So "systematic doubt" is declining from a small base, while "systematic confidence" is growing from an already big base. The market is both cyclic and asymmetric. The market for systematic doubt grows/strengthens during high confidence zeitgeist periods, but is never big.

          1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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        11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          It's been down about 10% YOY over the last 3 years in the US since Trump's rise began basically. I was lucky I got my start in a very confident era (2011-15, zeitgeist coming out mostly strong and confident from the recession)

          2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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        12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

          Adding canonical book references for the 4 quadrants in response to a question. If you can't afford to hire people, read these books.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1118225740703526912 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Venkatesh Rao @vgr
          Outer doubt: Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, Discworld, Discordianism Outer confidence: Getting Things Done, Inner Game of Tennis Inner doubt: Finite and infinite games Inner confidence: Impro, War of Art (these are generic; there are domain specific-ones in each too) https://twitter.com/rrherr/status/1118220587883794434 …
          Show this thread
          1 reply 0 retweets 27 likes
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        13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Lol, one reason my market is so small is that people who rely on hitchhiker's guide type material for help with life/career/management/leadership problems are unlikely to make it to high levels in orgs or be entrepreneurs. Fortunately enough make it through to provide me a living

          2 replies 2 retweets 19 likes
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        14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Hmm... I think the US has generally lost confidence in itself, so long-term I may need to think about moving to a country that has more confidence in itself if this recession in the systematic doubt market continues much longer 🤔

          2 replies 0 retweets 18 likes
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        15. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Another addendum: note that this is all agnostic to functional domain (marketing, org behavior, product dev, leadership, risk mgmt etc etc) and industry. Having competence a reasonable coverage zone along those 2 dimensions is table stakes.

          1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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        16. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Obv. some (function, industry) pairs produce more problems in some quadrants than in others, so you should pick industry+functional areas to build knowledge and experience in that match your fundamental offering strength.

          1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
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        17. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Noah Rosenberg

          Okay, this comment from @nrose made me realize there's a very good test of whether you're naturally better at boosting systematic confidence or boosting systematic doubt. The diagnostic question is: are you a connector or separator?https://twitter.com/nrose/status/1118230451875909634 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Noah Rosenberg @nrose
          Replying to @vgr
          this 2x2 is the foundation of Integral theory (and DISC theory) and also I've seen it expressed as serotonin/dopamine, also forest/trees or global/analytical. Also rumsfeldian (unknown unknowns). Which means there's prior art for how you can profile and segment a good lead.
          1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
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        18. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Connectors see similarities/rhymes among mental models and use the basic reasoning pattern "A is pretty much the same as B therefore just choose the frame convenient for you". You build confidence by hedgehoggy unification. If you can unify 2 things but use only 1, 2x confidence

          2 replies 1 retweet 18 likes
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        19. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          Separators try to separate similar things by poking at what makes them different. This increases doubt, through disunification. What you are confident of understanding/doing gets put in a smaller box, and the net unknown in your world goes up.

          1 reply 1 retweet 25 likes
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        20. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 16 Apr 2019
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          I have a strong separator bias, to the point of pedantry when I get really interested, and often go nuts making up elaborate 2x2 separation schemes to distinguish things. Long-time clients kinda indulge me a bit even when it isn't useful to them because they know I enjoy it.

          8 replies 0 retweets 34 likes
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        21. End of conversation

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