Julie Zhuo: preference

Transcript context

…I love this advice that things that we are incredible at have a downside. And oftentimes the feedback we're getting is something we're not great at. There's like a good version of that that people appreciate. And I was going to ask you, and I think you answered most of this, but just when you got this feedback of, hey, Julie, you're not speaking enough in these meetings. You're not contributing quickly enough. Yeah. It sounds like so one option is just like, OK, cool, that's me. That's how I am. And I'm just going to solve the problem this other way and then just not going to change anything. What I heard you say is find opportunities where that's actually you want to actually change that behavior, even though it doesn't come naturally in specific situations where things are moving fast. I guess just how far do you recommend people push themselves in things they're not great at versus leaning further, further into their things, their strengths? I think that's a really great question. So the way I think about it is it is very dependent on what is your goal. So for example, let's say that you are, let's even take, for example, ICs versus managers. I think often about the pathway of an IC, an individual contributor, as wanting to deepen a craft. Like you just, you love this thing and you just want to get better and better and better at this very specific skill or this craft, right? So think about in our dimension, infinite, like you pick a couple of dimensions, like I just want these to be, I want to be like the top 0.01%. And that's kind of the pathway of extending as an IC. Now, if that's your high level goal and you're like, I wanna be able, let's say your high level goal is I wanna be able to do this 10 hours a day because I love it and I wanna be able to support myself doing it, meaning I get paid and I have like a great job and I want to have a bunch of impact in the world by doing this thing, right? So again, you still have goals, then you have to see, okay, does my strategy of just deepening these things, is there a pathway to reach my goals according to that? And if there is, awesome. Then if someone's like, hey, do you want to be a manager? You're like, nope, don't need to because these are my goals and this pathway actually allows me to do that. But if somehow you get to a point where The skill you really want to perfect is not something that may be commercially viable in the world that's going to somehow allow you to buy the big mansion that you want to buy to support your family. Then I think you have to ask yourself, okay, so if I just do this, it's not going to cut it. I might actually need to learn some of these other skills in order to be able to fulfill the job that is going to be valuable enough that people are going to pay me a bunch of money at this certain level so that I can afford my mansion. So I just think it has to go back to like, what are your goals? And there are cases in which, yes, like it supports, it'll support your goal to do this and to deepen your craft. And there are cases in which it won't. And I think it's important. It's a very individual question for each person. But what I often think suffering is, is when these things are not aligned. So what you want is like the giant mansion and all of that. And that, but you're like, but I also just want to spend all my time perfecting my egg omelet. And then you're just like in this tension place and it's very hard to feel satisfied and fulfilled because you're a little bit like, oh, why doesn't the world value my, my deep egg omelet skills? Like, okay, you can be egg omelet. You just have to, you know, maybe not do this thing. Or if you want this thing, you may actually need to be better at just egg omelets. Like perhaps you need to, Expand your repertoire of cuisines and like go and build a Michelin star restaurant or something. This is really good advice. It's not just like definitely always work on your weaknesses or don't worry about them. It's if you need to do this thing to achieve this goal that you have, make sure you understand what your goal is. And then is this thing a thing you need to work on? For example, if you're going to become a VP, you probably need to be really good in big, important meetings and not being on the spot and just not waiting until everything's over and then sharing an email with all your thoughts. That's right. For me, I actually went through a period where I was like, I do not want to get promoted. I'm so happy in this very specific role. Just leave me alone. And that path is very different from the skills I need to build to be a manager. And then things change. And then, okay, now these are the things I need to work on.…

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