Chris Miller: preference

Transcript context

…Is there anything that you think you did right to help find mentors and sponsors and advocates for people that are thinking about, "Hey, I need this. How do I help myself in the same way?" Is there something you did that helped people get excited to help you? Something I think I certainly continue to work on, but really, putting ego aside and embracing not knowing stuff and embracing not being good at stuff, and not feeling self-conscious about that and letting the desire to be the best at something or at least be great at something overpower the fear of being inadequate at something. And I played sports growing up, and so I like being coached. I can take hard feedback, and I like it because if I get better feedback than the people I'm competing against, I think I can beat them over time if I work hard enough. And so, I think just taking that mentality with me into product management, I think has helped me build bridges with people who don't owe me anything, right? People who don't necessarily need to be invested in me at all, but who might get delight out of it somehow. And I don't know exactly how that works and the calculus that goes on in folks' brains, but at least what's within my control is how I can show up in the context of those relationships and really embrace even the hardest, ugliest feedback and hope that I can extract something from it that'll make me better at the end of the day. I love that advice. Makes me think about Jules Walter's advice, which I've referenced many times on this podcast now, where his tip is when people are giving you feedback, just be like, "Thank you so much for that feedback," even though you're melting inside and just completely disagree with what they're telling you.…

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