Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…So the short toes is, it's about the work, it's not about you. And so if you have made something and you're getting feedback on it, try to realize that as someone trying to help you make it better and not a personal view of how you are as a person or as an employee. And so a great example would be, I make videos occasionally and post them on Slack and people can consume them, and those are not always well received. I don't take that personally, I take it as an opportunity to say, "What could have made this video better so the next time I do it provides a lot more value." And I think that is really where that short toes comes in. It's about comment on the work, not the person. It's not, "Look what you did." It's like, "This could have been better this way." And if you're assuming positive intent, having short toes, you end up having less headbutting. I think the implication here is that you don't want to feel like people are stepping in your toes. Your toes end up being short. That's where this comes from, I imagine. It does. And part of that ties back to those other values. You aren't your work. So if someone's reaching over and doing something in your space, that's where if you have long toes as they're called, you feel like people are stepping on you. Whereas if you had short toes, it's about contributing and so forth.…

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