Become the Master of One

Why spreading yourself thin is not the way to grow

I made the mistake of doing way too much when I started at YouTube in 2016 (my first full time job as a software engineer). I was active in a few ERGs, helped at conferences, dedicated a lot of time to mentorship and more.

In high school and college I was so used to quantity being over quality. It was more important to be “well-rounded” than extremely good at one skill.

Instead of pursuing many-sided mediocrity and calling it “well-roundedness,” a definite person determines the one best thing to do and then does it.

- Peter Thiel, Zero to One

Take a look at your calendar for this week, what are you dedicating your time to? How much of it is directly impacting your team’s OKRs vs things outside your team’s goals?

Do you fall into the habit of saying “yes” to things just to be a team player?

While it might feel like you’re moving yourself in the right direction by getting more work done, you’ll notice at the end of the quarter you don’t have anything significant to show for. Too much of your work was split into multiple streams and now you don’t have a big achievement to list in your self review.

Action time:

Let’s take some inventory. What is something you can remove from your week (or month) right now? How can you say no to one of your current commitments outside your team goals?

If you want help wordsmithing your “no,” let me know!

Thanks for reading ❤️‍🔥

Eden

P.S. Sorry for being behind on our newsletter!

Calli

and I were heads down working on our application for Y Combinator. Wish us luck! 🧡