Yeah, I agree 2x is quite a lot! We grew more this year because I think we were catching up with demand for our projects. I expect more like 50% in the future.
Is there a strong management culture? I think there is: I’ve managed this set of managers for a long while, and we regularly meet to discuss management conundrums, so I think there’s a shared culture. We also have shared values, and team retreats to sync up together. But each manager also has their own take, and I think that is leading to different approaches to e.g. project management or goal setting on each team (but not yet to conflict).
Are managers improving? Broadly, I think they still are! For each of them, there’s generally some particular area they’re focused on improving via feedback or mentorship. But I also think that we’re all just getting extra years of management under our belt, and that helps a lot. I think we’re still interested in also bringing in people with management experience or aptitude, to help us keep scaling.
People who are a good fit for CEA: One thing that I think people haven’t fully realized is that we’re a remote org first. So if you can’t find EA jobs nearby, we might be a good fit. I’m particularly interested in hiring ambitious, agile, user-focused people right now. You can read a lot more on our careers page.
I have recently been talking to some people who are interested in setting up new projects that are adjacent to or complementary to our current work, and we’re exploring whether some of those could be a part of CEA. So I’m open to that, but the current things are in their early stages. If you are interested in setting up a new thing, and you think it might be better as part of CEA, feel free to get in touch and we can explore that. I think the key reason it might be better at CEA is if it fits in really closely with our current projects, or if there are synergies (e.g. you want to build off Forum tech or do something in the groups space).
Re cults/scandals at local groups: I agree that this is a risk. We hope that with more group calls we might catch some of this, but ultimately it’s hard to vet all local groups. I’d encourage anyone who has concerns about a group or individual to consider reaching out to Julia Wise.
Re mistakes: Those do feel like the biggest ones that directly harmed our outside work. Then I think there were a lot of cases where we could have moved a bit more quickly, or taken on an extra thing that really mattered, or made a slightly better decision. Those really matter too—maybe more than the things that look more like “mistakes” - but it’s often a bit hard to write them up cleanly. I guess I think that this post overall gives an accurate summary of the balance of successes vs. harm-causing mistakes, but it’s not comprehensive about either. And then it might under-weight all of the missed opportunities. (Our mistakes page has that disclaimer (“not comprehensive”) at the top, but I expect people still sometimes see it as comprehensive.)
Thanks! Some comments:
Yeah, I agree 2x is quite a lot! We grew more this year because I think we were catching up with demand for our projects. I expect more like 50% in the future.
Is there a strong management culture? I think there is: I’ve managed this set of managers for a long while, and we regularly meet to discuss management conundrums, so I think there’s a shared culture. We also have shared values, and team retreats to sync up together. But each manager also has their own take, and I think that is leading to different approaches to e.g. project management or goal setting on each team (but not yet to conflict).
Are managers improving? Broadly, I think they still are! For each of them, there’s generally some particular area they’re focused on improving via feedback or mentorship. But I also think that we’re all just getting extra years of management under our belt, and that helps a lot. I think we’re still interested in also bringing in people with management experience or aptitude, to help us keep scaling.
People who are a good fit for CEA: One thing that I think people haven’t fully realized is that we’re a remote org first. So if you can’t find EA jobs nearby, we might be a good fit. I’m particularly interested in hiring ambitious, agile, user-focused people right now. You can read a lot more on our careers page.
I have recently been talking to some people who are interested in setting up new projects that are adjacent to or complementary to our current work, and we’re exploring whether some of those could be a part of CEA. So I’m open to that, but the current things are in their early stages. If you are interested in setting up a new thing, and you think it might be better as part of CEA, feel free to get in touch and we can explore that. I think the key reason it might be better at CEA is if it fits in really closely with our current projects, or if there are synergies (e.g. you want to build off Forum tech or do something in the groups space).
Re cults/scandals at local groups: I agree that this is a risk. We hope that with more group calls we might catch some of this, but ultimately it’s hard to vet all local groups. I’d encourage anyone who has concerns about a group or individual to consider reaching out to Julia Wise.
Re mistakes: Those do feel like the biggest ones that directly harmed our outside work. Then I think there were a lot of cases where we could have moved a bit more quickly, or taken on an extra thing that really mattered, or made a slightly better decision. Those really matter too—maybe more than the things that look more like “mistakes” - but it’s often a bit hard to write them up cleanly. I guess I think that this post overall gives an accurate summary of the balance of successes vs. harm-causing mistakes, but it’s not comprehensive about either. And then it might under-weight all of the missed opportunities. (Our mistakes page has that disclaimer (“not comprehensive”) at the top, but I expect people still sometimes see it as comprehensive.)