I remember a version of this while @Google. To be fair, sometimes it worked. But more often it didn't. Why is it most companies when they reach maturity / market leadership forget how to innovate? Why do they focus on playing defense reactively instead of offense creatively?

Why do they stop trusting their teams and themselves, and start trusting incumbents and signals they see online? Why do they stop taking risks? Why do they forget how they started and shift into something they think they're supposed to be? In this essay, I will… 😶‍🌫️

But for real, why do these executives have to be so formulaic? Mad props to any leader who can break free of these tropes and think for themselves.

You don't build things just because other people built them. There was an insight that got those people were they are, and you pay attention to the insight, you don't just copy+paste. I know we're all fear-motivated-loss-averse humans, but if we KNOW that why can't we beat it?

Ah weird this formatting looked normal on desktop web but looks broken on mobile (cc @andy)

Did you type it up in another text editor? Looks like there's a bunch of carriage returns forcing line breaks (it's just wide enough of desktop to make it look normal).

Lol. I thought these were mini poems of realness 😂

Lol I love it — mini realness in tech poems is a great idea for a series. Brings levity to tired thought leadership, but doesn’t ignore it either. Might have to just run with It

Having spent a lifetime at huge companies, I've thought about this way too much. It seems inevitable when large teams reach a certain position. Here's a great video on the topic: youtu.be/KhsvRukn0lE

Why Do Great Companies Make Bad Products? Design Analysis

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youtu.be

In my experience, when a leader does break free, it doesn't have much to do with great ideas.