Issue #35: Career Advice, China, Lagos and Slack.
It’s graduation season and I’ve gotten the opportunity to chat with a few grads (undergrad and postgrad) as they jump into the next phase of their lives. I’ve shared the thoughts below. I realize they still apply to me, after 20 yrs in the grind, as much as they’ll apply to them.
You can get by in your career without mentors, but definitely find your champion(s). You will definitely not achieve your potential without a champion. I’ve only ever had one career mentor (in the true sense of the word). I’ve had a few champions, interestingly all female, and I’m eternally grateful to them. ps: pretty certain I suck as a mentor.
In your 20’s and 30’s you’ll worry what people think about you. At 40 you’ll stop caring what they think. At 60 you’ll realize they weren’t even thinking about you. I wish I’d heard this one earlier in my life. It probably wouldn’t have rung true though… I hope it does for these grads.
Enjoy your dose of random articles, new and old (very old) exceptional books.
Articles
Roman amphitheaters might have seismic invisibility cloaks that have kept them standing in earthquakes zones. What!!
’How to Write about Africa’, satirical essay writing at its best, introduced Binyavanga Wainaina to the world (or at least to me) in 2005. He recently passed away. RIP.
This damning article, ’San Francisco; or How to destroy a city’ bemoans the increasing homogenization and marginalization of the city. h/t Jason.
Kawhi Leonard, of the Toronto Raptors, makes us uncomfortable. Is it because we’re not used to someone being this good at what he does without us knowing him like we do the other superstars in the league?
While chatting with a parent at my kid’s school a few weeks ago, he mentioned growing up in New York and wondered why there isn’t much progress in building new advanced transportation infrastructure in that city (and many others across the US). This longread New York magazine article, ’Why New York Can’t Have Nice Things’ explains exactly why.
Whenever friends ask me what cities they should visit in Africa I never mention Lagos (where I grew up). As Chimamanda Adichie beautifully describes, Lagos, unlike the tourist friendly cities I recommend (Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg etc.), does not morph or change itself to accommodate your touristy desires. It’s like a messier New York. On crack. I can’t stand the place. But I love the place.
Watch for Microsoft to buy Slack for gobs of money within the year (quote me on this one). Ben Thompson explains the gap Slack would be filling for Microsoft. When you’ve goofed, by not acquiring Slack/Zoom earlier in their lives, a trillion dollar market cap enables recovery.
Community driven societies, as opposed to those focused on the self/individual, tend to live in multi-generational households. Due to the racial and ethnic diversity, more and more US households have multi-generational dwellers.
Everytime I read something by Morgan Housel, like ’Five Lessons from History’ my first thought is, ’lunch with this chap would be a knowledge buffet’. Hopefully I get that opportunity…
I’ve also long been a fan of Caterina Fake (who worked on Flickr with Stewart Butterfield, now of Slack) and love her question on the ethics of new technology ‘Should this exist?’.
On the extreme end of the spectrum, this Jack Dorsey interview was disappointing, revealing and unsurprising.
What happened to Carles of the Hipster Runoff? Vice article (2015) about when a (semi) famous person decides it’s time to disconnect from it all. Something that’s happening more often. Longread.
Books
Black Moses, by Alain Mabanckou, is the natural pairing for Binyavanga Wainaina article above. Filled with believable caricatures, the title character’s journey is extremely dark and amazingly hilarious at the same time.
With all the talk of tariffs and trade wars, you’d do yourself a favor by reading Evan Osnof’s riveting and revealing ’Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith In The New China’. The book shows how individual ambition (ye xin or wild heart), fostered by the government, led to the growth and is reminiscent of the ’self-made man’ approach to US capitalism. Things will only get more interesting…
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds (free PDF), written in 1841 by Charles Mackay, might as well have been written in 2019 about our times. We see the same mania he talks about evident in response to products (iPhone release day queues), political extremes (pick a country) and our willingness to ignore reason just to be seen to be in alignment or agreement with groups we desire to stay in or belong to (social media). h/t to my brother, Lekan, who bought the copy I read.
Have a great summer! As always, do send your recommendations!
Seyi