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Fake Wisdom

Read this very self-serving and blithely oblivious to reality piece of wisdom predictably dispensed by a rich and entitled tech bro. If I had to guess he rose to the level that he did in large part on account of being at the right place at the time while being a white male. His worldview seems rather myopic. As such, he picks on the poor, hapless Eloise who has correctly sized up that she is in a dead-end team where leadership has no strategy or vision and no matter what she does she has no path forward, she will just spin like a hamster in its wheel with the chance of promotion dangled before her just a bit out of reach so she continues to spin away and do the relentless grunt work needed to keep mismanaged things from falling apart. 

This is the reality of life that even the supposedly unintelligent, unsophisticated and non-big picture seeing lowest guy in the totem is able to size up fairly quickly. Eloise made the mistake of speaking truth to power in this instance and became the subject of this pithy anecdote. The homily is presumably meant to inspire the likes of Eloise to take charge of their destiny - go grab that promotion, create think-big solutions where none are sought and even actively discouraged by people up the food chain because they do not align with the OKRs they need to deliver on to secure their own promotions. 

The sad truth of the matter is that Eloise can create the best dashboard in the world and it won't move the needle one damn millimeter. Ofcourse for a former big honcho who presided over legions of ineffectual middle managers and such, this is not the reality he wants to know or see. He knows a different better reality in his imagination and so he writes it all up. His summary is quite amusing infact, It is not a clear sign of poor if not failed leadership all the way up when an organization is riddled with so called "opportunities" that no one wants to deal with ? Isn't the right question to ask the author and the likes of him what should they have done differently so the likes of Eloise are not left with the choice of cleaning poop by hand or finding a good scooper ?

I've repeatedly heard the same story. There are problems. There are opportunities. But those aren't the opportunities anyone wants to deal with. Why? Because they're ambiguous. The value isn't clear. The outcome isn't clear. It's not a classic hard challenge, like “Make movie recommendations better than Netflix's recommendations,” but it's a challenge for a senior leader all the same.

I won't be surprised to see him publish a book which captures this and other wisdom so Eloise and her ilk can stop being such lazy, whiny losers and start taking charge of their careers.

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