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What to do when you’re foundering in jargon

Why agonise over one school of thought when you can confound yourself with a million others?

    • The best way to stay atop the cycles of received wisdom is to be at liberty to pick and discard.
    • The best way to stay atop the cycles of received wisdom is to be at liberty to pick and discard. PHOTO: PIXABAY
    Joyce Hooi
    Published Tue, Sep 17, 2024 · 05:00 AM

    SOMEDAY, when you find yourself in a windowless room being exhorted to go “founder mode” by an earnest motivational coach-type, it is Paul Graham whom you’ll want to thank.

    The entrepreneur’s manifesto, which made the rounds in Silicon Valley earlier this month, declared that there are essentially two ways to run a company: “founder mode” or “manager mode”.

    The conventional “manager mode” entails MBA basics such as hiring good people and giving them leeway to do their job. Graham, however, reckons that this is middle-man hooey – just another way to “hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground”.

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