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scaling happiness Ted Nyman Engineer at GitHub @tnm

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Most working life is inauthentic

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Hierarchy creates inauthentic relationships

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Without authenticity we become alienated “Work is a kind of vacuum, an emptiness, where I just switch off everything except the scant intelligence necessary to keep me going.”

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Perks are weak substitutes for an authentic working life

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Plato on Love

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Plato was Wrong

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I’ll never quit because X perk is just so good “ ”

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A better X will appear, and they are gone

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You can’t truly make people happy with bread and circuses “How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up”

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You can’t build culture with words “How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up”

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Token ‘freedom gestures’ are just not enough “How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up”

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The real way is organizational structure

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The lack of formal managers creates GitHub’s working culture

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Cultural and technological adaptations grow naturally from this

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Create the structure and let the culture form. The culture then reinforces the structure.

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Earthly software craft paradise

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Nothing Actually Scales

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No content

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Here’s what we actually do

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Accept awkwardness

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Embrace disorder

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Let ‘teams’ form naturally

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Propagate culture bottom-up

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Technology creates order when needed

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You can’t make anyone do anything

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Consistency comes from libraries

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You have to accept mistakes

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Authenticity and autonomy are priceless

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MOST IMPORTANT (META) QUESTION

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Who sets these ‘policies’?

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Everyone

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Everyone Culture

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Everyone Culture Structure