How are Alex/Rahul able to communicate so fast/so much (Taro/Linkedin/Workplace)?
I've noticed that Alex/Rahul can communicate very fast and a lot. This includes
- Answering questions on Taro
- Creating content (especially on Linkedin)
- In the workplace (Alex at Meta was a top code reviewer in addition to being senior/staff)
My question is how. I struggle to write an email without overthinking everything. Usually, what goes through my head in communication involves
- Taro: What if my advice is wrong or becomes outdated?
- Taro: What if the requester did not give enough information for me to provide an answer (I notice that Alex/Rahul rarely ask follow-up questions on Taro)?
- Content: How do I post so much content without recycling the same concepts over and over again
- Workplace communication: I don't want to offend anyone in this email/slack message
- Workplace communication: I don't want to come across as self-promotional when posting status updates on work/meeting notes/etc
- Everything: What if people just don't like what I have to say and bash it (this is very common on social media) OR if people lose respect for what I say because it reveals how dumb I am
I want to become someone who can communicate fast without overthinking since I believe it's holding me back from working much faster.
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Discussion
(1 comment)- 024 days agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I would say there are two key unlocks:
- Embrace "done is better than perfect." Ask yourself, if I spend 10 minutes answering this question or writing this post, will that help someone? If so, I'd rather timebox whatever I'm doing and get it done within 10 minutes since it'll still have a positive impact.
- Do work in batches. For things like LinkedIn posts, both Alex and I will write a batch of content every week or 2, so we're not actually paying the cost of a context switch every morning when it's published. The same is true for things like coding or meetings -- try to combine your meetings in one block.
In terms of content idea generation, it helps a lot that we are running a company that requires us to talk to engineers every day :) So we are constantly hearing about the concerns people have, along with feedback on what advice is working and what is not. Anyone can do this, but you have to make an effort to talk to a variety of people as part of your weekly schedule.
In general, I find that having some consistent marker of progress (workplace post, code commit) will lead to a much, much better outcome compared to having only a few outputs that you're trying to make perfect.
What if people just don't like what I have to say and bash i
What helped me overcome this is learning about the Spotlight Effect :)
