Every October, some Google employees host a walking competition for other employees called Walktober. The idea is to set a walking goal and see if you can hit it. It predates me by a decade or more and as of 2020, over twenty thousand Googlers participate. It is so popular, in fact that some of us joke that our CEO, Sundar, initiated the acquisition of Fitbit last October to try and get a leg up on other walkers in this competition. For most of the 20k Googlers that participate, it is a chance to try and get 10k or 20k steps per day. To achieve that goal that your fitbit or Apple Watch is always telling you to strive for. At some point, someone made a leaderboard though, so inevitably there are a handful of people that walk 10, 20 or 30 miles per day on average, logging 2 Million+
I recently finished my second year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. Things I’ve Learned During Two Years at Google 1.By Year Two, You’re A Veteran It seems a bit crazy, but in only two years, I’ve now been at the company longer than most of the folks I interact with. I’m the expert in my domain. It seems like just yesterday I was starting out, looking at a list of names my manager sent me and scheduling meetings with these folks to basically say ‘hi, I’m new and I think we will work together’. Now on a weekly basis new folks join and I’m on their list of names. 2. Credibility Is Earned Much In the Same Way Everywhere I’ve spent my whole career
Our living spaces and how we do best when they exist in the space between indoors and outdoors How corporations learn and retain knowledge as employees come and go Salt water hot tubs Structuring incentives and limitations to get the right behavior Walking – there doesn’t seem to be a limit to how far we can walk aside from sleep and injury The qualities that make the best ice creams – low air content, lots of creme, natural rich flavors Hobby churn, the pros, cons and how that can be its own niche The pros and cons of being front-stage vs behind it – Buffett vs Munger
With the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. I believe that by being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split that energy across many different goals. I detailed my 2020 focus here (read that first if you want more context) & did a quarter year and half year update as well.. Here is how I’m progressing. 2020 Theme: Action Economy 2020 Challenge: Develop a Strategy Evaluation Model I’ve started to get some ideas into a draft blog post but need to sit down for a few evenings to get it ready to publish. The themes that are emerging are the ones I wanted to think about: leverage, prioritization, compounding growth and delegation. 2020 Habit: Run 13 Projects & 52 Common Tasks Through the Model I haven’t made any progress