Originally published August 2016 Keith Adams worked on kernels at VM Ware. Then virtual machines. Then search performance at Facebook. Then the HHVM implementation of PHP. Then machine learning. Now [ed: then…] he’s Chief Architect at Slack. In between he worked on hundreds of little projects that lasted hours or days or weeks. Keith is a Paint Drip Person. [ed: Keith is now a venture investor at
I’m inspired by the idea of a new project every week. It seems like I spend too much time looking for the next project rather than just starting with the one at hand.
I learned of the following quotes from Daisaku Ikeda but never applied them to projects.
Beethoven’s motto was “No day without a line.”
Goethe said: "It is better to do the smallest thing in the world than to hold half an hour to be too small a thing."
I identified with the description of a "paint-drip" person, but it also reminded me of a leadership trap that catches a lot of organizations. Just because a leader or worker has success in one area or discipline does not make them more likely to succeed in another.
I do believe that many people find success when they've enjoyed a multi-discipline career. Myself, I bring parts of my business continuity, personnel security, logistics, and program analyst background to my job every day as an IT leader. But that said, I don't have some kind of secret leadership sauce that I would bring to a position in, say, finance or HR.
That's not to say that I couldn't be successful in those fields given time. My experience has been that success comes from equal portions of perspective, preparation, and straight-up luck. If you're in the chair when times are good and you don't mess it up, congratulations, you're successful. If the environment changes and your results decline, well, that's why leadership sucks sometimes. :)
Your job as a boss is to manage the good times and the bad, take care of your people AND the mission, and take the lumps when you have to. As the great historical figure Ted Lasso once said, be a goldfish.
All this to say, I don't think a "paint-drip" person is the result of some innate quality or personality type. It's the natural career path of someone with flexibility and tenacity who's actually had some hard-earned experience.
I've had similar thoughts over the years. Instead of T-shaped, I refer to myself as jellyfish-shaped—many specializations going in different directions and to different depths.
not being a painter, I don’t know if paint is like water. With water, drips are more likely to form in places where there is already water. We form grooves.
Yes, and then you "move the brush along" by experimenting & another potential drip forms. Then in some magical moments 2 or 3 drips come together & form an entirely new color no one has ever seen before.
I’m inspired by the idea of a new project every week. It seems like I spend too much time looking for the next project rather than just starting with the one at hand.
I learned of the following quotes from Daisaku Ikeda but never applied them to projects.
Beethoven’s motto was “No day without a line.”
Goethe said: "It is better to do the smallest thing in the world than to hold half an hour to be too small a thing."
Ward Cunningham & I started a new project every Monday over coffee.
I identified with the description of a "paint-drip" person, but it also reminded me of a leadership trap that catches a lot of organizations. Just because a leader or worker has success in one area or discipline does not make them more likely to succeed in another.
I do believe that many people find success when they've enjoyed a multi-discipline career. Myself, I bring parts of my business continuity, personnel security, logistics, and program analyst background to my job every day as an IT leader. But that said, I don't have some kind of secret leadership sauce that I would bring to a position in, say, finance or HR.
That's not to say that I couldn't be successful in those fields given time. My experience has been that success comes from equal portions of perspective, preparation, and straight-up luck. If you're in the chair when times are good and you don't mess it up, congratulations, you're successful. If the environment changes and your results decline, well, that's why leadership sucks sometimes. :)
Your job as a boss is to manage the good times and the bad, take care of your people AND the mission, and take the lumps when you have to. As the great historical figure Ted Lasso once said, be a goldfish.
All this to say, I don't think a "paint-drip" person is the result of some innate quality or personality type. It's the natural career path of someone with flexibility and tenacity who's actually had some hard-earned experience.
I've had similar thoughts over the years. Instead of T-shaped, I refer to myself as jellyfish-shaped—many specializations going in different directions and to different depths.
And somewhat related is the capability comb by Emily Webber - https://emilywebber.co.uk/team-exercise-building-empathy-and-understanding-with-the-capability-comb/
I like the alternative of "V"-shaped people: Deep knowledge in an area, and moderate knowledge in related areas.
This can lead to "W"-shaped, with two specialties. And something much more like paint drops when "diving into" a number of unrelated areas.
not being a painter, I don’t know if paint is like water. With water, drips are more likely to form in places where there is already water. We form grooves.
Yes, and then you "move the brush along" by experimenting & another potential drip forms. Then in some magical moments 2 or 3 drips come together & form an entirely new color no one has ever seen before.
Yes! Being Canadian, I've used a "cooler" analogy - Icicle-Shaped People: https://medium.com/@daverooneyca/icicle-shaped-people-45f3640dd329
Also known as Cthulhu shaped people
https://medium.com/@cminion/t-shaped-people-pi-shaped-people-and-cthulhu-shaped-people-b44888e0bac4