Category: Teamwork

Ricardo – Team Economics

My previous post was about starting out with a small team, and some ideas on leading it. The next few posts will talk about a few useful tools that I use in developing and shaping a team.

Eat The Rich by PJ O'Rourke
A Good Econ Book

I didn’t do well in either macro or micro-economics in college. I was working my way through the liberal arts to find out what I was good at, and it turned out not to be econ. In college, however, I always enjoyed reading P.J. O’Rourke’s books. I was too young to see the cynicism, and so I read pretty much everything he wrote for several years, laughing out loud all the way. It wasn’t until I read Eat The Rich that I finally found one thing in economics that I can use practically daily: Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage. Now, I can’t do O’Rourke’s writing on this justice (Eat The Rich, Page 104-123), and I highly recommend reading it (along with all his books published before around 2000 – I haven’t read any since then), but I think it’s useful to discuss. Continue reading “Ricardo – Team Economics”

The Small Team

In my last post, I wrote about the choice between specialists and generalists on a team, using the metaphor of role-playing games to illustrate it. Now, I’m going to write a bit, over the next few posts, about my practical experience building and growing teams. This isn’t meant to be a guidebook on team development, or anything, but more of my approach and philosophy on team building.

D&D 1st Ed rulebook.
It’s all been downhill since then…

Sure, I also happen to have another awesome picture for this post that I feel reinforces my credentials in Role Playing Games, but that’s a total coincidence, I swear. Yes, I do just have these books lying around my office.

 

At many jobs I’ve had leading teams, I’ve started with somewhat small teams. For illustration purposes, the team I’ll describe will be an example, and not really any particular team I’ve actually had. Continue reading “The Small Team”

Pity the Wizard

Might and Magic 2
Note that this is the Apple IIgs version. #hardcore

At times, I’ve felt the temptation to equate the development and growth of a team to that of a party in a Role Playing Game. But, while the RPG analogy does have some striking resemblances to real life, it is better for telling us about pitfalls than about actual good practices. They are both similar in that you start out a Role Playing Game with little knowledge of your task, and build a party based on intuition. As the game progresses, you realize that your party design is not exactly aligned to the tasks that you are confronted with. Continue reading “Pity the Wizard”