Scaling Happiness

Why is GitHub structured the way it is?

1. scaling happiness Ted Nyman Engineer at GitHub @tnm
2. Most working life is inauthentic
3. Hierarchy creates inauthentic relationships
4. 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.”
5. Perks are weak substitutes for an authentic working life
6. Plato on Love
7. Plato was Wrong
8. I’ll never quit because X perk is just so good “ ”
9. A better X will appear, and they are gone
10. 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”
11. You can’t build culture with words “How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up”
12. Token ‘freedom gestures’ are just not enough “How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up”
13. The real way is organizational structure
14. The lack of formal managers creates GitHub’s working culture
15. Cultural and technological adaptations grow naturally from this
16. Create the structure and let the culture form. The culture then reinforces the structure.
17. Earthly software craft paradise
18. Nothing Actually Scales
20. Here’s what we actually do
21. Accept awkwardness
22. Embrace disorder
23. Let ‘teams’ form naturally
24. Propagate culture bottom-up
25. Technology creates order when needed
26. You can’t make anyone do anything
27. Consistency comes from libraries
28. You have to accept mistakes
29. Authenticity and autonomy are priceless
30. MOST IMPORTANT (META) QUESTION
31. Who sets these ‘policies’?
32. Everyone
33. Everyone Culture
34. Everyone Culture Structure