Venkatesh Rao on Substack

Teams should not strive for complete consensus at the outset of a project. After all, consensus-driven teams run the risk of settling on what offends no one and satisfies no one. Early and complete consensus is comfortable but almost always unremarkable. Leaders of creative teams should identify and highlight the noteworthy, memorable solutions at

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In the end, the fragile balance of open source—that unlikely blend of personalities and incentives that has driven tech’s innovation engine throughout the 21st century—won’t be upset by the odd state actor, or by malicious spam, or whatever scary new thing The Register is up in arms about tomorrow. It can only be disrupted when the community comes ... See more

If you watch Brad argue with his colleagues—or the pirates fight with one another—you can quickly see that the tension is intellectual, not emotional. The tone is vigorous and feisty rather than combative or aggressive. They don’t disagree just for the sake of it; they disagree because they care. “Whether you disagree loudly, or quietly yet persist

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