I've spoken to 2,000+ companies over the last 12 months about their plans for remote work going forward

Here are a few things I've learned

[ a thread ] 💻🏠🌍

🏢HQ’s are finished: companies will cut their commercial office space by 50-70%

The will allow every worker to work from home 2-4 days a week, and come into the office 1-2 days a week

🌍 Fully distributed: ~30% of the companies we talk to are getting rid of the office entirely and going remote-first

Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family

⭐️ Access talent: The first reason they are going remote-first is simple – it lets them hire more talented people

Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they can hire the best person in the world for every role

💰 Cut costs: The second reason they are going remote-first is because it lets them be far more cost-efficient

Rather than spending $20,000 / worker / year on office space they can provide the best remote setup on the planet for $2,000 / worker / year

THREAD: 15 of the most useful razors and rules I've found.

Rules of thumb that simplify decisions.

Bezos' Razors:

• If unsure what action to take, let your 80-year-old self make it.

• If unsure who to work with, pick the person that has the best chances of breaking you out of a 3rd world prison.

Skinner's Law:

• If procrastinating on an item, you only have 2 options:

1. Make the pain of not doing it greater than the pain of doing it.

2. Make the pleasure of doing it greater than the pleasure of not doing it.

Luck Razor:

• If stuck with 2 equal options, pick the one that feels like it will produce the most luck later down the line.

I used this razor to go for drinks with a stranger rather than watch Netflix.

In hindsight, it was the highest ROI decision I've ever made.

Bragging Razor:

• If someone brags about their success or happiness, assume it’s half what they claim.

• If someone downplays their success or happiness, assume it’s double what they claim.

The map is not the terrain.

A visual guide: 5 mistakes we all make when talking to customers 👇

Confirmation bias: Paying more attention to information that confirms your existing beliefs.

Leading: Giving away the answer you want to hear.

Selection bias: Talking to customers who don't represent your target.

Recency effect: Overemphasizing the most recent conversation you had.

1/ The cold email

the second most powerful tool for landing a job behind “my dad is the CEO.”

I’m a big fan of the cold email for one reason in particular

it helped me land my current job at @MorningBrew

a thread

2/ Below I’ll be highlighting some of the keys to a good cold email:

How to break the ice
How to establish credibility
How to frame your ask
How to stick the landing

3/ To start, here is the full email

Let's get into it

4/ BREAK THE ICE

show that you value what they value

when I emailed @austin_rief about getting a job with the Brew, I led with a really niche David Dobrik reference

David is his dude

ice=broken

5/ ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY

this is where amateur cold emailers often make the biggest mistake. They are afraid to self promote and I feel that

so I took an alternate approach

i mentioned one of Morning Brew’s competitors, Axios

How to scale your business in 30 days

(If you are making below $1M in revenue)

//THREAD//

**disclaimer**

This thread has nothing to do with marketing OR sales.

There are way better threads and more qualified individuals who can help you.

This is for those who are strong at marketing and sales but weak at the operations side of things.

**disclaimer cont.**

This thread is mostly going to benefit the CEOs.

The visionaries.

Your strength is crafting the vision for the company, selling that vision, and continuously innovating your vision.

Read through this though so you understand what you need.

Craft your vision for the future of your business.

If you have not already done this for 2021, answer the questions on this Google Doc and then come back to this

Find an integrator

You have no business working IN your business.

Find someone who will.

Someone who can take your ideas and put them into action is the most valuable asset you can have when looking to scale.

An integrator will help double your business at a minimum.

"Async" Slack channels are one of our secret weapons at @beondeck

After using them for ~18 months, I can't imagine Slack without them. Particularly now— operating 100% remote with 62 teammates in 14 timezones.

Here's the "how it works" post I use to open each new 1:1 channel 👇

Welcome to our private "async" channel!! 👋👋

Here's how it works —>

Anytime you need a quick response, e.g. "are you coming to this meeting?", use DM.

A Slack DM is like a tap on the shoulder. It says "I need your attention now, please stop what you are doing." Use these sparingly.

Anytime you're posting something more suited to asynchronous consideration and reply, post it here instead.

Treat your post in the main channel like the subject line of an email, then thread *everything* else, including any links and images. The thread is your "email" body.

Sometimes it helps to add an emoji to the start of the "subject line" post, indicating the nature of the message.

E.g.
❓ = question
💡 = idea
ℹ️ = fyi
🎉 = celebration fyi

/thread/ It has been almost 2 months since the end of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war and after observing it from the start and talking about it with (or listening to) some really smart people, here are IMO important lessons (new or old) from that conflict:

1. Even in smaller conflicts, U(C)AVs are making achieving air superiority, or at least denying it to the opponent, a lot more important than it used to be.

2. Effective distribution of real-time data from U(C)AVs (and loitering munitions, which can be launched to perform recon when other assets are not available) can significantly increase the effectiveness of even relatively old artillery systems.

3. While airpower is getting incredibly deadly and can quickly inflict massive material damage, you still need units on the ground with a strong will to fight despite taking casualties (and political will to accept that in serious modern wars, significant losses are inevitable).

4. Soldiers need to be aware that on a modern battlefield there are not really any "safe areas" and TTPs (tactics techniques procedures) need to be changed to reflect this.