{"id":23339,"date":"2025-11-12T07:19:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pokecon.jp\/job\/?p=23339"},"modified":"2025-11-12T07:19:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:19:52","slug":"collaboration-sucks-by-charles-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pokecon.jp\/job\/23339\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration sucks – by Charles Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together\u201d<\/p>\n

This phrase will slowly kill your company and I\u2019m here to prove it.<\/p>\n

Imagine you are driving a car. It\u2019s often useful to have someone give you directions, point out gas stations, and recommend stops for snacks. This is a helpful amount of collaboration.<\/p>\n

An unhelpful amount of collaboration is getting out of your car to ask pedestrians if they like your car, swapping drivers every 10 minutes, or having someone constantly commenting on your driving.<\/p>\n

In the first scenario, you get the right amount of feedback to get to your destination as fast as possible. In the second, you get more feedback, but it slows you down. You run the risk of not making it to the place you want to go.<\/p>\n

The second scenario is also the one most startups (or companies, really) end up in because of \u2728 collaboration \u2728.<\/p>\n

As PostHog grows, I\u2019ve seen more and more collaboration that doesn\u2019t add value or adds far too little value for the time lost collaborating. So much so we made \u201ccollaboration sucks\u201d the topic of the week during a recent company all hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the driver\u201d is a <\/span>key value<\/a> for us at PostHog. We aim to hire people who are great at their jobs and get out of their way. No deadlines, minimal coordination, and no managers telling you what to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

In return, we ask for extraordinarily high ownership and the ability to get a lot done by <\/span>yourself.<\/em> Marketers ship code, salespeople answer technical questions without backup, and <\/span>product engineers<\/a> work across the stack.<\/span><\/p>\n

This means there is almost always someone better at what you are doing than you are. It is tempting to get them, or anybody really, involved and \u2728 collaborate \u2728, but collaboration forces the driver to slow down and explain stuff (background, context, their thinking).<\/p>\n

This tendency reveals itself in a few key phrases:<\/p>\n