On Experts

2023.7.8

One of the great blessings in my life has been the ability to surround myself with experts. Some experts are obvious, others are not.

Breaking Down Problems

While I’ve been in Austin, I’ve been fortunate enough to train jiu-jitsu at classes taught by John Danaher. If you’re unfamiliar, in the context of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, he is hands down one of the most exceptional individuals alive. In other words, Danaher is an obvious expert. Going to his gym, I almost felt like I started learning the sport from the beginning — once again, I’m in an ocean, trying not to drown.

Then, there are less obvious people: these people may not be at the very very top like Danaher, but they represent a wealth of knowledge, none the less. As an example, these people may be the black, brown, purple, or even blue belts at Danaher’s gym who have been incredibly helpful for my learning.

Part of the challenge about getting help with something is actually knowing how to diagnose the underlying problem. Sometimes, if you take a deep breath, it can be relatively easy to trace back an issue to its root cause.

Danaher taught us quite a nuanced iteration of a body lock pass that I was struggling to execute on. I was focused on some of the more intricate details he mentioned; really, what I should have been paying attention to, was actually getting into the body lock properly in the first place. Once I took a step back and realized the issue was this simple, now maybe 80% of the gym members could help me with it.

I’m not a linguist, but I doubt that it’s accidental that the words “expert” and “experience” are so close. In my view, experience makes the expert. And, experience is comparative. In one way or another, in at LEAST one area, someone has more experience than you do. And, if you can break down your problems to the smallest components, you increase the number of people who can help you solve them.

Finding the Root Cause

Sometimes the problem can be a bit more deep rooted, without you even realizing it. As an example, I’ve been struggling with managing people.

When I was in NYC two weeks ago, I met a product manager at an event. She has about 10 more years of experience in life than I do, so I set up a call with her last week to ask how I can better manage people.

She did something uncommon, and questioned my question… if I was willing to take the time to ask how to manage people, why was I not, first, willing to ask what kind of organization I wanted to run, or what kind of leader I wanted to be? After all, everything else, management strategies included, stem from that.

It was a rare moment of clarity: I have applied the framework of strategies and actions flowing down from a larger goal to my own life, but never scaled it up to an organizational level. The organizational level is where that kind of thinking can actually have an amplified impact.

While this immediately made sense for me, it was not a conclusion I would get to on my own without going through a lot more trial and error. This product manager, on the other hand, has already seen companies thrive and fail. I haven’t. From her experience, she’s been able to extrapolate what actually makes the difference.

Going back to first principals is something necessary but quite difficult, especially when you’re so in deep on your own problems that it’s hard to see past them. Listening to those who have already experienced those problems is critical.

A topical quote:

Application

First, the start of a resolution to last week’s problem: I’ve resolved to work with people who know more about email marketing than myself. Some friends have extended themselves to help us figure out our strategy and show us what they have found important, both from experience and research. In even just a couple of 30 minute conversations, they were able to accelerate my learning by months.

Second, in regards to culture: I’ve started speaking with one of our angel investors about leadership & culture. He gave me some reading homework, which I’ve started on — Great By Choice is a phenomenal listen, not only analyzing successful companies and their founders, but contrasting them against their less successful counter parts, reducing the risk of survivorship bias.

More on culture & leadership as my thoughts around the two develop. Also, I’m not quite sure what it implies yet that my learning in jiu-jitsu is a mix of listening to one of the highest level individuals and asking everyone very basic questions, yet. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that.

Thank you to all of my teachers.

Cheers,

Noah Jacobs