Criticism has its place, and some of your concerns may be helpful, but "you don't know what you're doing" and "this is all bad" are simply rude judgments.
I don't see the point in accusing the team of "selling air". Would you accuse a trainer of "selling movement" or a coach of "selling words"??
Breath is a fundamental component of the human experience that affects our mood, health, and everyday experience. Learning how your breath affects your experience is valuable just like any other physical activity (yoga, running, meditation, exercise). There is also a spiritual component to introspective practices like meditation which can be quite valuable. For some people, it's definitely worth paying for these things.
If you're only comfortable with gurus doing this work, what would a guru need to be "qualified"?
As Gurdjieff said, "there are many delicate parts in there, which cannot be gotten from any repair shop".
To be qualified as a Guru you should know how not to break your students, and how to fix them if they break or come to you already broken, to the extent that that is possible.
To teach people how to ignite themselves without a fire extinguisher handy is not wise?
:) thank you for sharing!! certainly there isn't a one size fits all solution for really anything in our world - but we are so glad that Chorus is helpful for you!!
I started doing Chorus meditation at Twilio prior to the pandemic and let me tell you it was WILD. My first session, I experienced a full body high and I was hooked. My mood after these sessions was fantastic. I was relaxed, confident, and my perspective felt so clear. I let go of all those meetings and tasks that were cluttering my day but didn't matter, and thought about the big picture.
In some sessions, I found myself weeping, processing grief I didn't realize I had been holding onto. In others, I had intense visual experiences like sinking to the bottom of the ocean or dissolving into the earth, which helped me to let go of things outside of my control. In another session, I connected with a deep desire to have another child, and decided it was time to do that. I would describe my chorus experiences as relaxing, fun, important, profound, and psychedelic.
I'm one of those people who found meditation frustrating and "not really doing anything", but had a completely different experience with Chorus. I was also really skeptical when a friend first described Chorus to me. I thought "Isn't listening to loud music the opposite of meditation!? That sounds cheesy." I was quickly won over. I encourage anyone with even a slight interest to try it. If you really lean into the experience and let go of your expectations, you might be very surprised at what can happen!
Wow oh my gosh! Michelle is that you? Thank you SO much for sharing your experience using Chorus. Being a former fellow Twillion myself it means so much to me to get to share it with the Twilio community.
I have recruited several folks to Chorus this year and they are finding it quite helpful! My husband in particular has had some really intense (in a good way) experiences. A friend just reached out to me today to tell me how much he is enjoying it, and mentioned he noticed your launch on HN, so I wanted to come put in a good word :)
Interesting pattern, the people I've referred who have gotten the most out of chorus are/were startup CEOs. I wonder if this format is particularly good for people who are comfortable in intense environments? Or maybe those who have already learned the benefits of an introspection practice? I know it helps me show up better as a leader.
First of all - thank you for sharing Chorus with people in your life!
And that ISSS really interesting. We initially weren't as focused on startup CEOS as a core demographic, but since being in Y Combinator and seeing how much a bunch of our batch mates and finding it helpful we are totally rethinking how we can help other founders de-stress and navigate the challenging dynamics of starting a company more effectively. That's so great to hear that it helps with your leadership - I can totally see that. Being more empathetic and in touch is such a plus for leadership. I think your hypothesis about them being comfortable in intense environments AND knowing the importance of introspective practices is spot on!
Nice and sweet love letter to Greg. Shared with our founders.
We have a slightly alternative model: There hasn't been a consistent Greg 5+ years, but there is always a founder willing to be Greg when the previous Greg needs a break. Especially important once people start having children and go through the various ups and downs of life.
We're around 50 and we have about half of our company working remotely at any given time - and we love it. We've introduced a lot of communication rituals to make this work. Starting a weekly all-hands with good AV setup was a huge improvement for us. In addition to saving the space for people to ask questions in a big group, it also got us in the habit of preparing data & updates to present to the entire company (e.g. write everything down). It can be monotonous at times, and we resisted big group meetings for 4 years, but it's pretty critical and works well at this size.
We also schedule quarterly travel to the office, and have a weekly meeting where remotes get together and share what they are currently feeling anxious & excited about. That's a remarkably effective way to learn a lot of things you might otherwise pick up on w/ body language, and more.
Every person has an internal life that is completely unique, and can be vastly complex. Some good storytellers know how to weave their inner tensions and wanderings into a narrative.
Cool idea! I just submitted a question and I'm waiting for an answer :)
Just wanted to provide some feedback. On the screen that says "Thanks for texting Suto! You'll get a response shortly.", there is a section that says "Here are some other questions being answered now:"
It's blank!
That makes it seem like no one is using it, or something is broken. I really like the idea of having some examples, there, though. Maybe just switch to some good examples rather than a feed?
Thanks for the feedback, I just realized that the feed is still there on mobile. We were supposed to take it out (mainly because we wanted to give some more relevant examples instead).
Hope you enjoy the answer that's about to come your way!
Hi there - I wrote the piece and you pretty succinctly summed up some of my internal arguments for not sharing the story. I'll share some of my thoughts on those and why I ultimately decided to share anyway. While I knew some customers/prospects would appreciate and possibly admire the transparency, my main concern was that others might be deterred.
First, they might be deterred by the issues I mentioned in the post. None of the challenges I mentioned in the piece were special. We lost a customer. We had an outage (a year ago). We were stressed. Every API company and competitor, not to mention our customers, have had a similar story. Of course we made it through those challenges, or we wouldn't be telling this story. They made us stronger. Plus, we love it when prospects ask about uptime because it's something we take seriously and where we have a great track record :)
Second, they might be deterred at the idea of failure being ok. Perhaps the message in the piece is too subtle. It's not supposed to be that it's ok to be lazy and fail at stuff. It's about getting perspective and not letting your anxiety cripple you. I hoped what would come through in this piece is that we care very deeply about our work, so much so that sometimes we needed to be reminded that it's not life or death.
Finally, I'll share some of my thoughts on why it might be beneficial to share.
First, like I mentioned in the post, being a part of the tech community and contributing to it, sharing some of the lessons you've learned, is very rewarding. I've found that when you give, not only does it feel good, but the community gives back, often later on and in surprising ways you didn't expect. You reach like-minded customers, partners, candidates, investors, all kinds of things.
Second, as a data company, trust is incredibly important to our brand. Some might disagree, but I think sharing the more human sides of the company helps to expand that trust. This is how we have always operated the company, and I think it is a large part of why we not only have a lot of customers (and growing), but many fans. We like knowing our customers and we like them to know us too.
I think you fail to realize the implications of what you do when you go out and not only embrace but advertise your failures. It looks like attention-seeking behavior and it won't be good for your company.
I understand why you may think it is a good idea. Heck, even I considered it before. But it's not. What is the net benefit to your employees worrying about their next paycheck or your customers worrying about their data when you post something like this? Not much, if any. But it sure got you a whole lot of personal advertising for free.
Hi Tom. I was anticipating a response like this and I'm glad you shared your perspective. One of the reasons this piece was difficult to share is that the last thing that I want my customers thinking about is failure.
Let me clarify one thing (and perhaps I should do this in the blog post as well?). Our team cares incredibly deeply about our commitments to our customers and their data. I 100% agree with you that we can _and should_ double-down and work through the weekend when that's what it takes to maintain that commitment.
The thing is, we already do that, and our team was already doing it at the time I wrote this message. People at Keen take their responsibilities to our customers and to each other very seriously. That's why we haven't had another loss since then, now almost 12 months later. When I wrote this message, the problem wasn't that people weren't working hard enough. It was that we were stressed out and burnout was becoming a risk. In this situation, reminding people to take a deep breath and get some perspective seemed to be really helpful.
There definitely is a time and a place to rally and to push through, and we have plenty of experience with that too :)
Love the evenhanded answer, Michelle. And I can't tell you how similar I used to be in that regard. I believed stoutly in a sort of open source management approach and promised myself when I was a youth I would do precisely as you are doing. Over the years I have found it to be suboptimal. Thousands of years' worth of management theory turn out to be a useful precedent. But--and I mean this sincerely--I hope it works for you. Would be a better world, I think, if your way worked best.
My instinct is that this post being on the front of HN, along with the tenor of the comments, is evidence of it working. I'd wager that her post is serving as an incredibly effective piece of content marketing. HN is the perfectly audience for Keen's product, and getting on the front of HN for a full day is a big win both for reaching customers and new recruits. Certainly some people will have your reaction, but another significant percentage will have a positive reaction, as demonstrated in the comments.
Actually the management theory pretty much agrees with Michelle on this one.
The old-school Taylorist-style management theory that you're probably thinking of has been thoroughly debunked now. It doesn't lead to good outcomes.
Leadership theory is much more nuanced now, there's a recognition that the best leadership style to use in any given situation is very much based on context and team membership.
Management need to deal with the situation as it is, because that builds trust that management are actually dealing with the situation.
I don't see the point in accusing the team of "selling air". Would you accuse a trainer of "selling movement" or a coach of "selling words"??
Breath is a fundamental component of the human experience that affects our mood, health, and everyday experience. Learning how your breath affects your experience is valuable just like any other physical activity (yoga, running, meditation, exercise). There is also a spiritual component to introspective practices like meditation which can be quite valuable. For some people, it's definitely worth paying for these things.
If you're only comfortable with gurus doing this work, what would a guru need to be "qualified"?