Compass No.25
Forgetting and recalling, lessons from Canva, and what it means to live while living
Thought provoking quotes
“The motivational speakers and self-help books are all wrong: there is no way of creating a life where we ware full participants one hundred percent of the time. There is no way of being fully human without at times being fully stuck or even completely absent; we are simply not made that way. There is no possibility of pursuing a work without coming to terms with all the ways it is impossible to do it. Feeling far away from what we want tells us one of two things about our work: that we are at the beginning or that we have forgotten where we are going.”
“Remembering what we have forgotten is a first practical step home; the opening of a tidal gate that brings us into contact with the larger, stronger currents of existence. Exile and forgetting are natural states for most human beings, but so are remembering and recalling. All tasks are completed through cycles of visitation and absence.”
Both quotes are taken from David Whyte’s book, The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationship.
Podcast insights that stayed with me
This week I listened to a 2024 interview with Canva’s cofounder and chief product officer, Cameron Adams, on Lenny’s Podcast.
A few insights that interested me:
“Give away your legos:” This is an idea taken from Molly Graham’s First Round Review article that has become a foundational part of Canva’s new hire onboarding and culture. In the article, Graham describes the concept saying:
“The emotions you feel when new people are coming in and taking over pieces of your job — it’s not that different from how a kid feels when they have to share their Legos. There’s a lot of natural anxiety and insecurity that the new person won’t build your Lego tower in the right way, or that they'll get to take all the fun or important Legos, or that if they take over the part of the Lego tower you were building, then there won’t be any Legos left for you. But at a scaling company, giving away responsibility — giving away the part of the Lego tower you started building — is the only way to move on to building bigger and better things.”
“Coaches, not managers:” Canva does not have managers. Instead, every employee at Canva has a coach. That is, another employee at the company who has expertise in the specialty they are working in. For example, a product manager will have a product management coach. The coach’s job is to review the employee’s skill sets, work with them to grow and uplevel those skills, and keep an eye on when it’s time for that person to move to the next level.
The type of product you’re building influences the way you think and operate as a culture: Adams gives the example of Spotify being a culture that resolves issues through talking and conversation, which makes sense given that their product is all about audio. In Canva’s case, the company is a heavily visual culture that works through mockups, slides, prototypes, etc. He makes the comment that the type of people that tend to thrive at Canva are visual thinkers.
Question inspired by a recent interview
Last week I interviewed entrepreneur and author of the blog, The Next 30 Trips, Ben Kellie. The title of the piece was inspired by Ben’s parting thoughts at the end of the interview:
“I went through a lot of painful lessons to figure out who I think I am, or at least to figure out who I'm not, and so I’m trying to be intentional about honoring that. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m really trying to live while I’m living instead of trading this lifetime to achieve some goal that doesn't ever really come.”
His words left me with a question that I think it’s worth each one of us answering for ourselves: What does it mean to you to live while living? What would you continue doing, stop doing, or start doing?