
“I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct error when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.”
Startup founders are wildly optimistic. The product roadmap then usually exceeds the capabilities of their small teams. This optimism leads to too much hiring, too much fundraising, and eventually, burnout. For management, this cycle begins to look like “the engineers aren’t performing,” when it actually means that management didn’t set a clear and narrow vision.