Ryan Peterman

But like, I just never showed up.

And I look back and I'm like, first of all, this was an amazing opportunity that I wasted.

But in addition, it's not just that I wasted it for myself.

I also probably just like made his life worse off by not actually getting him to be able to take advantage of this thing he was offering us.

And so I was like, this is a decision that basically harmed both parties that I did out of fear.

I'm sure there's probably a million other examples of me doing this that are not as clear in my head, but this is one where like, you know, Danny probably came to like our team once a week and told us to sign up and none of us ever did.

And I think of this every time where I'm like, listen, if like you know something important about the future of this org or this team, or even if you just like honestly have any questions at all, if you have a leader who's showing up and saying, I wanna hear from you folks,

go.

I think especially, like, if you're a more junior IC watching this, like, I think it is hard to understand how painful it is at director and above to actually know what it's like on the ground.

You just look so removed from being an IC3 and IC4 anymore.

Just so removed.

And not just from their place in life, but also, like, what's happening to them, what's true in the code base, what the team dynamics are.

You know, like, you know, there were points where I had like a manager managing managers, managing managers.

You know, there's just so much indirection.

I think people way, way should more often, if a leader says, like, please show up and talk to me, do it.

A lot of times, obviously, it's like you come and say something weird, you know, that can be bad.

You know, don't show up and be like, I want you to tell me how to get promoted.

It's probably like not your greatest first conversation.

But if you're like, hey, I think this part of our org could be better.

Could you help me?