Big Tech needs Leaders

Consensus building takes a lot of time. Decisions take exponentially longer to arrive at with each additional person involved.

And because big tech works in a fashion where everyone has a say and each say matters, decisions take ridiculously long.

And this is where I've concluded: Big Tech needs leaders. You need a leader sitting at the helm of each product who dictates the direction of the product. The whole org working under them just worries about how to make it happen, rather than aligning themselves on what decision to make.

I highly respect leaders who:

• Listen to all arguments.
• Think from first principles, so that their decisions hold value when tested.
• Make decisions that are self consistent and based in logic.
• Make opinion based decisions unwaveringly. Decisions often come down to making a tradeoff.
• Have the magic sauce. That is, they generally have a good sense of intuition.
• Are transparent about their values.
• Say: We're doing xyz. Get it done.

Naturally, the leader may be wrong about their vision. Their vision may not be the ideal choice - but at least the product would be moving, which is exponentially better than stalling on decisions because everyone needs to be aligned on every detail.

And the best part is, if you don't like the dictatorial style you're working under, you can leave! You don't have to stick around. Unlike nations, the beauty of companies is you're not stuck there for life.