[HN Gopher] Flounder Mode - Kevin Kelly on a different way to do...
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Flounder Mode - Kevin Kelly on a different way to do great work
Author : latentnumber
Score : 91 points
Date : 2025-07-03 15:18 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (joincolossus.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (joincolossus.com)
| pclowes wrote:
| This was a breath of fresh air.
|
| The tech sector has grown and changed so much. It has gotten much
| more "professional" which is arguably good but it this in turn
| promotes a fair amount of "corporate stooge" behavior. I am
| guilty here for sure, it is really easy to focus on levels, promo
| packets, OKRs, especially as you age and responsibility grows and
| forget what make this industry amazing in the first place.
|
| Good reminder to focus on direction and interests and what you
| feel should be built. Reminds be a bit of the opening section of
| "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering" which I only came
| across because I liked other Stripe press books.
|
| You also meet more interesting and passionate people if you pick
| a direction vs a destination.
| zebriez wrote:
| Brie, author of the profile here. Funny you mention Art of
| Doing Science and Engineering. There was a footnote to You and
| Your Research in an early draft but it hit the cutting room
| floor in edits. (Also, I helped get Stripe Press off the
| ground-including tracking down rights to Art of Doing Science
| and Engineering-so it warms my heart to hear that's how you
| first came to the essay/speech).
| pclowes wrote:
| Thank you for all your work! I have several Stripe Press
| books, especially enjoyed Revolt of the Public and Pieces of
| the Action.
| coffeemug wrote:
| When I met you at Stripe you seemed to me the person with
| strategic foresight and iron discipline-- the kind that gets
| endless opportunities without even trying. I was hopelessly
| floundering by comparison, and not in a good Kevin Kelly way.
| I don't know if people will think of you in 300 years (the
| day is young!) but you were definitely a role model for what
| discipline and great execution look like.
| cjbohlman wrote:
| Really enjoyed reading this article, thank you!
|
| Reminds me a lot of Ryan Norbauer's writings
| (https://ryan.norbauer.com/journal/the-outsider-option-why-i-...)
| on why he sold half his company and the satisfaction he got from
| being able to focus on doing the work that he considered fun.
|
| I hope to engage my interests and hobbies in this way, super
| thankful that I have the opportunity to try.
| AIorNot wrote:
| This so much! great article and Kelly sounds like the type of
| person I would love to meet..
|
| - having just endured time in a startup that was all about PMF,
| metrics and the 'growth flywheel', that pushed aside human
| intuition and creativity in place of 'winning'. It's indeed such
| a waste of humanity that the Reid hoffman's and Bezos's of the
| world can push inhuman cultural tropes of "winning" over our
| humanity. Just who is winning, the board, the VCs certainly not
| the person who loses his soul? On top of that, in today's world
| AI Slop and social media and lunatic linkedin influencers pushing
| those same memes hyped to eleven by AI tools, relentlessly on
| young founders and engineers via push notifications. day and
| night -what message do we deliver to ourselves?.
|
| Amazon for all its technical chops and innovation and LinkedIn
| are anti-patterns in that regard. Do not follow.
|
| Also, its too bad that silicon valley is so ageist that the
| lessons and wisdom of the older generation tend to get forgotten
| or cast aside-wish that we could at least take advantage of
| capitalism in our culture instead of it taking advantage of us
|
| When we lose the pleasure of finding things out, going with our
| passions and intution and lose our love of creativity and
| invention, curiosity, patience and empathy we loose who we are as
| a human in society
| dannyobrien wrote:
| Just after I took on my new role, I wrote to Kevin Kelly and
| asked if I could meet him (I assumed he wouldn't know who I was,
| even though we've met informally, but he did). I wanted to talk
| to him about talking about how to be optimistic about technology.
| At my heart, I still remain positive about the contributions and
| opportunities of technology, but I've increasingly struggled to
| know how to convey, qualify or transmit that. He immediately
| accepted, I visited him in his tower, and we had a great,
| sprawling conversation. Like this author, he renewed my
| confidence in that framing, and the importance of it existing in
| the world. That single conversation has kept me going more than
| anything else over the last three or so years.
|
| I realise in reading this, that I never wrote after the fact to
| say thanks for that: so, thanks, KK, for everything.
| flir wrote:
| Since you're here, can I ask if you're still writing/publishing
| anywhere? Long-time fan.
|
| (Alternative comment: I think oblomovka's down).
| egypturnash wrote:
| Is this a story about Kevin Kelly or is this an autobiography? It
| purports to be the former but it's largely about the author's
| work history. It sort of gestures vaguely at being an interview
| with Kevin but there's only about four paragraphs in the entire
| article that contain quotes from him in response to things the
| author asked, and most of these are about his collection of
| knick-knacks.
|
| I kept on waiting for a series of questions that acted as
| springboards for long responses from Kelly that included him
| talking about the value of an approach to work that he calls
| "flounder mode" but they never came; the only appearance of
| "flounder" is in the title. It's an extended intro to an
| interview that never actually comes. You talked with Kelly all
| day and hooray, great for you meeting one of your idols! But you
| barely tell us a single thing he said.
| deepGem wrote:
| I first thought this is about Kevin Kelly. Then somewhere
| midway I thought I was reading an autobiography. It was only
| towards the latter half that I realized this is the author
| talking about Kevin Kelly and visiting his house.
|
| Even though the language is very simple, the writing is quite
| convoluted.
| gleenn wrote:
| "G-Chat with Charleton, in which he would interview Google
| executives while sitting with them in a two-person snuggie." What
| a sight that must have been haha
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