We recognize that in order to grow we need to learn – a lot. The fastest way to do that is simply by asking when you're unsure. Even if its a small, stupid question – ask it.

Ask these questions publicly. If you're confused, chances are other people are too. By asking publicly you're helping everyone. We celebrate people who ask a lot of questions – they're doing good for the entire team.

As soon as we see someone asking a question, we make it our first priority to answer. Answering these questions will grow the team as a whole, and better enable other to help.

We're all human, and all humans have difficult periods. It happens to everyone. During these times, it's important that you are supported and you have space to recover. Thats why we have instituted unlimited sick & personal days and  vacation to deal with unexpected life events, stress and other mental health issues.

We're all here for one another when times get hard.

We believe in giving feedback quickly and honestly – but also make sure to let people know that we care about them and support them when they need it.

"You made a mistake" is just feedback, but it's not radical Candor. "You're valuable to the team, and I want to help you learn from this mistake to be even stronger" Is Radical Candor.

Disagreements are a normal part of work. But when disagreements go unresolved they can cause frustration. In order to quickly resolve disputes and move forward we Disagree and Commit.

For any decision, there should be one person who ultimately decides. Being the decider means that person is accountable to that decision, if it goes awry its their responsibility to identify the problem and course correct. That person will be open to input before making the decision.

If you disagree with someone's decision, it's important you disagree and commit. Even if they turn out to be wrong, you should support them throughout the process. It's more important that we are happy, aligned and act quickly.

Everyone makes mistakes. When something goes wrong, nobody is at fault. It's a failure in the process, and we now have an opportunity to improve things for everyone. Don't blame others for mistakes. Remember everyone is trying their best, and we can help them to do better.

Don't forget we're here to build cool stuff! Everyone joining the company should be doing it because they love what they do. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!

Process creates clarity – everyone understands exactly what is expected of them and others. They know when it's expected and they know how their step in the process contributes to the overall outcome.

Process creates alignment – People see the bigger picture.

Process avoids human error – without a clear checklist of items, things will get missed. People are forgetful, uncommunicative, tired and busy. Having something written puts checks and balances on human error.

Process creates replicable results – doing something the same standardized way means that you ensure a benchmark of quality. The same input will create the same output.

Process gets better over time – as you run through a process, you'll see ways things break. You'll find edge cases, weak links, and outdated reasoning. Having a clear process is antifragile – you can update it based on what you've learned. Those updates will create compounding positive results.

Process empowers people to learn – when you add someone new to the organization, having a clear process to follow will empower them to quickly learn every step by following the clear instructions. It will also give them a safety net as they try things for the first time.

Process empowers people to focus – instead of needing to worry about managing the entire task and recruiting help, process allows you to focus on the small section you're concerned with right now. This allows you to think deeply and be creative in how you solve that one piece of the puzzle.

Process avoids blame – if something goes wrong, its nobody's fault. It just means that the process needs to be updated.

Process is scalable – Imagine if every car on planet earth was made by one person each. There would be almost no cars on the road. By having clearly defined process, you can add many more highly specialized people to the problem and scale the output.

Creating, maintaining and improving a process takes time and doesn't immediately produce results. In the short term it seems like wasted effort. For those who care about local efficiency, it can be frustrating.

But this investment makes things go much more smoothly in the long run. You never have to repeat rote work and things just magically get better. It scales as we hire. Over time, things start to move really, really fast.

Don't worry about your velocity, worry about your acceleration. Slow down to speed up. Focus on process.

Bill Walsh took the 49ers from the worst team in the NFL to the winning the super bowl consecutively... in just two years. This was a stunning turn around that no team had ever seen previously.

How did he do it? He focused on discipline. He focused on each individual pass at each 6am trainings and made sure they were being done just right. He made the receptions answer in a professional way. He made people pull up their socks. He sweated the small stuff, and focused on the process.

Bill Wash's book is also his most famous quote – "the score takes care of itself". Don't be intimidated by variable results or early failure. Patiently focus on making things better one step at a time by focusing on the process. Everything else will follow.

When people reason using opinions, they talk past each other. They can get lost in a never ending circle of hypotheticals without really hearing either side of the argument. This is a paralytic state which creates frustration and stalls decision making. Not only this, but opinion driven arguments are often just wrong.

Data, on the other hand, allows people to talk about the same thing. We can now reason together to find a better solution, instead of arguing apart. It's more productive, faster, and obviously produces superior results.

If you don't have data, have a bias for taking the fastest course of action to get data, so that you can support your argument or, even better, prove yourself wrong.

The most important form of data is the dollars people pay us. This is a fantastic proxy for how useful our service is and therefore the quality of our decisions and rational behind our arguments. Customer dollars speak louder than any other statistic.

For this reason, one of the most productive way to decide something is simply by getting feedback directly from customers. Talk to customers to see if what you are thinking really is useful. If its not, go back to the drawing board and try again.

Once we have data, the task is to construct that data into a rock solid argument. Relying on anecdote, past experience or what already exists can be a good thought experiment, but is a flawed method of reasoning.

Instead, we want to start with what we know to be incontrovertibly true, and build a tautological argument from there. We'll end up with novel ideas that are backed by sound reasoning.

The reason learning is so difficult is that it's really uncomfortable to feel inferior. Most people delight in all the ways they are better than others because it feels good. But not us. We relish in feeling inferior, because it means we are in an environment where we can easily improve. We're lifelong newbs, and we are proud of it.

Learning means that we approach things with a child like curiosity. Like children we ask are incessantly asking "why" and try to pick apart everything just to understand it better. And, like children, we realize we're just playing. Whenever we fall down, we just pick ourselves up and get back to having fun.

The truth is, when we are truly committed to learning, there is no such thing as failure. Instead failure is a welcome opportunity to learn something new. Why did that go wrong? What did I not understand? How should I have done?

Learning from constant failure is the fastest way to grow.

💬 Try, fail, try better, fail better

This process of learning is constant and never ending. We’re scaling a mountain just so that when finally reach the summit we have a better view point to look for a taller, more difficult mountain to climb.

This will be a life long pursuit, but one we we will never get tired of.

💬 “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.” (Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind)

Learning is at the core of who we are. We are hungry to improve ourselves and make things better. Together we strive for improvement - we’re all scaling a mountain and, when we reach the summit, we use that viewpoint to look for a taller mountain climb.