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To build a meritocracy

About a year ago, we at Affirm decided to add an OKR to our annual planning titled “High-Performance Culture”, to help shore up the necessary means (for the necessary means) of improving our collective productivity. (Yes yes, big company stuff, whatever – we grew revenue 46% last fiscal year on essentially flat headcount, that’s pretty addictive, and it doesn’t hurt the stock price.)

We measure this OKR by asking every Affirmer a handful of questions about their experience getting work done, eg “do you feel like it’s pretty collaborative here”, etc, scoring it on a 10pt scale, and trying to improve our score quarter to quarter. Generally, our score’s pretty high, and trending gently higher, so all good then?

Maybe, but how do you do better? High-performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do [sir] to have such a culture? And what do you not do? 

So I jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me as Affirm’s founder and CEO. This list is neither exhaustive (I reserve the right to add and remove things here) nor is it even especially well-organized, but culture is like obscenity in Jacobellis v Ohio: you know it when you see it. 

So here’s what I see at Affirm. 

mission

morality is a key ingredient in everything we do (and don’t do)

integrity is what got us where we are today, never compromise it

consumers, merchants, and capital partners are who we serve

stay humble and be curious about the needs of each of our constituents

take pride in providing safe access to fair credit; don’t judge what consumers use it for

bleed the colors, the values, the mission

merit

Affirm is a meritocracy: your talent, skill, and willingness to put it all to work define you here

we solve multivariate optimization problems – a certain minimum intellectual capacity is required

demand excellence from yourself and from your teammates, don’t settle

work-life balance tends to take care of itself if you love your work

…remember that this is a marathon – take care of yourself and those you love

if you can’t keep up, we’ll try our best to help, but eventually you may have to leave

if you see that someone can’t keep up, you should step in to help them

leadership

we are a culture of individuals working together as teams  

once someone is a part of the team, fully accept them as one of our own

whom you hire, and how you help them be productive is your top responsibility 

be an owner, not merely an employee

do not allow “us and them” dynamics to foment anywhere at Affirm

run towards a problem; don’t assume someone else will take care of it

be a stress absorber for your team, not a stress amplifier

an occasional heroic act that helps Affirm win is a good thing, not a sign of poor planning

constant heroic acts required for Affirm to survive is a sign of poor planning

lead by example

how we work

we take calculated risks – do the calculating!

make reversible decisions fast

bring the bad news to the team early – we’ll rally to help

use our product and understand its value to our customers

care about how we make things — mind the quality of the invisible parts

…do not let perfect be the enemy of shipping and iterating

time is the scarcest resource we have, be mindful of how you use yours, and your team’s

we are a writing culture, favor short, pithy n-pagers to novels or live rants

post-mortem everything: the successes, the failures, and the near-misses – and learn

we take our work extremely seriously — but not so much ourselves 

how we disagree

if you disagree, you must speak up, even escalate – especially before a decision is made

fear of being wrong is not an acceptable reason for not speaking up

never accept an unexplained “no” for an answer – ask why

challenge ideas! good ones can handle the scrutiny, bad ones need to die on the vine

even the harshest critique of your idea is not an attack on you, don’t take it as such

no matter how brilliant you are, being a jerk is a ticket out of Affirm

know our business well, and know your area of the business cold

argue using facts whenever possible, but give your gut a voice too

once the decision is reached, commit 

sometimes, Monday starts on Saturday

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Portland, Oregon

The Pioneer Courthouse In town for WordCamp US 2024.

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Null Island

nullis.land/ An inside joke among map makers; if you accidentally land at 0′ 0′ on the globe, there happens to be an imaginary island conveniently displayed.

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Miss You, Zackobingo

My first short story. — “Hey, ever seen an actual Round Robin? I haven’t.” Zach bumps me in the elbow as he rounds the bar-size pool table at Famous Sam’s. Eight-ball only, quarters. Smoky yet palatable. Cold drinks and decent burgers. Also: walkable—an amble over from the apartment in Vans and shorts and ball caps. The regulars look up and smile but don’t comment as we move to an empty…

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Opportunities to Wake Up

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Conscious Leadership Group (@consciousleadershipgroup) Screen capture of an Instagram post from The Conscious Leadership Group There are no problems. There are only opportunities to wake up. Jim Dethmer of The Conscious Leadership Group Author’s notes: Now syndicating my blog posts over to Mastodon. Follow me there. “Meta” comment: I wish this…

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GitHub HQ

Fun to visit GitHub’s San Francisco HQ for a tech meetup.

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Canary Wharf, London

A bit of sunshine and a large rubber ducky to bring in the springtime vibes in Canary Wharf (Tower Hamlets, London, England).

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Plucky Fulfillment Theory

The "Plucky Fulfillment Theory" from Jen Dary prompts valuable self-reflection time management and saying "no" by default. "Do I have the appetite for many changes at once?"

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When We Open Ourselves This Way

When we open ourselves this way, we become malleable, liable to be shaped by the world we live in, implicated in it, embedded in it, stained in its mud and shot through with its illumination. A willing participant in the world, open to its pain and also its joy. Roger Housden in Ten Poems to Change Your Life.

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Cloudy Boston

View of the Charles River; Cambridge, Massachusetts Back on the go, traveling again after COVID-19 lockdowns. Visit to HubSpot HQ in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

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This Is How You Lose the Time War.

i love seeing cardinals and bluejays together i’m always like “hehe.. evil siblings”

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G-G on Facebook - G-G on Twitter

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Getting a head start

#pascalcampion

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I posted 40 times in 2021

5 posts created (13%)

35 posts reblogged (88%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 7.0 posts.

I added 12 tags in 2021

#music - 2 posts

#product updates - 2 posts

#microsoft - 1 posts

#big week on tumblr - 1 posts

#true story - 1 posts

#not lost just late - 1 posts

#launch - 1 posts

#support your favorites - 1 posts

#post+ - 1 posts

#font - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 27 characters

#placeholder image does work

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by riccardo guasco (@guascoriccardo)

Tumblr: @@riccardoguasco

1 notes • Posted 2021-03-26 14:54:49 GMT

#4

(via Spotify)

Remember when Weezer covered Toto’s “Africa”? 🌍

https://npr.tumblr.com/post/174387116255/weezer-covers-totos-africa-taking-us-deep-into

Then Toto covered “Hash Pipe” by Weezer. 😃 → Spotify. 🎶

https://b0is.tumblr.com/post/176427038875/what-timeline-are-we-in

1 notes • Posted 2021-01-18 16:37:36 GMT

#3

2 notes • Posted 2021-04-01 18:13:47 GMT

#2

"Dear Calibri,

We've loved our time together, but we've outgrown this relationship."

— Microsoft

5 notes • Posted 2021-05-03 19:20:40 GMT

#1

Short, punchy essay on collecting t-shirts (and when or not to wear them) by Haruki Murakami.

P.S. Would love to see @@newyorker publishing on Tumblr again. Skip the hop to IG.

7 notes • Posted 2021-09-24 21:48:03 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

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It’s Tumblr’s 2021 Year in Review!

Every year, the team behind Fandometrics pores over enough data to block a proverbial Suez Canal. We analyze all of the tags, searches, posts, and every like and reblog on this blue hellsite (affectionate), categorizing the most popular stuff on Tumblr so we can give the gift of Year in Review in December. 

Tumblr’s Year in Review contains a full 365 days’ worth of data, but it runs from October 21, 2020, to October 20, 2021. Supernatural fans, we know you were disappointed with Destiel going canon being absent from last year’s Year in Review. So you’re finally going to see November 5, 2020, represented. This is your payout. 

Like you, Year in Review has grown this past year. Matured. A glow up, if you will. You might notice some changes that reflect that, like a more inclusive Celebs list to replace the old Actors and Actresses lists. Or all TV shows (previously live-action, animated, and reality)  under one list header for the first time. And an extra special, extra personal little somethin’ that will remain a surprise until December 7…👀

Keep your eyes peeled to this space all month long, Tumblr. The lists are all live now (go, go, go!), but we’ve got all sorts of goodies coming your way. Now, onto the good stuff.

Top 21 of 2021 Ships TV Shows Movies Celebs Shadow and Bone Marvel Round-Up Hellsite Gazing Tumblr Communities Things We Care About Solo Artists Music Groups K-Pop K-Pop Stars Minecraft Streamers Web Celebs Web Series Athletes Memes Video Games Mobile Games Video Game Characters Genshin Impact Anime & Manga Anime & Manga Characters Books Tumblr In The Wild Aesthetics

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Keeping…tabs...on your dashboard 😏

If you’re scrolling Tumblr on one of our mobile apps, you’ve probably already noticed these two snazzy chaps at the top of your dashboard. These are tabs, a ~revolutionary~ new way of organizing, now available right here on your dashboard.

“Following” is your classic dashboard experience packed with posts from all the blogs and tags you follow. “Stuff for you” is an ever-expanding personalized mess of fresh content organically sourced from all across Tumblr. Yes, this is it: the dreaded algorithm. This is where it dwells, in its own place, where you can choose to go—as, when, and if you please.

It’s the beginning of something quite beautiful, really.

Some things we’re still working on:

We want you to have more control over how you enjoy Tumblr, so we’ll be adding the option to toggle each tab on and off, and eventually, configure your own tabs.

Thanks to those of you who gave feedback on this while we were testing it out, we’re aware of some bugs with the swipe sensitivity. Those should be resolved in version 21.9 and above.

Some of you found the swipe gesture itself annoying, so we’re working on a setting that allows you to disable swiping entirely.

We’re currently fixing the home button and the logo so that they take you back to the top of a tab as is only right and proper.

Some of you mainly use Tumblr on the web. Hey, that’s cool. We hope to be bringing tabs to your Tumblr web experience soon.

If you have feedback about tabs, please get in touch—either with the good folks at support or the @wip humans on Mondays. And keep up with all tabs-related changes over on—you guessed it—@changes. Happy tabbing, Tumblr.

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predicament