The assignment: Train a monkey to stand on a pedestal while it juggles flaming torches.
This puzzle has been articulated by both Astro Teller, genius at Google X, and also by Annie Duke, famous poker player.
It is called the “reverse salient,” a fancy way of asking what is the technology that is holding back development of the whole system. Think of electric cars and the battery problem. What do you work on first? What is the bottleneck?
Or is the problem having enough charging stations for EV adoption?
Before Teller and Duke, Thomas Hughes, in his famous 1983 book, “Networks of Power,” explained the first 50 years of electrification. In the case of why you can use an electric razor in the morning, consider Thomas Edison and his direct current, or DC, generator. Nice, but no cigar.
It took the creation of an alternating current — AC — to produce the ability to transmit distances. Now no stubble.
Wharton professor Ethan Mollick says it simply, “If you want to unlock a new technology, identify the reverse salient (find the bottleneck) and solve for that.”
The intractable problem is the monkey, not building a pedestal. But alas, many entrepreneurs tackle the “low-hanging fruit” first. Come on, we can build a pedestal. And let’s have a dozen meetings to discuss the size and shape of the pedestal.
I know where we can get some flaming torches. Now, all we have to do is find the monkey. Let’s meet next week to consider the type of monkey we are looking for — a Black Uakari or a Woolly Spider.
Now about our financing, come on, now that we have built some pedestals, they are invested, and we need to keep going. And oh, by the way, does anyone have frequent flyer miles to Brazil (more monkeys per square mile than anywhere in the world)?
Solve the hardest problem first!
The rule is simple. Tackling the hardest thing first helps you get to “no” faster and you waste less money, so it is easier to quit. Then you can just go to Rio and enjoy the Mardi Gras, sans monkeys.
Of course, everybody wants some early wins. That is why the temptation to build the pedestal is so great. We want to show progress. Maybe we can add some ionic or doric flourishes.
I have written often about quitting. Knowing when to give it up, move on, bail out or it defeat. It is hard to know exactly when, but for sure, if there are no monkeys in the waiting room, it may well be that time.
But wait, perhaps your neighbor down the hall has a monkey?
“The more different the startups are, the more they are going to benefit from being near each other,” says Harvard professor, Maria Roche.
Roche says the value is greatest when neighboring startups “focus on very different markets but share some social interactions.” Her study argues that innovative thinking is enhanced by being physically in the same place. Think of the famous Y Combinator accelerator program that has funded over 5,000 startups and created 16 YC-backed companies now trading on the public marketplace.
So tell me, just how close do I have to be to get the knowledge benefit spillover from my neighbor?
A radius of no more than 65 feet.
That seems to rule out the infamous “work from home” discussion. For maximum benefit, you need to rub elbows with your co-workers, and you can’t do that on Zoom.
Talent is global, and companies know that the best and brightest do not necessarily live down the street. The real challenge created by the internet is how to maximize cross-pollination innovation in a hyper-connected world with no geographic boundaries.
If your software development team is in India or Estonia, and your sales manager is in Minnesota, it is not so easy to just get together for a lunch in the conference room or a beer after work.
My personal solution is to try to create unstructured time. Have a Zoom meeting with no agenda. Give your team the privilege of wasting some time. You don’t always have to be moving the ball. Sit down, take a break. Maybe give the monkey the ball for a while.
Rule No. 811: Maybe we can use chainsaws instead of torches.
Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in startups. Please email ideas to [email protected].
