the subtle art of the double click

here's a big lesson from my last PM job:

the art of the double-click

this lesson clicked for me (ha) early in the job when i got feedback from our engineering manager

our VP eng posted in our team channel and was like omg, emergency we have to fix this bug for this customer. this was one of a bazillion Slack threads for me that day, and i said ok, we'll fix it in the next sprint.

our eng manager was OOO at the time. he got back a day a few days later. he then looked more closely at the bug, poked around and was like, wait we clearly should not prioritize fixing this (I forget why)

his feedback to me was to look more closely at requests to our team

to double-click before making a call

totally fair.

this situation wasn't a big deal but thanks to the feedback, I started to notice that everyone successful at my last company double-clicked (thought critically) about whatever came their way (verbally, written)

over the three years at my last job, i got much better at this and it's such an important skill regardless of the role you have.

there's actually a mental feel to this "double-click." it kind of feels like zooming in.

nowadays:

if there's a really technical conversation at Recurse and someone says something I don't understand, I double-click, I probe, I ask them a question about it (as opposed to letting my mind glaze over)
if it's a social setting, and someone's talking about their emotions, or anything else, i try to double-click, and understand it more. instead of just letting my mind glaze over and not really understand

it's a night and day difference to operate in the world with the double-click muscle. you're actually noticing and understanding everything.

it helps you at work, it helps you be a better conversationalist.

try it!