I once had a discussion with Scott G and Eli Tyre about this. We decided that the “real thing” was basically where you should end up in the complicated worker/job optimization problem, and there were more or less two ways to try and approximate it:
Supposing everyone else has already chosen their optimal spot, what still needs doing? What can I best contribute? This is sorta easy, because you just look around at what needs doing, combine this with what you know about how capable you are at contributing, and you get an estimate of how much you’d contribute in each place. Then you go to the place with the highest number. [modulo gut feelings, intrinsic motivation, etc]
Supposing you choose first, how could everyone else move around you to create an optimal configuration? You then go do the thing which implies the best configuration. This seems much harder, but might be necessary for people who provide a lot of value (and therefore what they do has a big influence on what other people should do), particularly in small teams where a near-optimal reaction to your choice is feasible.
I once had a discussion with Scott G and Eli Tyre about this. We decided that the “real thing” was basically where you should end up in the complicated worker/job optimization problem, and there were more or less two ways to try and approximate it:
Supposing everyone else has already chosen their optimal spot, what still needs doing? What can I best contribute? This is sorta easy, because you just look around at what needs doing, combine this with what you know about how capable you are at contributing, and you get an estimate of how much you’d contribute in each place. Then you go to the place with the highest number. [modulo gut feelings, intrinsic motivation, etc]
Supposing you choose first, how could everyone else move around you to create an optimal configuration? You then go do the thing which implies the best configuration. This seems much harder, but might be necessary for people who provide a lot of value (and therefore what they do has a big influence on what other people should do), particularly in small teams where a near-optimal reaction to your choice is feasible.