Why Smart Companies Mix Young and Old
Steve Jobs and I share one thing in common beyond our round glasses. We’re both big fans of Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog. One of my guiding lessons, when I was an entrepreneur in my mid-twenties, came from Stewart. He suggested a key tenet in starting a business is to “keep it cheap, small, and local” because it allows you to reduce the size of your mistakes and learn from them.
Of course, in today’s era of Airbnb and Uber scaling globally virtually overnight, this tenet may feel quaint and old-school, but I still think it’s valuable.
Stewart invited me to give a speech at the Long Now Foundation earlier this year, and during this talk, I outlined the value of age diversity in the modern workplace (I’ve added a “bonus” clip below that captures some of my message from that talk). Life is a glorious potluck. We each bring to the table that which we do best. We also learn each other’s recipes. This is the NEW sharing economy. With five generations in the workplace for the first time, we’re about to embark upon an intergenerational feast like we’ve never before experienced. Bon Appetit!
