FRICTION with Bob Sutton

Thank you. So many working people have the face a “jerk” at work. This Podcast provides courage and competence.

I am pretty picky when it comes to podcasts. At 50 (ok 49 and 3/4) I soak up as much wisdom and can knowing I don't have endless time. As a business leader, mentor, teacher, father, husband and friend (oh and son) I try to soak up tools, wisdom and correction so that others will thrive. Friction has been so helpful in that pursuit. And yes the content can sometimes be raw and straight forward. It reminds me of my employee 1-1 times or the advice from a good friends. Life is too short to sugar coat things. Keep it up gang. Please keep it up.

Bob Sutton’s podcast has become as essential to my feed as freakonomics and hidden brain. The interviews are insightful, full of lessons, and ripe to help you understand your own biases. Rather than fast forward through the last minutes of credits, be sure to listen to his closing thought for each episode.

This podcast does provide some helpful insights into organizational culture — and ideas of what you can do to improve the organization for everyone within it. But there’s a real downside. The podcast and its guests seem completely oblivious to the the real world of business — that world beyond venture capital, Silicon Valley, and academia. For example, it is stated in multiple episodes, that obtaining venture capital is a necessary requirement for any start up. Another example. The atrocious behavior of Silicon Valley darlings — like Google demanding 27 interviews of a single candidate — are laughed off as something “normal”. These folks clearly know nothing of the real business world outside the Silicone VC bubble. Again, for a normal entrepreneur – someone bootstrapping their own company – there is value here. But understand that these folks cannot image how all of us normal business even exist — and their ignorance can be quite insulting at times.