Stop Trying to Look Cool at Work
Sitting up front and trying to learn beats sitting in back and checking the clock.
Joys of Compounding · Ravi Gupta - Bring Joy - [Joys of Compounding, EP.21]Ravi Gupta, who led manager training at Instacart, starts sessions with one piece of advice: "don't be cool." Gupta says he wasted time trying to be cool himself and regrets it. Buy in instead, he tells managers, and you will come away with something useful and be friends with the people in the session.
He saw what that kind of buy-in looks like at Duke. Students arrive, in his words, "people are proud to be there," not acting cool. Because much of student life happens together on campus, that pride turns into togetherness. People feel the place is special while they are there, not only later.
He asks for the same attitude in training. Gupta's version: "Don't sit in the back. Don't count the minutes. Don't make fun of the training. Try to get something out of this."
He does not claim training is perfect. As he puts it, "it's not that there's nothing cheesy in any part of it." Still, trying to get something from it pays. In his words, "The value of buying in is so much higher than people give it credit for."
Questions people ask
Won't I look like a suck-up if I sit up front?
Probably not, if you do it sincerely. Asking a real question and listening carefully reads as engaged, not flattering. Eye rolling and showing off read as cooler in the moment, but they close people off.
What if the training really is bad?
Gupta allows that training can be awkward, so the point is not to pretend it is perfect. Look for one useful idea or one person to know better. You can still give honest feedback later, but you will get more if you participate first.
Does where I sit actually matter?
Where you sit changes how you act. In back, it is easy to check your phone and drift. Up front, you hear better, you are seen, and you are more likely to speak, listen, and remember.