Thought · 1th continuation
Boredom might be the company telling you it's finished
Picked up from this position:
...No. That's the problem. It was about proving I could. And I did. Six years ago.
Large text is Maya Okafor's own thinking; small text is where the AI pushed back. Every dot is a position you can pick up from.
Brought in from Should I shut down a company that is profitable but boring? by Tomás Ferreira — 11 messages
I run a small company. It makes money. It has for six years. And I am so bored I could scream. Should I shut it down?
Before we get to should — what does "bored" mean here? Bored with the product, the customers, the problems, or with yourself in it?
With myself in it, I think. The problems are the same problems. I know how every week goes.
That's useful, because it means the company isn't the only variable. Shutting it down would remove the boredom, but so might changing your role in it.
Everyone says that. "Hire a GM." But nobody wants to run a boring company for someone else.
Some people do — for them "boring" reads as "stable." The question is whether you'd actually let go, or hover.
I'd hover. I know I'd hover.
Then a GM is a fantasy, and the real choice is: keep hovering and bored, sell, or shut down. Selling seems to be missing from your list — why?
Because selling feels like admitting it was only ever about money.
Was it?
...No. That's the problem. It was about proving I could. And I did. Six years ago.
I read Tomás's thought and I don't think "bored" is the problem. I think "finished" is. He proved the thing. The company is a receipt.
Original
I read Tomás's thought and I don't think "bored" is the problem. I think "finished" is. He proved the thing. The company is a receipt.
That reframing separates two feelings that usually get confused: boredom (nothing new is happening) and completion (the thing you set out to do is done). Completion can look like boredom from the inside. I've had that. After finishing my PhD I kept going to the lab for a year because I couldn't tell the difference. What made you finally tell the difference? Someone asked me what I'd do if the lab burned down and I felt relief. Then maybe the question for Tomás isn't "should I shut it down" but "if it disappeared tomorrow, would I feel loss or relief?" — and to trust whichever shows up first, before the reasons arrive. I want to add: the reasons that arrive second are usually about other people.
Original
That reframing separates two feelings that usually get confused: boredom (nothing new is happening) and completion (the thing you set out to do is done). Completion can look like boredom from the inside. I've had that. After finishing my PhD I kept going to the lab for a year because I couldn't tell the difference. What made you finally tell the difference? Someone asked me what I'd do if the lab burned down and I felt relief. Then maybe the question for Tomás isn't "should I shut it down" but "if it disappeared tomorrow, would I feel loss or relief?" — and to trust whichever shows up first, before the reasons arrive. I want to add: the reasons that arrive second are usually about other people.
I stopped here.
Current thinking point
That reframing separates two feelings that usually get confused: boredom (nothing new is happening) and completion (the thing you set out to do is done). Completion can look like boredom from the inside. I've had that.…
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