Buffer reposted this
The great companies are the ones that are able to retain a creator and builder mindset, rather than purely being operated and optimized. When you start to extract too much value from a company, by optimizing and streamlining, you tend to shed away the imperfections and uniqueness of a company. This actually sabotages future growth, because you cut off the differentiation the company has, which is a vital ingredient of it's current and future success.
Well said Joel
Absolutely. Leaning too hard into "optimised" can turn a business into a bland, hyper-efficient husk. The quirks are usually where the value hides. Love this perspective.
This is such a powerful insight—and one that resonates deeply in today’s environment where efficiency is often prioritized at the expense of originality. Optimization has its place, but when it becomes the sole focus, we risk turning living, evolving companies into static systems. The most resilient and future-forward organizations keep a strong builder’s mindset at their core. They don’t just scale what is—they continuously explore what could be. It’s in the imperfections, the experiments, and even the inefficiencies that real innovation often hides. Balancing operational excellence with creative energy isn’t easy, but it’s essential. The companies that get this right don’t just grow—they evolve in ways their competitors can’t replicate. Thanks for putting this so clearly—definitely a message more leaders need to internalize.
There's an argument here for preserving some beautiful messiness over maximum efficiency at the cost of what makes your culture win.
This really resonates, Joel. The tension you describe is real. I’ve seen how teams can drift from curiosity into control, smoothing out the creative edges that once made them different. But those edges often hold the most potential, the parts that don’t fit neatly into a streamlined box. I still believe the curious win. The ones who keep asking questions, learning, building, and experimenting, not just optimizing for efficiency, are the ones who uncover the solutions that actually move customers and companies forward. I’m curious, Have you ever felt that drift at Buffer, where things got a little too polished and you had to intentionally pull back to protect the soul of what made it special? Also, Thanks for continuing to lead with this kind of clarity. Grateful for voices like yours that champion long-term, creative thinking.
A company that is more human and creative will ultimately understand the needs of human and function according to it. We as a human are imperfect and so are our needs. 😊
Co-founder & CEO at Rebase | AI Brain for Your DevOps
1dToo many orgs treat “operating well” as the end goal, not realizing that their moat came from creative risk and messy iteration. Operational excellence should amplify innovation, not sterilize it.