I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, about his thoughts on career advice for people in their 20s. Collison is known for his excellent compilation of advice on his blog, and he has previously stated that he plans to write some advice for people in their 20s once he turns 35.
When I asked Collison about the advice he has for people in their 20s, he mentioned that he has been thinking about the value of going to San Francisco for career development. While he believes that San Francisco can be a valuable place for certain career paths, he also thinks that there are other paths that require accumulating expertise and studying a domain in depth that may not be as valued in the city's culture.
Collison used the example of Herb Boyer, the co-founder of Genentech, who couldn't have invented cheap insulin with recombinant DNA at a young age. Instead, Boyer had to accumulate knowledge and skills over the course of a multi-decade career. Collison also mentioned the example of Patrick Hsu, co-founder of Arc, who recently announced a new phenomenon of bridge editing, which is a new recombinase for inserting DNA into a genome. This kind of invention requires a deep understanding of technical skills and knowledge.
Collison emphasized that he doesn't presume to know what people should do with their lives, but if someone is considering a career path that looks similar to his, he encourages them to pursue it. However, he also noted that there are other important inventions and discoveries that require a very different trajectory from his own.
Collison also mentioned that San Francisco can be very status-oriented, and that there is often an excessive emphasis placed on entrepreneurship. While he values entrepreneurs and the companies they build, he doesn't believe that entrepreneurship should be people's only fixation.
When it comes to developing expertise in a particular field, Collison spoke about the importance of finding the gradient of maximal learning. He noted that this can be challenging in practice, as it requires being wary of following prevailing tides and moods. He also mentioned that modern universities can be problematic in this regard, as they may not always provide the best environment for learning high standards and problem selection.
Collison suggested that people in their 20s should seek out environments where high standards are embodied and where they can learn from mentors. He also recommended asking questions like "What is happening today at the microscale?" and "What might it look like to scale that up?" when analyzing institutions and their impact on research and development.
Collison also touched on the Parker study, which suggests that improving the NIH by a certain percentage may not be enough to make a dent in the fact that ideas are getting harder to find over time. He noted that there are deeper questions to consider, such as whether it is even possible to increase the output of R&D in a linear way, and what other constraints might be at play.
When it comes to the role of funding in R&D, Collison is skeptical of the assumption that there is a constant elasticity between investment and output. He noted that the conversion rate between inputs and outputs is not a cosmological constant, and that there are even deeper questions to consider, such as whether it is possible at all, and what else would have to change for it to be possible.
Overall, Collison's advice for people in their 20s is to think carefully about the career path they want to pursue, and to seek out environments where they can learn high standards and accumulate expertise. He emphasized the importance of asking questions and being wary of following prevailing tides and moods, and encouraged people to think about the deeper questions surrounding R&D and innovation.