[jt2190]

Founders will be managing (perhaps future) senior executives, not junior managers. Senior execs are given a lot of leeway (budgets, staff, goal setting) and will have massive impact on the “shape” of the business overall. As such they are willful people, and not really “micromanagable”. These are absolutely the kind of people you need in these positions.

With this willfulness comes the challenge of “herding the cats” to an achieve an ultra-focused vision. This is what requires “founder mode”.

No talented founder will resort to typical junior manager mircromanagement antics as it would drive the company into the ground. Instead, they seem to have some kind of “reality distortion field” ability, what we’re calling “founder mode” here. The challenge is discovering the parts and pieces that make up “founder mode”… we know it exists but don’t really understand it.

[salawat]

>Reality distortion field Read: Weaponized Information Asymmetry and Perception Management

It relies on being viewed as larger than life, and exploiting the ignorance or inability of others to ask the right questions. When asked the right questions, it requires a willingness to lie one's ass off.

It isn't some magical mystical thing. It's just the willingness to meat grinder everything including imposed obligations and staff in the name of doing what it is you want to do.

It isn't sexy though when you call a spade a spade. So no one does. Having been the exec/manager to walk away from people/businesses after calling them out on their behavior, it is no mystery.

[ffsm8]

> we know it exists but don’t really understand it.

We only know that some people believe it to exist, wherever it actually does is an entirely different matter.

And if it exists, wherever it's a positive of a negative influence is another layer of uncertainty, that almost certainly entirely depends on the other people that they're working together with.