What you're actually getting paid in, with Leila Clark
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About this episode
In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Leila Clark, founder of Stardrift and formerly a software engineer at Jane Street, to discuss her essay "What Are You Getting Paid In?" They cover how a Jane Street manager staffed the firm's least lucrative corner by paying people in culture, why Ken Griffin is worth roughly fifty Taylor Swifts, and how a longtime Google product manager quietly ends up with Grammy-winner money. The conversation ranges from academia's brutal tournament structure and YC as a script to founderdom to the one currency Taylor Swift holds that Ken Griffin's $50 billion buys only awkwardly: a restaurant reservation anywhere in New York.
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Full transcript available here: https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/what-youre-actually-getting-paid-in-with-leila-clark/
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Links:
- What are you getting paid in: https://www.approachwithalacrity.com/p/what-are-you-getting-paid-in
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:23) What are you getting paid in?
(03:16) Scripts, teacher figures, and hitting capitalism
(08:18) The academia trap
(11:08) Paying people in culture: Jane Street's back office
(14:03) Ken Griffin vs. Taylor Swift
(16:53) Learning about finance by osmosis (or not)
(20:44) Sponsors: Mercury | Chainguard
(23:46) Musician money vs. Google money
(30:03) Keeping up with the Joneses and the meritocratic ladder
(33:12) YC as a script to founderdom
(36:19) What entrepreneurship pays you in
(39:12) Gratitude, culture, and quirky preferences
(40:11) Sponsor: MongoDB
(43:48) Does winning this script look like winning to you?
(48:29) Don't end the week with nothing
(51:06) Fame and living in bubbles
(56:57) Restaurant reservations as a currency
(1:02:57) Where to find Leila
(01:03:35) Wrap
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