Casconauts operate on Leadership Principles (LPs). Principles are instrinsically self-evident to Casconauts. In addition, Casconauts use specific mechanisms to work their best.
1. Use AI to scale yourself, don't be a meat proxy
Every Casconaut should have a ChatGPT dot. Ideally, name it Not <employee name>. Rene's dot is Not Rene. Give your dot context about your work, connect the tools it needs, and tell it what a good result looks like.
Put your dot to work where the work happens:
- Slack: DM your dot or add it to a channel and mention it in a thread. Give it a clear outcome and the relevant context so it can do the work through connected tools. Adding it to a channel alone doesn't tell it what to monitor.
- Cron jobs: Schedule repeatable tasks, like a daily briefing, a weekly report, or a recurring follow-up. Review the first few runs and adjust the instructions until the results are useful.
- MCP events: For connected apps that support events, ask your dot to react to new messages in selected Slack channels or incoming emails, and confirm which events and filters the app supports. Aim to start handling incoming work within seconds. That's a goal, not a latency guarantee; delivery and execution depend on the app and service.
You still own the judgment and the result. Verify facts, check sources, and review the work before acting on it. Don't just relay AI output or manually shuttle requests and results between tools. Give your dot the access and instructions to handle those steps, and spend your time on decisions that need you.
Respect your fellow Casconauts' attention. Ian recommends Tom Bedor's "If You are Asking for Human Attention, Demonstrate Human Effort". Read and edit AI output before sharing it, verify the claims, and add your own recommendation. Make it clear when you're sharing AI-generated material. If it wasn't worth your time to review, don't ask a colleague to review it for you.
2. If it's not written down and shared, it's not decided.
Casco has a writing culture. Writing forces us to rationalize our thinking and question our own assumptions. In fact, for internal decision making, slide decks are banned.
A strategic decision is made in a meeting with a document in three phases.
- The "reading phase". The author's job is to share the document and respond to inline comments as they come in. The reader's job is to read the document in silence, add comments, and explore necessary details in the appendix.
- The "discussion phase". The author leads the discussion to ensure the decision makers receive the necessary information to make a decision. Readers provide their comments verbally and go back and forth in a respectful way.
- The "decision phase". The author writes down the next step at the top of the document.
A good decision document starts with a purpose statement, sets the context for the uninitiated reader, leads with the recommendation, unpacks the rationale, and then discusses why alternatives were discarded.
If you receive feedback on your writing, we recommend you to read the book "Can Do Writing" by Daniel Graham. Feel free to reimburse the cost of the book via Brex.
3. Everyone's responsible for their own notifications
Some Casconauts are remote (sometimes even in outer space*(needle)* in Seattle, WA)! We don't fault other Casconauts for pinging at odd hours. We expect them to! If we have a good idea, we shouldn't wait to share it. That means to keep our own sanity, that everyone owns their own notifications. Rene famously has all his notifications on all the time. Others have select silent hours with the exception of pagers.
4. Overcommunicate in public channels
Having remote employees is a privilege. To counteract any lack of in-person time, we need to overcommunicate in public channels. We are transparent at Casco. That means we ban any private Slack channels with the exception of HR, Legal, and customer channels. Don't randomly spam all public channels, make sure to check which channel has the highest relevancy for your message. If all else fails, there's always #random.
5. No fake video backgrounds
We are a transparent company. Fake video backgrounds are distracting. At best, they're just as distracting as your real background. We don't judge our fellow Casconauts based on their video backgrounds. More often than not, we see something super cool, like Chris' Captain America shield.
6. Prove out experiments and move on quickly
Fall in love with the problem, not with the solution. Casconauts are okay throwing away all their work if they found a better to solve their problem. A good way to figure this out is by creating a small experiment and if it doesn't work out to just move on. We value your Bias for Action. If you linger too long on a problem, as your fellow Casconauts for advice. If something proves out to be working, then execute with Craftsmanship.
7. No analogies
Analogies have their place externally (marketing, fundraising) but not internally. To make the best decision, Casconauts review situations as they are and don't rely on analogies to come up with a solution. Analogies for internal discussions are dangerous because they lead to a debate on the analogies instead of on the facts.
Example:
A: "Fixing this bug is like Whack-a-Mole." B: "Actually, Whack-a-Mole has a finite number of holes. Are you saying there's a limit to where these regressions can occur, or is this more like a Hydra where fixing one bug spawns two more?"
(Now, instead of discussing the root cause of the bug or how to fix it, the team is wasting time debating the mechanics of arcade games versus Greek mythology.)
8. Just huddle
Casconauts understand that remote work requires overcommunication. Every Casconaut feel encouraged to just huddle another Casconaut to quickly resolve an issue. It's the responsibilty of the receiving Casconaut to manage their notifications or communicate that they're unavailable.
9. Don't book flights without Wifi
A flight where you can work from is more valuable than a flight where you can't. Most of the time this means you need access to high-speed wifi.
High-speed wifi (Starlink) > any wifi > no wifi
Use good judgement when booking a flight without wifi.