The Cost of the Move-Fast-Break-Things Mentality 7 | 17

Radical Candor: Communication at Work

Radical Candor

Business, Management, Careers

4.7 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:00:31) Mistakes, Innovation, and Safety
(00:02:43) Ebola Funding Fallout
(00:05:08) When Speed Isn’t the Answer
(00:08:10) Accountability & Power
(00:10:30) Scale Changes the Stakes
(00:14:39) Metrics That Mislead
(00:20:00) Debate Fuels Innovation
(00:23:43) Power, Politics, and Platforms
(00:28:52) Inside Content Moderation
(00:36:46) Why Oversight Is So Hard
(00:41:37) Radical Candor Tips
(00:42:52) Conclusion

When speed becomes the goal, accountability gets left in the dust.

Move fast, break things, and hope no one notices? Not so fast. In this episode, Kim and Jason rip into the shiny promise of speed at all costs—and the very real damage it leaves behind. From slashing vital research to chasing clicks with outrage bait, they expose how a lack of debate, accountability, and thoughtful decision-making can spiral into chaos. This isn’t just about tech; it’s about what happens when leaders skip the hard conversations and dodge the consequences. Drawing from their own experiences, they make the case for cultures that value learning over ego, action over excuses, and why psychological safety isn’t just nice to have—it’s non-negotiable. It’s a no-BS look at what happens when no one’s allowed to say, “Hey, maybe let’s not.”

Get all of the show notes at RadicalCandor.com/podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction
Kim and Jason introduce the episode's topic of the "move fast and break things" philosophy.

(00:00:31) Mistakes, Innovation, and Safety
Why admitting errors is key to progress—even in high-stakes fields.

(00:02:44) Ebola Funding Fallout
A case study in reckless decisions and real-world impact.

(00:05:08) When Speed Isn’t the Answer
How context matters—from search engines to nuclear plants.

(00:08:10) Accountability & Power

The erosion of checks and balances in tech and government.
(00:10:30) Scale Changes the Stakes
Why today’s tech giants can’t play by startup rules.

(00:14:40) Metrics That Mislead
How measuring engagement drives harmful content.

(00:20:01) Debate Fuels Innovation
Why creating space for disagreement leads to better outcomes.

(00:23:43) Power, Politics, and Platforms
How tech companies avoid regulation and the need for public input.

(00:28:52) Inside Content Moderation
Kim’s Google stories and the need for democratic input.

(00:36:46) Why Oversight Is So Hard
The difficulty of encouraging informed debate in organizations.

(00:41:37) Radical Candor Tips
Tips for moving fast without breaking what matters most.

(00:42:52) Conclusion

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Radical Canter podcast. I'm Kim Scott. And I'm Jason
0:08.2	Rosoff. And today we're going to be discussing a philosophy that's become almost mythical in
0:12.6	tech circles and that we're watching play out in real time in the U.S. government. This philosophy
0:19.9	is often referred to as the move fast and break things approach to work.
0:26.1	And when this approach is effective and when it might lead us astray.
0:30.0	So with that, let's get going.
0:31.7	I have to say, Jason, that one of my favorite photos, and we will put it in the show notes, comes from a friend of
0:39.8	mine who used to work at Facebook, which is the company that coined this, Move Fast and Break
0:45.9	Things. And the new sign was, slow down and fix your shit.
0:52.7	So move fast and break things is in my book, sort of obnoxiously aggressive.
0:59.2	However, I will say there is, at Google, we called it launch and iterate.
1:04.5	Yeah.
1:04.7	And that seems to me to be a better way to say what the good part of this, which is that if you're so
1:14.7	afraid of never making a mistake, you can't innovate, you can't fix things. It's sort of
1:20.7	the ethos behind whoopsa daisy, which is publicly saying, oh, I messed that one up, and I'm going to do better next time.
1:31.9	I mean, another way to say the good part of this is something that is on the bottom of a friend
1:37.8	of mine's every email says make new mistakes.
1:42.1	So I think that it needs to be okay to make a mistakes. So, so I think that it, it needs to be okay,
1:46.9	um,
1:47.3	to make a mistake.
1:48.8	You can't innovate if it's not okay to make a mistake.
1:52.0	And it even needs to be okay to admit mistakes in situations where
	...

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