The two kinds of companies

I’ve been reflecting more and more on the different types of companies out there. The more places and people I see, the more I keep sorting organizations and jobs into buckets — and I think it basically comes down to two.

My first version of this was “community orgs versus non-community companies,” and I think that holds true for a bit. But the more I sat with it, the more I think the real split is something else.

The first bucket is the high-output companies. Think Meta, think Google. High output, high pay, high stress, a lot of crazy meaningful stuff happening, just a lot going on. At those places, it’s really about the work. And interestingly, I think the same thing holds at really small companies — at a tiny company, you literally can’t afford to not be having results. Different size, same deal: the work is the point, and everything else arranges itself around that.

Then there’s the other bucket, and I don’t have a fancy name for it: it’s people living their life. The job is good enough for most people. People can pay their bills. Nobody’s pretending it’s a rocket ship, and it doesn’t need to be. And here’s the part that’s been sitting with me — when that kind of company works, it becomes a community.

That’s the piece I keep coming back to. I think we all need work so much more than we realize — not just for the paycheck, but for the sense of being part of the world. Being part of something. Being relevant. You show up somewhere, people know you, what you do matters to somebody — that’s carrying way more weight in people’s lives than we usually give it credit for. And the living-your-life bucket of companies might be quietly providing that better than anyone talks about.

I want to be clear that I don’t think there’s a right answer here. This isn’t a “which bucket should you pick” thing. It’s just a thing to reflect on — that so much of life is just being part of a community and being relevant, and work is one of the main places we get that, whichever bucket you’re standing in.

Still working this one out. But I keep noticing it, so it felt worth writing down.