The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 15 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
DeLong: Hundreds of PE Partners Leave Feeling Hollow Despite Earning Millions
“There are some private equity firms, and I've known hundreds of partners, and all of them leave feeling hollow with truckloads of money.”
DeLong: Asset Management Is 50 Years Away From Authentic Feedback Culture
“I think that the asset management world is 50 years from that.”
DeLong: HBS Students Are Very Confident but Not Particularly Courageous
“I think my HBS students, unfortunately, are very confident, but not particularly courageous, and there's a huge difference.”
DeLong: Ignoring solid 'B players' creates an organizational disaster
“Over time, if you ignore them, then you're in free fall, and we have the data to show organizations are a disaster waiting to happen if you ignore what I would call the heart and soul of the organization.”
DeLong: Asset Management Leaders Prioritize Image and Output Over Essence
“There isn't a feeling from the leaders in asset management groups to create a place where you deal with essence as opposed to image. You do your work, you keep your head down, you produce. That's the name of the game.”
DeLong: Created the First Performance Evaluation in Wall Street History
“I couldn't believe the way people were compensated. I couldn't believe the way people were promoted. It was literally an old boy system, and I went right after that, and helped create the first performance evaluation in the history of Wall Street.”
DeLong: Professionals live their lives based on the conversations they avoid
“The technical term or the psychological term is called experiential avoidance, and so what we're finding is that people are living their lives based on the conversations they're not having, as opposed to the ones that they're having, and that, what that automa…”
DeLong: High achievers spend far more time on self-doubting narratives
“Now, what we've observed is that for high need for achievement personalities, they spend far more time focused on their self-doubting narratives”
DeLong: High achievers are addicted to image management over essence
“So we want you to move from image managing to essence managing, and that's gonna be very tough, because you're addicted to the image part, and you're gonna be going, you've already started evaluating everybody and sizing people up.”
DeLong: The Tension Between Achievement and Self-Worth Cannot Be Solved
“I think every day I'm gonna have to manage the dilemma of achieving and feeling good about myself. In my, in some ways, I almost feel like they are irresolvable, but it's the process of managing these tensions simultaneously. And that to me, that is a daily ex…”
DeLong: Professional service firm leaders spend most time with star performers
“CEOs, managing partners, leaders in professional service firms, we've tracked them, they spend most of their time with people that are like them, with the stars.”
DeLong: Organizations fail when junior staff pay for bad bosses' sins
“As long as younger professionals pay for the sins of bad bosses, you are never going to be able to create the kind of organization you want to create.”
DeLong: Returned to academia because Wall Street culture avoided substantive conversations
“When I was at Morgan Stanley, and I would have what I would call something other than deeply shallow conversations. We would have substantive conversations with folks, and then when they'd get back in the group, it was back to golf, and it was back to redecora…”
DeLong: Missing his university presidency goal leaves him feeling like a failure
“And at the very last thing I say in my self-doubting story is, and here I am at Harvard Business School, and I still feel like a failure, because my goal was to be a university president, and I'm not going to make it.”