I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Paul Graham’s legendary article, “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule.”
With AI, I can have a team of agents working for me. I can run many tasks in parallel. But that also means I have to review their work and guide them in the right direction to get the desired outcome. This requires a lot of context switching. It requires a manager’s brain. Talking to others, making decisions and unblocking the team.
On the other hand, I still believe that deep, uninterrupted focus on one thing can produce really high-quality work. I multitask a lot (I have a scattered brain 😅), but I usually produce better work when I focus on fewer things. (But which PM in the world has the luxury of focusing on only one thing at a time?) This requires a maker’s brain. Being focused, persistent, and relentless about chasing one idea until it works.
This boundary might be starting to blur. Managers who want to build with AI need to carve out some real ‘maker’ time. Makers, on the other hand, increasingly need to think like managers. More agents working for you means more things to direct and coordinate.
I personally found balancing these 2 modes is quite difficult. Maybe a ‘maker-manager’ is the new Renaissance Man.