So what we did at X is we had this image of a monkey on a pedestal, and the story was: imagine you’re trying to train a monkey to recite Shakespeare's sonnets while standing on a pedestal; what do you work on first? The monkey training or the pedestal?
Why people recommend it
Sonnets is a renowned collection of poems by William Shakespeare exploring themes of love, beauty, mortality, and human emotion through traditional verse structures. On the podcast How I Write, Ward Farnsworth mentioned Shakespeare while discussing literary influences, noting Abraham Lincoln's obsessive reading habits regarding the author's work. Separately, on an episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, guest Obi Felton referenced the sonnets while sharing a management and problem-solving metaphor used at X. Felton described a conceptual scenario involving an attempt to train a monkey to recite Shakespeare's sonnets while standing on a pedestal, posing the strategic question of whether one should focus first on training the monkey or building the pedestal. This vivid illustration was deployed to emphasize the importance of tackling the hardest and most uncertain parts of a massive challenge right at the outset. Both podcast mentions illustrated the enduring cultural ubiquity of Shakespeare's poetry, invoking the sonnets not only as a pinnacle of literary achievement but also as a familiar cultural touchstone for explaining complex strategic concepts and historical habits.
Every mention
Obi Felton So what we did at X is we had this image of a monkey on a pedestal, and the story was: imagine you’re tryin… 1
“So what we did at X is we had this image of a monkey on a pedestal, and the story was: imagine you’re trying to train a monkey to recite Shakespeare's sonnets while standing on a pedestal; what do you work on first? The monkey training or the pedestal?”
Ward Farnsworth I more or less OBS the King James Bible more or less obsessively that in shakes 1
“I more or less OBS the King James Bible more or less obsessively that in shakes”
