本文采访了Tom Driscoll，他分享了物理学背景如何在日常工作中帮助他快速理解信息、整合知识，并将其置于公司、业务、产品、团队和技术的整体框架中。他强调了清晰沟通的重要性，尤其是在技术性话题或跨团队交流时，并表示会投入额外时间和精力来打磨沟通技巧，同时也鼓励团队成员这样做。Driscoll还提到，工作的最大乐趣在于其成果能够逐步构建一个更安全、更少受自主武器威胁的世界，并能与一群敬业、聪明的同事共事。他对Powerpoint的低效表示无奈，但也理解这是满足客户需求的方式。他回顾职业生涯，认为硬件初创公司的产品开发周期远超预期，并强调学习过程比单纯掌握知识更有价值，即便有“作弊码”也不会选择跳过学习。

💪 物理学背景的优势：Driscoll的物理学背景使其能够快速理解信息，即使是超出其专业领域的内容，也能将其融入更宏大的公司、业务、产品、团队和技术背景中，从而识别出有价值或关键的部分。这表明跨学科知识的整合能力在现代工作中非常重要。

🗣️ 清晰沟通的挑战与价值：Driscoll认为清晰沟通，尤其是在技术性话题或跨大型团队交流时，其难度常被低估。他本人会投入额外的时间和精力来确保沟通的清晰度，并鼓励团队成员也这样做。这凸显了在复杂工作环境中，有效沟通是推动项目进展和团队协作的关键。

🌟 工作的意义与同事：Driscoll将工作的最大意义归结于其工作能够一点一滴地构建一个更安全、更能抵御自主武器威胁的世界。同时，他高度评价了同事们的敬业、智慧和独特性，认为这是工作中的一大亮点。这反映了个人价值观与工作目标一致的重要性，以及良好团队氛围的价值。

💡 对职业生涯的经验总结：Driscoll指出，硬件初创公司的产品开发周期通常比预期的要长。他更看重学习过程本身而非仅仅掌握知识，认为过去十一年是一段宝贵的学习旅程。他强调，即使有机会跳过学习过程，他也不会选择这样做，这是一种对成长和经验积累的深刻认识。

📉 对沟通工具的看法：Driscoll认为Powerpoint是效率最低、最耗时的沟通方式之一，但他也认识到在商业世界中，为了满足客户偏好，有时不得不接受并使用这类工具。这体现了在坚持原则与适应现实需求之间的权衡。

What skills do you use every day in your job?

I’m thankful every day that my physics background helps me quickly understand information – even outside my areas of expertise – and fit it into the larger puzzle of what’s valuable and/or critical for our company, business, products, team and technology. I also believe it’s under-appreciated how difficult it is to communicate clearly – especially on technical topics or across large teams – and the challenge scales with the size of the team. Crafting clear communication is therefore something that I try to give extra time and attention to myself. I also encourage the wider team to follow that example and do themselves as they develop our technology and products.

What do you like best and least about your job?

The best thing for me is that every day, every task and action, no matter how small, helps bit-by-bit to build a world that is safer and more secure against the surge in autonomous weapons. What’s also great are the remarkable people I work with – on my team and across the company. They’re dedicated, intelligent, and each exemplary in their own unique ways. My least favourite part of the job is Powerpoint, which to me is the least effective and most time-consuming ways of communicating ever created. In the business world, however, you have to accept and accommodate your customers’ preferences – and that means using Powerpoint.

What do you know today, that you wish you knew when you were starting out in your career?

I wish I’d known that anyone who believes a hardware start-up will only take three or four years to develop a product has to be kidding. But jokes aside, I believe that learning things is often more valuable than knowing things – and the past 11 years have been an amazing journey of learning. If I had a time machine would I go back and tweak what I did early on? Absolutely! But would I hand myself a cheat-sheet that let me skip all the learning? Absolutely not!

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