Chemistry Check

You'll love me or hate me. Very few people are indifferent about who Spencer is and how he works.

After 15 years, I'm established enough that I have the luxury of only taking natural alignments and win-win relationships. I have left the world of financial scarcity which caused me to take lots of projects that were not a good fit in the past.

Take a look at what my "vibe" is and see if we're a match. If not, that's okay, and I'm glad to refer you to someone else who's a better connection.

Alignment Chart
Vision Alignment
High Alignment Visions
Low Alignment Visions
Logistical Alignment

Alignment Chart

Area	Indication	Contraindication
Mission	We are here to decrease human suffering and increase human flourishing in a measurable and direct way for our target population. When we do our work, the world heals, lives improve, and a person fears less, loves more, and enjoys a bit more peace.	Speculative derivatives trading generates cash without creating value. It helps make old white guys richer, and they'll give us a cut of the profits. We are a commodity and do nearly the identical thing that 30 other businesses do, except we just look a little different. We exploit people's egos to extract cash from them in exchange for a passing dopamine hit.
Extrinsic Motivation	Collective vision as a team that we all row towards a better world which we're bringing about. Our life efforts aren't here for the collection of dollars, they're here for the betterment of others.	I'm just here for the paycheck. I'm a clock puncher. If I'm not invested in seeing the business win because it doesn't matter to me, I'm just living for the weekend.
Measurable Change	The work I do brings about lasting, positive change in the world I can see.	Busy work of travel expense reports that won't be analyzed and will be filed into some folder never to be seen again. Plans, strategies, code, ideas, and documentation that are used for a few months and then discarded, not yielding much change in the world.
Leadership	I want to follow a leader whom I respect and want to emulate.	Another incompetent boss who is there because of their seniority or nepotism, and not because of their skill set. I tolerate them while actively avoiding picking up any bad habits from them.
Participation	A business still in its evolutionary growth process. The system hasn't solidified into rigidity and we're co-creating the growth.	A "yes man" who doesn't disrupt and follows the team without questioning. Just do your job and stop asking questions, my little worker bee drone. That's the way we've always done it. Stay in your lane, stop innovating, and do your work.
Disruption	Innovation, improvement, and refinement are celebrated and rewarded, even when they are disruptive, contradict the common narrative, and challenge leadership.	A cog in the system who makes the machine run, wearing pleated khakis, sits in a cubicle and chats about football during water cooler breaks.
Movement	High-speed, high-challenge, high-reward, moving, dynamic, and growing system.	A stable rigid system which is seen as perfect and just needs to be implemented by workers.
Human Flourishing	I win when you win. A sense of mutual coaching and helping each other become more effective professionals. When I'm in a healthy, balanced place, I add the most value.	Extractionary mindset of getting the most out of people who we expect to compartmentalize their lives in airtight boxes and just get the work done.
Team Vibe	Quick and Diverse: Teams are built to capitalize on strengths and minimize weaknesses based on natural alignments.	Finance Bro/Sales Jockey with a high and tight haircut that tells stories about the beer pong championship they won during their frat induction. Pleated Khaki Pants/Old White Guys: We all golf together on the weekends before we head back to our McMansions and eat steaks our trophy wives cooked while the kids practice lacrosse on the front lawn the landscapers fertilized yesterday.
Working smart	Asynchronis communication, deep work, strong digital tech stack with clear prioritization and communication. Deliverables are outcome-based, not based on working 40 hours a week.	Endless emails, regularly scheduled meetings without agendas, and constant interruptions that prevent flow state.
Flexible Working Conditions	Get your work done really well. Help us make meaningful progress towards our shared vision. Pour into your team. As long as you're achieving this, we’re open to location and time freedom. Here’s the list/goals. Get it done. We don’t care where or when.	We expect you to have your butt in that chair from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday, regardless, because that's just how we do it. I'm allergic to cubicles, fluorescent lights, Windows desktop computers, pale blue dress shirts, water coolers, and parking structures. We'll monitor if your mouse is moving because we're paying for your time, not your mental work.
Spiritual Pathways/Sellout	I'm a spiritual being living a physical existence to evolve myself and others. One way I do this is through my work, but that's only 20% of my life focus. I follow my deep inner knowledge and my spiritual path primarily. My job either supports this process or is in line with it. The job is not my method of self-actualization.	The person who drank the Kool-Aid and conflates their career as their means to self-actualization, logging 70 hours a week and having no life apart from work. I don't really enjoy my work, but it pays well. I'm busy and making good money, but I've lost sight of personal development and spiritual evolution. I feel like a corporate sell-out, taking the money and benefits for meaningless work but good compensation. It's like I have golden handcuffs.

Vision Alignment

The whole team is rowing towards a shared vision of a better world. That vision is our motivational juice, not the money.

Above all else, it's a prerequisite that my work results in a direct increase in flourishing or a measurable reduction in suffering for moral agents. The lives of humans, animals, or ecosystems must be slightly better at the end of my workday than at the beginning.

High Alignment Visions

Optical object recognition and high-speed robotics for recycling processes.
Mobile payment platform for the unbanked in rural Africa.
Circle economy packaging and logistics.
Shipping materials grown from mushrooms or hemp.
AI therapy.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Decentralization of nearly any flavor.
Synthetic media.
At-scale sharing economy.
Gamification for corporate decarbonizing efforts.

Low Alignment Visions

Commodities: Goods or services which are nearly identical to competitors, and a massive amount of effort is spent to gain market share without any meaningful reduction in harm.
Consumer goods that are designed to manipulate egos with the promise of fleeting dopamine hits.
B2B services from a business that doesn't have a value differentiation to a mass market businesses.
Insurance, real estate, sports, 95% of manufacturing, advertising.
Entertainment media without a beneficial philosophical underpinning.

Logistical Alignment

Details such as OKRs, compensation, working location, and the rest of the fine print support the life I'm intentionally designing for myself without causing problems at the organization.

Industry: If I’m connected to the meaning of work I’m industry agnostic.

Location: Metro Detroit is home for now. If there is alignment and trust I’d be willing to consider relocation, and recent events by Google and Twitter have raised that bar.

Flex Work: 50% in the corporate office, 50% in the remote office. If I'm going to be in the corporate office, I expect it to be for engaging with people in meaningful ways that are best done in person. Productivity increases when I do Deep Work, which is best done in an environment I totally control. While I'm done working from my home office for a week straight without seeing another human, I should also be able to work from the mountains of Peru for a few weeks at a time as long as I'm hitting my goals and have a good Wi-Fi connection.

Compensation: I’ve held the six figure base salary + profit sharing + commissions + generous comp package which we agreed to after 12 rounds of negotiating. I’m sure this will be a point of conversation.

Travel: I enjoy and am willing to travel 50% of the time when there is a valid reason to engage with humans in a meaningful way. I’m not interested in spending a day in transit to have a meeting which could have been held via Zoom.