# A Curious Company

DevFeed: [A Curious Company](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/a-curious-company-30397.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.mdubakov.com/posts/q-curious-company>)

Published: 2012-03-19T09:12:28Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Blog by Michael Dubakov](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-by-michael-dubakov.md>)

Topics: [Learning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/learning.md>), [Agile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/agile.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>)

Tags: [agile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agile.md>), [company](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/company.md>), [learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/learning.md>), [work](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/work.md>)

## AI overview

A CEO reflects on rebuilding curiosity in a small company by hiring people who learn, creating an environment that supports experimentation, and setting an ambitious goal for agile project management software.

## Source excerpt

Recently I've got an interesting question: "Do you hire people who learn new things or do you create an environment where everyone starts learning"? Who is this mysterious "everyone"? These people are not very active. These people prefer to adopt to existing conditions and follow the rules. I answered almost immediately "both", but what really is more important? I've always learned new things. Sure, my self-education style is far from perfect. I jump from subject to subject and read quite random books from disciplines barely related to my actual work. I know that and trying to fix that. I'm 33. Right now I try to gain fundamental CS knowledge (while I don't actually need to). I'm a CEO of a small 35-people-company. Bootstrapped. Profitable. And curious. The spirit of curiosity was always inside me. It was inside our company in early days, but depleted. Novelty darkened and goals blurred. The company started to look like "just one more place to work at". I hated that feeling. We did common tasks, released common features. It was two years ago. Two years ago we've changed everything. What is the right goal for the company? Do something incredibly cool, something that you can honorably call "the best in the world". Why the hell spend your time on boring, common staff? Fuck it. You don't want to create "yet another twitter client". You want to create "best in the world twitter client". If you can't, learn and try or die trying. We set the goal to create "the best in the world agile project management software for small and medium companies". And suddenly everything started to look sooo simple. What do you need to do something best in the world? More precise, "who" do you need? You need the best people. Most likely you don't have them yet, but there is a good chance you can grow them. Why not? You don't need people who hate changes. You don't need people who hate learning. You need curious, hungry and intelligent people. If you have best people, you should provide best p