Googlers have a term for that, the bus factor: the number of people that need to get hit by a bus before your project is completely doomed. Of course, the “bus” here is just a metaphor. People become sick; they switch teams or companies; they move away. As a litmus test, think about a difficult problem that your team is making good progress on. Now imagine that you, the leader, disappear. Does your team keep going? Does it continue to be successful? Here’s an even simpler test: think about the last vacation you took that was at least a week long. Did you keep checking your work email? (Most
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