I took a detour off the typical Silicon Valley meeting circuit today and hopped over to the East Bay to have lunch with Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A’s.
First, let me say that the Oakland Airport Hilton does a pretty darn good New England clam chowder (if you like the creamy variety), and the halibut special was pretty good too.
But I digress.
Any sports fan knows Billy Beane — thanks partly to the success the A’s have enjoyed over the past decade, and in large part to the book “Money Ball” by Michael Lewis. Having played, coached and even done a bit of scouting, Billy’s efforts with the A’s are particularly of interest to me.
What I found most interesting in meeting with Billy today was how curious and smart he is. He had a lot of interesting questions about what life is like these days with venture backed start ups and investing, and we talked about several topics out of the realm of baseball and sports.
I think this is a characteristic that you find in people who are at the top of their given profession — the fact that they have keen interest in other topics and can engage in conversation outside their domain expertise. It seems to compute that being able to stretch your brain around other areas helps develop creativity and new perspectives that you can bring to your “day job”.
Perhaps this is a lesson for all. Being a leader in your field and having a diverse set of interests and knowledge may not be mutually exclusive. In fact, they may very well be complementary?
Thanks for the time — and the lunch — Billy.
Originally published on Medium on January 15, 2009. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.