Leadership Quote by Jesse James Garrett

The quiet flex here is that Garrett treats “entrepreneur” and “management consultant” less like identities than like necessary accessories. He’s describing a career that has sprawled beyond craft into the infrastructure of craft: pitching, hiring, aligning stakeholders, translating messy human wants into roadmaps and budgets. That dash-heavy sentence mimics the reality he’s naming: modern work is a pileup of roles, stitched together on the fly.

The key move is the contrast between “involves a lot of different skills now” and “still my favorite part.” “Now” signals an evolution that isn’t entirely voluntary. Once you’re seen as the person who can make sense of complexity, you’re drafted into meetings, strategy decks, and operational glue work. Calling himself “as much entrepreneur and management consultant” is a polite way of admitting that the job has been partially colonized by the business side of the equation - not evil, but hungry.

Then comes the tell: “IA is still my favorite.” In Garrett’s world (as a foundational figure in user experience), IA isn’t just a task; it’s the rare zone where thinking stays tactile. Information architecture rewards precision, empathy, and systems thinking without the performative churn of “leadership” culture. The subtext is a defense of the maker’s impulse inside an economy that promotes people away from what they’re good at.

Contextually, it captures a broader shift in knowledge work: specialization gets you noticed; success gets you managerial gravity. Garrett is insisting that the work’s soul lives in the structure - not the status.