I’m not a big believer in ideas,” says Panagiotis Ipeirotis, a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University who’s also a programmer. “I believe in execution much more than the idea.
— The Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerbergs of Tomorrow — New York Magazine
In a world in which Apple is the most valuable corporation, and companies like Dropbox earn super-premium multiples, my conclusion is that the most powerful way to build economic value is by developing products that a) deliver an outstanding user experience, b) convince people to pay a premium, and c) generate massive usage.
— Adventures in Capitalism: The Lesson of Dropbox: Usage = Value
The kind of naming policy that Facebook and Google Plus have is actually a radical departure from the way identity and speech interact in the real world. They attach identity more strongly to every act of online speech than almost any real world situation does.
Cashmere hoodies are all the rage on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., home to many big-name venture-capital firms, according to venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who recently brought on former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as a special adviser. Mr. Andreessen says “the challenge for now is to get Larry to wear a hoodie.
As many of the Hacker News commenters pointed out, the line between what should be public versus private is the kicker here. People don’t get angry when Google uses its homepage logo to celebrate a holiday (in fact Google also put the same reminder on its homepage, to lesser complaint) because they consider the homepage a public space. HN commenter djcapelis explained, “It’s the difference between someone coming up to you on the bus and asking you if you’ve called your father and a poster on the side of the bus asking if you’ve called your father. When you put your message in someone’s personal space, you don’t get to just say ‘eh, it’s probably only a small fraction’ because you’re specifically communicating with specific people.
— ‘Reminder: Call Dad’ Is Another Notch In Google’s Belt Of Social Fail
Collaboration is the elixir of the status-quo crowd.
[People] who lose the guarantee of privacy also eventually lose the capacity for making friends,” Elaine Scarry reminds us once more. I argue here for an even greater danger: people who lose the want for privacy may eventually lose the capacity for making friends.
— Zachary Stockill: The Want for Privacy: Facebook’s Assault on Friendship
Android, as well as Chrome and Chrome OS for that matter, are not “products” in the classic business sense. They have no plan to become their own “economic castles.” Rather they are very expensive and very aggressive “moats,” funded by the height and magnitude of Google’s castle. Google’s aim is defensive not offensive. They are not trying to make a profit on Android or Chrome. They want to take any layer that lives between themselves and the consumer and make it free (or even less than free).
One might think that constant exposure to new information at least makes us more creative. Here again, the opposite seems to be true. Teresa Amabile and her colleagues at the Harvard Business School evaluated the daily work patterns of more than 9,000 individuals working on projects that required creativity and innovation. They found that the likelihood of creative thinking is higher when people focus on one activity for a significant part of the day and collaborate with just one other person. Conversely, when people have highly fragmented days—with many activities, meetings, and discussions in groups—their creative thinking decreases significantly.
— https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Recovering_from_information_overload_2735
A small system that falls down under load is a huge success
Rule #5: Maintain flexible persistence.
Very often entrepreneurs are given conflicting advice: “Be persistent! Stay committed to your vision!” or “Pivot on key data! Know when to change!” The challenge is to follow them both, but know which advice is most appropriate for which situation. You must know how to maintain flexible persistence.
— Ten Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies « Greylock VC
We live by the myth that the best way to get more work done is to work longer hours.” Schwartz cites research suggesting that we should work in periods of no greater than 90 minutes before seeking rest.
— SXSW 2011: The internet is over | Technology | The Guardian
Like it or not, one of the reasons that people appreciate the Web is their ability to maintain some degree of anonymity. Not everyone wants to subscribe to Facebook’s high school hegemony. I hope media outlets keep that in mind.
— peHUB » Disqus to Facebook: “We Aren’t Shaking In Our Boots”
