AThe reading list
Fifty books, what stuck with me, and the lines worth keeping.
IF YOU READ ONLY A FEW
There's no recipe for really complicated dynamic situations.
The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.
Every moment in business happens only once.
The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us.
Startups win by being impatient over a long period of time.
Spend 50% of your time on product and 50% on traction.
It doesn't matter how good your engineering team is if they are not given something worthwhile to build.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Fixed time, variable scope.
Users who continually find value in a product are more likely to tell their friends about it.
People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!
By asking people for their input early in the process, you help them feel invested in the outcome.
The build trap is when organizations become stuck measuring their success by outputs rather than outcomes.
Don't live with broken windows.
Work on your business, not in it.
An hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost for the total system.
Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage.
Care personally; don't put people in boxes and leave them there.
Don't move information to authority, move authority to the information.
Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.
Planning is guessing.
'No' is the start of the negotiation, not the end of it.
Make people an offer so good they would feel stupid saying no.
Sales - Profit = Expenses
Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.
Selling, when done properly, has nothing to do with persuading. It is not our job to talk people into things.
Doing well with money has a little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave.
Positioning is like context-setting for products. It's a bit like the opening scene of a movie.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.
Pain + Reflection = Progress
Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.
Seek wealth, not money or status.
You can't find your voice if you don't use it.
Carmack was of the moment. His ruling force was focus.
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
