“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world” said Archimedes of Ancient Greece. Maybe. A Greek titan of knowledge may have been taken out of context through centuries of telephone & translations. Not to mention the reliability of records. Nevertheless, the idea that Archimedes might […]
When you think about your own investing what do you picture? You might imagine a highway. Driving in a car down the road. There are a lot of things you’ve read about these roads and the environment on the highway. You’ve heard about the different vehicles on the road. The road conditions change, frequently. There’s […]
Spending time with engineers will teach you a lot about how to better understand the concept of time and its value. In technical parlance, projects are either “cheap” or “expensive”. Meetings with a lot of engineers? Expensive. Meetings in general? Probably expensive too.
What is a lie? “A lie is a statement made by one who does not believe it with the intention that someone else shall be led to believe it” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In the technology industry, statements are derived from the capabilities of living, changing products. The promises that these products […]
Last week we talked about motivating people behind the vision of wanting to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Which is all well and good. Very important stuff. It’s got to be done to get the people excited. Yet, the real work has just begun. Big bold journeys don’t just take off themselves. You’ve […]
Planning is an exercise often done in the dark with incomplete information. Today, in the Bay Area, all planning that was done was literally done in the dark. The sun never came out on September 9th, 2020. A socially distant summer has passed and it appears daylight is missing too as wildfires rage around us. […]
If I go it will be trouble. If I stay it will be double.. So you got to let me know…should I stay or should I go? So said the Clash in 1982 and then again to greater fanfare in a 1992 re-release. Now you know. Kevin Mayer, CEO of TikTok, lit up the techo-sphere […]
It is the pandemic times. It is the digital transformation times. And it is the cultural reckoning times. It has truly been a most trying year. During periods of difficulty and frustration, it can feel like the work being put in isn’t closely tied to the direction that things go. The impact of your contributions […]
There are all sorts of problems percolating out there. Executives behaving badly, discrimination in the workplace. Lots of heavy stuff. There are certain simpler, avoidable mistakes you make on the long road of leadership growth that stick with you too. One particularly acute personal example was when one of the top people on my team […]
Steve Easterbrook is the former CEO of McDonalds who served as the chief for about 3 1/2 years. Steve left McDonalds about 8 months ago with a nice little $40M going away present. Not a bad gig if you can get it! It’s important to note that Steve was dismissed from his duties “without cause”. […]