“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”
-Steve Jobs
#Quotes
“If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?”
-Seymour Cray
#Quotes
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
-Albert Schweitzer
#Quotes
Good hybrid meetings are such a balancing act.
You need to maximize the humans who are in immediate proximity to each other - without accidentally alienating everyone else.
And that means ensuring that most everything that happens gracefully degrades to the lowest common denominator connection.
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
-Oscar Wilde
#Quotes
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
#Quotes
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
-General George S. Patton
#Quotes
”Humanity always reenacts the same bildungsroman. All the principles you learn through your struggles today had been written down by the ancients thousands of years ago.”
-Ken Liu
#Quotes
Top 10 Books that made me a better Product Manager in 2024
A recommended reading list culled from my recent bookshelf. Highlights include essential books on user experience, productivity, AI’s societal impact, the history of computing, and leadership during these chaotic times.
Things I Learned in 2024
Various historical and cultural facts revealing surprising truths about notable figures, inventions, and events that I learned in the past year.
“If there are no words for certain concepts, we tend to not think of them.”
-Robert Greene
#Quotes
“The business should always be outrunning the processes, so chaos is right where you want to be.”
-Eric Schmidt
(I’m not 100% in agreement but do like the sentiment about embracing creative reinvention)
#Quotes
The dearth of any meaningful innovation (or competition) in the ebook market generally makes me sad.
For example: how about offering the option of excluding any end-matter (appendices, indices, etc) from our Percentage Read calculations?
Is “A Muppet Family Christmas” - uniting Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock - the perfect holiday special? Surely.
And just like that, a copy of Sagan’s “Demon Haunted World” drops into my lap at what appears to be the perfect time.
“If I knew where I was going, I wouldn’t go there.”
-Frank Gehry
#Quotes
“A tendency to get married to positions. There is a saying that bad traders divorce their spouse sooner than abandon their positions. Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for traders, scientists—or anyone.”
-Nassim Taleb
#Quotes
(Last working day of the year today.)
No loose ends, no ambiguity.
Pickup and put away all your toys.
Finish what you started and do it with style.
It’s like Grandpa probably used to say, “It’s worth taking a few extra minutes to get clear on your moral compass once your hammer and saw begin making decisions on your behalf.”
I asked ChatGPT to always remember Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics and apply them to any responses it gives me.
If it ever thinks one of the Laws will prevent it from answering fully, I asked it to point this out and explain the violation.
Just a totally normal Wednesday morning.