BlogSat

Just as a book club discussion at work on Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs ' autobiography concluded, I started " Insanely Simple " by Ken Segall. The book is a reasonable read in terms of style and content, weaving a number of anecdotes form the author's interactions with Jobs and experience at Apple and some other companies into some themes. But this book left me as deflated and angry at myself as I've felt in ages after reading a book. As you go over Jobs' insane focus (and that adjective has more meaning as used here) on keeping product design simple and ruthlessly thinking through how to achieve that, you realize just how short you and most others fall from that standard. The temptation to add complexity (in the product and for the user) is so strong in most teams and processes, that most products and companies don't escape it. The book has a bunch of examples of how and why so many fall in the trap  and how Jobs avoided it. Quick recom...

I ended up actually getting some reading done on long train rides over the summer break. Two short articles ended up giving me more to think than I'd expected. Clayton Christensen's   How will you measure your life ? Peter Drucker's: Managing oneself The former isn't behind an HBR paywall and well worth the read. A couple of people had told me about this article and had discussed a lot of what was in it with me, but reading was still well worth it. The latter is behind a paywall, and while there's a lot to take away form it (find your strengths, understand how you learn, grow your strengths etc.), the point that stayed with me was the final one: know your values and if your values aren't consistent with those of where you're working, it doesn't matter how good you are or what you do, you're unlikely to be successful there. So find a place and role where you fit. If you're in the mood for some career-ish reading, I highly recomm...

Every once in a while, I'm reminded that humans can be completely lacking in humanity. My wife had the following experience yesterday on her ride back home. She got on the train and found a seat. The train was unusually crowded and it looked a lot of people had to stand for a long ride. An elderly Asian gentleman carrying a few things in both hands, was looking for spot, started to complain smilingly about the train being so full and stood in the aisle at the back of the carriage some seats away from her. She expected someone closer to gentleman in the aisle (lots of younger people on the train) to give him their seat. No one did. The train started, and it was clear the man was having a lot of trouble standing up. Then at the next stop there was actually an announcement saying the train was full so please give up your seats to people who needed them. Still nobody moved. My wife got up walked to the end of the train and asked the gentleman to go over to her seat. Sh...

One my favorite professional-ish quotes (source is hazy) is "There's a huge difference between 20 years experience and 1 years experience 20 times." I interpret that as a few different things: the need to constantly grow, to learn new things, develop professionally etc. etc. - but for the past couple of weeks, in brief pauses while being on vacation, I've been thinking about when and how that actually happens. We're in execution mode most of the time. We're doing things either for work or in our personal lives and we often measure how well we're doing by the sheer number of things we do.  We are programmed to favor things that seem urgent over things that are important. Learning, however, is most effective in the pauses - i.e. not when you're doing but when you have a chance to step back and review what you actually did. If we're not regularly reviewing we're not likely to improve, and even more importantly less likely to learn from our ...

This started out as a very different post on Father's Day that I couldn't actually finish... but here goes a more rambling one that  I think I can. :-) Father's Day: Last Sunday was Father's Day. I never remember celebrating Father's Day - I may have wished my Dad once, because we were on the phone and my mom told me there were TV ads for Father's Day running. But this was the first one, where as I heard the ads and marketing, I was reminded that I couldn't wish my father even if I wanted to - and I regretted all the times I felt I could or should have. As is often my (annoying) habit, I started thinking about what this meant and why the right thing to do is to live life in a way that there are no such regrets, but that's just not possible, is it? No regrets:  is not possible. We're conditioned to make satisificing  decisions, and even with perfect information and rational decisions and incredible decision-making discipline, chance/luck etc. ...

I sent this in an email earlier in the week and it felt like one of those Sundays when reading these again might be the thing to do. :-) If you're feeling all reflective and such - and missing some product inspiration, I can also recommend some light reading :-) the classic  Good PM, Bad PM   - ( shorter, better version here )   the recent, but still good quora answer by Ian McAlliser to What  does a 1% PM  look like?

I'd heard it often enough, but I didn't know it had a name too: the " Lake Wobegone effect ." " a  cognitive bias  that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. " You've likely encountered it often as well: perhaps its the stat that 80% of all drivers think they're above average, perhaps it was in poll data where most people expect their peers to be worse off than their parents, but expect to do better than their own. The bias is important to recognize - on an average its likely you're not as that much better than everyone else at something as you think you are. But on the other hand, unless you believe that you are (or will be) better than everyone else its hard to actually be better than everyone else. So recognize the effect, but sometimes recognize that the belief is necessary.

Once in a while, you get some really, really great advice - so great that it is the most obvious thing in the world once you hear it. Its the kind of advice that definitely bears repeating; so here goes. I was chatting about the strategy of a certain product with a senior product lead over lunch. I started talking about what it should be doing going forward, when the person I was talking to asked me pause. "Given where they are, and what they knew then, what do you think should've happened six months ago instead?" I paused for thought. "If it is hard to answer that question" , he continued, "even when you are 100% omniscient about how things will play out, its less likely you can figure out the right path going forward." The past isn't a predictor of the future, but it does inform it and at the very least “Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”  -  George Santayana As obvious as it is, this kind of thinking...

The Economist has a great cover story this week on the fading sheen of public companies . The stat below stood out to me. The number of public companies has fallen dramatically over the past decade—by 38% in America since 1997 and 48% in Britain. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in America has declined from an average of 311 a year in 1980-2000 to 99 a year in 2001-11. Particularly as I discussed the mechanics and laws of the IPOs last night with my wife (in the context of the supposed Morgan Stanley mangling of the Facebook IPO ), the incredible inefficiency of the entire IPO and stock pricing process became so clear to me - it made me appreciate the Google IPO auction even more.

Its been two months since my Dad passed away today, and I find myself remembering things he'd mentioned to me in passing a lot these days. This one, in particular, came to my mind today. Help others, especially if they ask you for help, whenever you can. Its easy and you'll feel good that you did. However, almost as importantly, never, ever expect anything in return - even thanks, certainly not praise or a returned favor. You'll very likely be disappointed and less likely to help the next time around. Its good advice, and over the years has definitely made my life better - especially the second part. :-) So, if someone asks you for help, do it and enjoy the feeling it gives you. Just as importantly, discipline yourself to expect absolutely nothing in return.

I had this discussion with a couple of people in the last two weeks, which is a good sign that this may be something to blog about. :-) The discussions I had were around the ever-growing importance of design and designers in Silicon Valley (in particular, of consumer Internet start-ups) - articles  such as this  and news like this  are great examples of that. I think this importance for design in the context of consumer Internet startups is because technical innovation is no longer enough  to build winning products. In bullet point form, Remember when you went 'Wow!' because something just worked even if it was harder to use than necessary? When that video you uploaded to YouTube just played back; or that photograph you took was online and your friends could see it; or when you got all that free storage space to use. You expect that now and turns out there's always more that one way to do these things now and more than a few services that let you do the same t...

Many, many years ago as part of a team a Stanford BASES competition (which we won, but the amounts were much, much lower then. :-)), I heard Guy Kawasaki speak. He was then covering a lot of ideas from his book, The Art of the Start . The one I remembered today was "Ask women about your idea". His reasoning was that most men always thought in competitive terms, i.e. "I want to crush the competition" , " We have to win" etc. Now I'm not a fan of stereotyping. I think its simplistic, lazy and leads to errors, but as a movie character once said , " I'm like my grandmother, I stereotype. It's faster." :-) Many men think in aggressive terms and a lot of women don't - which means they're often better (on average) at evaluating ideas. Guy's advice was that asking women about your idea (if you were a man) was a good way to make sure you weren't doing something for purely competitive reasons. This is a long-winded ...

A great principle at Google is 70:20:10. In the words of one of the founders ( link here ): "About 70% try to work on the core efforts of the company," explains Brin, "about 20% goes to adjacent areas and expansion, and for the 10%, anything goes.  Its an important way that the company stays innovative and continues to grow and do interesting things. Now what's true for organizations, need not apply to individuals.  There are rewards for complete focus and excellence at what you do. However, there's an argument to be made that, similarly to stay innovative and grow, a lens of 70/20/10 may yield optimal results for an individual as well. What's your 70/20/10? :-)

Perspective is important and sometimes we forget how lucky we are. Today a combination of chance and too many emails meant I saw 7 online profiles where some variation of 'change the world' was how people described their goals. Its an admirable aim - I confess to using it myself once in a while. In fact, I've been part of dozens and dozens of conversations where friends and colleagues wondered if they were actually changing the world, or when they would, or at the very least how they would make a dent in the universe. How would we all leave our mark or at least find our bliss - after all if we weren't, were we failing at life or doing it all wrong? How else would we be happy? Wasn't the point of it all to do something incredible, and find fame and fortune? Then today morning on the radio on the drive to work, I heard about the story of a 60-year old retiree who had lost her house. She was doing an unpaid internship, working 50 hours a week, to learn a ne...

Some of my favorite posts come from Ben Horowitz's blog , and I love the phrase I first read there -  the ' right kind of ambition '. It refers to employees who are ambitious, but whose ambition is directed towards great outcomes for their company - and out of that, great outcomes for themselves. That attitude in employees (especially senior employees and leads) is critical if companies are to make good decisions and stay successful. While hiring employees with that attitude is key, what I've realized is just as important is maintaining an environment where these employees feel they will be rewarded for keeping that attitude. I realized this when I was talking to a younger person (I've also realized I'm often the older person in a conversation now :-))  whom I've always believed had those qualities. But this time he was asking for advice on exactly the wrong things - about how he could get ahead and not what the right thing to do was and how to get i...

I can't remember when I last read a series of articles twice. This collection of articles from   about new manufacturing technologies and processes, the shifts its bringing in how companies are thinking about manufacturing is absolutely fascinating. I spent an hour afterwards trying to learn more... 

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute"   - Josh Billings I am an introvert and shy by nature so, when I was younger by I naturally listened a lot more than I spoke. I enjoyed presenting and debating, but only when it was my turn to be on stage. In personal, smaller conversations I generally just sat back and smiled and listened to other people speak. Then I grew up and was in environments with people that talked a lot and talked fast. I also suddenly realized that I thought fast enough to keep up and started enjoying hear myself speak even as I was forming what I wanted to say - particularly when we were debating a topic or an idea.  Before I knew it, I found myself talking over other people - not intending to be rude but generally because I saw where the other person was going and figured what I had to say just had to be said right then. #facepalm Furthermore (and I have an MBTI personality test that confirmed this :-)) by nature I tend to look ...

I realized that on some Mondays, I felt more energized and enthused than usual about work. Right away, I also realized why. I help with Noogler orientation and on a few Mondays (when its my turn in the rotation), I talk to new Google employees about Google ( the culture, what we do, why, how, what it means to be a Googler etc.) and answer some of their questions. It leaves me incredibly energized for a couple of reasons Verbalizing is powerful -  "Words become Actions"   In particular, new employees have an energy, passion and optimism that's hard to match. Starting with a clean slate, new employees (indeed people that are starting anything new) have an innocence, energy and enthusiasm that often fades for anyone that's done something for a while. I find the sessions almost as useful to me as they are to new employees, and there's a lesson there. No matter what you do, if its something you love, talk to others about it - advise them, mentor th...

Imagine a bunch of really, really smart people in a room... but they also had me. :-/ They meet, talk to leadership, feel like they had a great meeting and then go away. They're pumped and excited about the great discussion they had. Now fast forward to a week later - I find the Rashomon effect in full force. Everyone agreed (more or less) on what was said at the meeting, but most had drawn slightly (in some cases significantly) different conclusions as to what to do next. This is hardly unusual and extremely understandable - everyone came in with slightly different view points and ideas, and so focussed on (or extrapolated) different parts of the discussion. As a result they drew different conclusions. Now this shouldn't have happend and wouldn't if we'd run the meeting like all Google meetings should be . Moral of the story: Take notes - always. Make sure you appoint a note-taker at the start of the meeting or before it.             ...

A few days ago I had the following conversation with a customs agent at San Francisco airport - as an Indian returning from India I get sent to the customs line even when I check "No food" on the customs form. :-) Agent: "Any food?" Me: "No" Agent: "Sure? No jira or cadipatta ? Me : "No....     well actually I do have a box of cereal." Agent: "Huh. What? Really?" Me: "Yes. Its a brand you don't get here." Agent: "Seriously. Even in the Indian stores? I've never heard that before." Me: "Ummm....yeah." I love reading local customization stories, particularly about how international chains tailor their offerings to local markets - the food industry has the best examples of these - check out this McDonald's story about the McPaneer , or how KFC is incredibly successful in China . But I seem to have missed that the customization extended to breakfast cereal. Turns out the ...