joshuago’s management Bookmarks

Every seven years, the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes a one-year sabbatical. As he argues, that's not so crazy.

Super achievers don't manage their time, they create, manage and maximize their opportunities. At any given time they know the one critical, must complete, task and they work on that task. It is the most important and therefore deserves their full attention. They know their down time is ten times more important to their success than their "work" time.

But once I started getting people to view and interact with my prototypes, I realized that one of the big problems was that people didn’t give good feedback when the prototype you present to them is too perfect.

If you're a regular at a restaurant and the staff has one off-night, you can be patient because you know the food is worth the wait. If it's your first visit... not so much. And, importantly, you probably won't return. Initial impressions count, in software and in everything else.

Just like an extremely lethal virus dies out, terrible business practices also never quite see the light of day. It is these stealthy, annoying, nasty, creepy, sneaky, and irritating, pains-in-all-sorts-of-bodyparts practices that tend to persist. They don't kill instantly, but gradually wear a firm down.

Fixing bugs is only important when the value of having the bug fixed exceeds the cost of fixing it. You should also charge the support cost of a product to the product division, not the support division. This will properly align incentives and increase transparency.

Why does HCL Technologies, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, not hiring more people in America? The CEO's answer: because most American college grads are "unemployable." Beyond the need to bolster competencies in math, the hard sciences, and basic problem solving, U.S. schools at all levels must place a greater emphasis on global history, foreign languages, and other subjects that prepare students for jobs and life outside this country.

Marc Andreessen argues that market is the most important factor to a startup's success.

The group writes software this good because that's how good it has to be. Every time it fires up the shuttle, their software is controlling a $4 billion piece of equipment, the lives of a half-dozen astronauts, and the dreams of the nation.