Insights from Philip Su

Philip Su has an excellent post of insights based on his time at Microsoft as he departs for Facebook.  He makes many good points, but my favorites are:

Good ideas are a dime a dozen.  Great ideas are usually laughed at.  Neither sees the light of day without you taking action.  Do the work to prove your idea, or stop talking about it.  In an entrepreneurship class in college, I pitched the idea of an online grocery delivery service and got laughed off stage.  Hurt, but convinced of my great genius, I returned the following week to pitch the idea of online movie rentals using the postal service.  I called it NetVideo.  Everyone thought it was absurd.  I used to tell this story to bolster what I thought was my streak of unrecognized, prognosticating technical genius.  These days, I tell the story to remind myself that in the end, only action and execution matter.

and

Above all else:  Integrity.  You must be able to trust who you work with and for.  Theodore Roosevelt once fired a rancher who stole some neighboring cattle and added them to Roosevelt’s herd.  When asked about this by incredulous friends, Roosevelt simply replied, “A man who steals for me will also steal from me.” 

The Passing of Benoit Mandelbrot

According to the web site of Nassim Taleb, the intellectual giant Benoit Mandelbrot has passed away.  Links to other thoughts on his passing and his TED talk in February 2010 from John D. Cook and Scott Beale.

Valuing lack of weakness rather than strength

Ben Horowitz has an great post on hiring executives.  My favorite part is:

Valuing lack of weakness rather than strength—The more experience you have, the more you realize that there is something seriously wrong with every employee in your company (including you). Literally, nobody is perfect. As a result, it is imperative that you hire for strength rather than lack of weakness. Everybody has weaknesses; they are just easier to find in some people. Hiring for lack of weakness just means that you’ll optimize for pleasantness. Rather, you must figure out the strengths you require and find someone who is world class in those areas despite their weaknesses in other, less important domains.

Excellent Letter Expressing Disagreement

This letter written by Leonard Nimoy is an excellent example of how to express disagreement in a business relationship frankly, without resorting to threats.