People
Ben Horowitz: High Tech’s New Andy Grove
If Silicon Valley is rich, how come it ain’t smart? How is it that we consistently generate innovative companies but rarely produce management thinkers of consequence? Part of the problem is that many technology leaders are neurotic. They need to be: nobody really knows what is going to work and your idea will most likely [...]
"Remember: Your Mother Owns a Bank"
The Jamkid and I caught Muhammad Yunus at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco this afternoon. Yunus is the Bangladeshi banker who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering microcredit loans to women. He also serves as the godfather of social enterpreneurship – the fashionable and laudable notion that many social causes are best organized [...]
Warfare at the PhD level
Failure is usually easy to spot since mistakes are costly, painful, or at least embarrassing. Success, on the other hand, is easy to overlook. Noticing what works is important in business and in wartime — especially if the war is not going well. I wrote earlier about the success of the 101st Airborne in Mosul, [...]
Why the iPad Matters — even if you are already sick of it.
The PR was stunning, the product impressive, and the strategy tiresome. Apple stoked rumors of a dreamy tablet for either two years old or thirteen, depending on how you count. For six months, the leading tech blogs have been quivering with speculation about the "Jesus tablet". One blog, Gizmodo, offered $100,000 cash for an hour [...]
Atul Gawande: America's Doctor
Who is Atul Gawande and why is he having a bigger impact on your life than any physician in America who is not treating you?Gawwande is a cancer surgeon in Boston. A Rhodes Scholar and the recipient of a MacArthur "genius grant", he trained at Harvard, and Stanford and grabbed a Masters in Public Health [...]
The Thriller is Gone
I was down two Ouzos in a country taverna when a snappy kick, snare, and hi-hat commanded my attention. A repetitive bass followed by a four note synth and shaker hooked me before the vocals had even begun. And not only me. The banter in the crowded Greek bar hushed as people began to dance. [...]
Billionaire Amazon CEO works in his own warehouse.
He looks like a leprechaun and laughs like a hyena, but do not ever underestimate Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Back in 2006, Amazon accounted for 5.1% of all online sales. Now it accounts for 6% and it's cash flow more than doubled. The company ranks 8th in the Fortune 500 for ten year [...]
Can Ron Bloom Save the US Auto Industry?
As mentioned in an earlier post, I think very highly of Ron Bloom, the Steelworker Financial adviser just named by President Obama as the non-czar car czar. Ron and Diana Farrell of the National Economic Council will head up the task force that will oversee the restructuring of our car companies. Both are first-rate appointments.Ron [...]
Bicentennial of Heroes
Today two of my heroes celebrate their 200th birthdays. Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809. Neither Lincoln nor Darwin were especially popular during their lifetimes and for different reasons, both were often caricatured as apes. Lincoln may be remembered as our greatest President, but he was also one of America's [...]
Man from A Place Called Phoenix
Bill Clinton famously campaigned as a man from A Place Called Hope. More impressive, perhaps, is the man from a place called Phoenix. Recall that the capital of Arizona is named for the mythical bird that manages to ignite itself at the end of its life, reduce itself to ashes, and arise young and reborn. [...]
"Brick Walls Let us Prove How Badly We Want Things"
Some universities have been asking faculty to give the last lecture of their life. It’s a wonderful forcing device: take an hour and tell us everything important that you have learned. For Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor, it was more than a forcing device. The 46 year old father of three small [...]
Chauncey Bailey and Oakland's Nation of Islam
Friday was another gorgeous day in the Bay Area — the latest in a summer of perfect days. Alibris had a company picnic at the beach in Alameda featuring small children armed with water balloons. I enjoyed cycling home on a bike I have been slowly assembling for a few months. I passed through Oakland’s [...]
Hitchens vs. God and Islamic Jihad
Our crack shot, karate-chopping, head-bashing action-hero Christopher Hitchens calls a spade a damned shovel in today’s Slate. His piece, entitled "Don’t Mince Words: The London car-bomb plot was designed to kill women" begins Why on earth do people keep saying, "There but for the grace of God …"? If matters had been very slightly different [...]
"No Power in the Market and No Voice in the System"
Bill Gates’ Harvard commencement address is being circulated widely in Silicon Valley — and with good reason. He gave an outstanding speech (rather, he wrote an outstanding speech — he cannot deliver a speech to save his life). In the tradition of commencement speeches, Gates reminded grads of their social obligations — a noblesse oblige [...]
BDS Spreads as Blair Prepares to Step Down
Timothy Garton Ash, one of Europe’s most astute political observers, recently described the extreme reaction of dinner guests to unpopular political leaders. …The sole duty of any self-respecting commentator is to interrogate and then indict Blair – as if he were a cross between Radovan Karadzic, Augusto Pinochet and Adolf Eichmann…As at many a London [...]
"Rather Be Miserable With Than Without It"
"Rich man he say he would guessMoney can’t buy happinessPoor man he say he don’t doubt itBut he’d rather be miserable with than without it." — traditional Calypso ditty Michael Spence is a ridiculously accomplished scholar. Some years back, he won the Clark award given to the nation’s best economist under 40. After serving as [...]
Scooter and Skilling: Fools or Felons?
Start with my prejudices, which many people share. I do not especially like Dick Cheney’s aide Scooter Libby or Enron President Jeff Skilling. Both strike me as men who chose to advance narrow and unworthy goals: the sharp-elbowed, mean-spirited, zero-sum politics of the Cheney/Bush White House or the creation of an energy trading giant built [...]
David Petraeus, Rock Star General
Throughout the ages, great countries have honored their great warriors. School children are taught the names of our nation’s war heros: John Paul Jones, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, Billy Mitchell, Alvin York, Jimmy Doolittle, Douglas MacArthur. Great warriors are celebrities — and should be. Can an army general be a celebrity these days? We [...]
Never Apologize, Never Explain?
Why do most leaders have a hard time apologizing when they screw up? Harry Truman, long one of my favorites, concisely summarized the prevailing wisdom: "Don’t ever apologize for anything". I’m probably missing a chapter here, but why not? P.G. Wodehouse, creator of Jeeves, suggested a reason in The Man Upstairs: "It is a good [...]
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
Cities concentrate people, wealth, culture — and memories. In New York this week, I walked by an Indian restaurant and recalled a lunch almost twenty years ago with friends who tried to persuade me to come work on Wall Street. Across from the restaurant stood a former men’s club where I pitched an IPO fifteen [...]
