Thoughts on "How to Build a Car"
Reading through How to Build a Car, a few product-related themes flow through the entire book: • The constant search for advantages. Poring over the newly released rulebooks to find gaps & technicalities to creatively exploit. Examining other domains for cross-over insights. Every team isn’t just racing on the track, the design/engineering teams are racing each other to identify the smallest of levers before the next team. • The car is a system, not merely an object. The interconnectedness of...
Thoughts on "How to Build a Car"
Reading through How to Build a Car, a few product-related themes flow through the entire book: • The constant search for advantages. Poring over the newly released rulebooks to find gaps & technicalities to creatively exploit. Examining other domains for cross-over insights. Every team isn’t just racing on the track, the design/engineering teams are racing each other to identify the smallest of levers before the next team. • The car is a system, not merely an object. The interconnectedness of...
Striving
Runners & wrappers
Stability compounds agility
“I very frequently get the question, “What’s going to change in the next ten years?” And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question, “What’s not going to change in the next ten years?” And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two, because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.” Jeff BezosEveryone loves this quotation and everyone loves to say they focus on buildin...
Stability compounds agility
“I very frequently get the question, “What’s going to change in the next ten years?” And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question, “What’s not going to change in the next ten years?” And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two, because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.” Jeff BezosEveryone loves this quotation and everyone loves to say they focus on buildin...
Same ball, different games
Apple & Microsoft & Android have each built operating systems, but they're playing different games: premium, productivity, mass adoption; "bicycle for the mind", enterprise-oriented, flexibility. NASA & SpaceX each build rockets, but they're playing different games: government services, interplanetary commerce. OpenAI & Meta & Anthropic have each built generative tooling, but they're playing different games: integration, attention, responsibility. Obsession over comparing What It Is tends to ...
Same ball, different games
Apple & Microsoft & Android have each built operating systems, but they're playing different games: premium, productivity, mass adoption; "bicycle for the mind", enterprise-oriented, flexibility. NASA & SpaceX each build rockets, but they're playing different games: government services, interplanetary commerce. OpenAI & Meta & Anthropic have each built generative tooling, but they're playing different games: integration, attention, responsibility. Obsession over comparing What It Is tends to ...
Innovation is scaled ingenuity
A practical working definition that separates theater from progress
Innovation is scaled ingenuity
A practical working definition that separates theater from progress
