Archive

Recent posts

• Things that can kill you quickly ‣ Dec 27, 2022
• The lessons of Xanadu ‣ Aug 7, 2022
• My simple guide to life ‣ Apr 3, 2022
• Reflections on six months of fatherhood ‣ Jan 31, 2022
• Precognition ‣ Jun 13, 2021
• Who is Scott Alexander and what is he about? ‣ Feb 13, 2021
• Announcing Progress Studies for Young Scholars ‣ May 19, 2020
• What I still want out of time management tools ‣ Apr 25, 2020
• What went wrong with the ventilator stockpile? ‣ Apr 1, 2020
• “Ascend the Hierarchy”: Let's improve online discourse ‣ Mar 29, 2020
• The civil liberties threat from COVID-19 ‣ Mar 20, 2020
• The dilution of precise concepts ‣ Jan 28, 2020
• What “disruptive” actually means ‣ Jan 24, 2020
• Taking the plunge ‣ Oct 28, 2019
• Organizing for ownership ‣ Sep 14, 2019
• Holding a creative vision as a moral principle ‣ Aug 24, 2019
• How to jump on a rocket ship ‣ Aug 3, 2019
• Missing the light at the end of the tunnel ‣ Jul 27, 2019
• 13 Minutes to the Moon ‣ Jul 20, 2019
• “10x engineers”: Stereotypes and research ‣ Jul 14, 2019
• Managers should get their hands dirty ‣ Jul 6, 2019
• Career advice from Marc Andreessen ‣ Jun 30, 2019
• Going overboard ‣ Jun 8, 2019
• The silent reading technique ‣ Jun 1, 2019

The Fieldbook years

2014–2018, when I was running a startup and didn’t really have time to blog

• What happened at Fieldbook ‣ May 11, 2018
• Announcing Blind Audition ‣ Dec 13, 2016
• Minimum Viable Culture ‣ Apr 19, 2016

The early years

2009–2013, when I had just moved to San Francisco

• “Request for Comments” ‣ Dec 1, 2013
• Amazon’s “two-pizza teams”: The ultimate divisional organization ‣ Jul 30, 2013
• Meteor demystified ‣ Jun 12, 2013
• Immigration is a moral issue ‣ Apr 24, 2013
• Fighting regulation and winning ‣ Apr 6, 2013
• Plan for some failures ‣ Feb 25, 2013
• Cowboys & artists ‣ Feb 21, 2013
• Working with Steve Jobs ‣ Feb 10, 2013
• How to not micromanage ‣ Jan 31, 2013
• Why you shouldn’t hire based on experience ‣ Jan 29, 2013
• Three buckets ‣ Jan 23, 2013
• Honesty and courage in business ‣ Jan 13, 2013
• Making “doing it right” easy ‣ Dec 2, 2012
• To the circling vultures ‣ Nov 9, 2012
• Grit and determination ‣ Oct 27, 2012
• Ayn Rand and Silicon Valley ‣ Oct 25, 2012
• Map vs. compass at Facebook ‣ Aug 12, 2012
• Managers who make your job easier ‣ Aug 5, 2012
• Everyone goes through The Struggle ‣ Jun 16, 2012
• How to (and how not to) cold-email a candidate ‣ Jun 6, 2012
• “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat” ‣ May 31, 2012
• The difference between Facebook bulls and bears ‣ May 27, 2012
• Telling 6 million friends ‣ May 10, 2012
• How to cope with the Gmail redesign ‣ Apr 21, 2012
• Does great work have to be cold and lonely? ‣ Apr 19, 2012
• The real first-mover advantage ‣ Apr 9, 2012
• What real passion looks like ‣ Mar 15, 2012
• When there is no map, you need a compass ‣ Mar 12, 2012
• Peak age for entrepreneurship: who cares? ‣ Mar 1, 2012
• Don't overplan your startup ‣ Feb 24, 2012
• “Learning the necessary skillset” ‣ Jan 6, 2012
• How to be a culture mismatch at Amazon ‣ Dec 27, 2011
• Startup idea: Turnkey self-publishing service for authors ‣ Dec 26, 2011
• To speak in one's own voice ‣ Nov 12, 2011
• “All customers change from something” ‣ Nov 5, 2011
• User-generated content? Bah! ‣ Oct 23, 2011
• What allows Amazon to be so innovative? ‣ Oct 11, 2011
• Steve Jobs ‣ Oct 6, 2011
• Creative lessons from Sondheim ‣ Aug 1, 2011
• Remembering Danny Lewin, first victim of Sept. 11 ‣ May 2, 2011
• Startups don't hedge their bets ‣ Apr 28, 2011
• Startups are born into wartime ‣ Apr 21, 2011
• Paul Graham on “The New Funding Landscape” ‣ Oct 21, 2010
• Barcode Hero is live—and we're hiring! ‣ Aug 20, 2010
• Words you're probably using wrong ‣ May 8, 2010
• How to work with “stupid” people ‣ Apr 24, 2010
• Software undergoes mitosis: Why Twitter's API strategy was brilliant ‣ Apr 11, 2010
• Respect the competition ‣ Mar 17, 2010
• Leading on solutions vs. problems vs. values ‣ Feb 25, 2010
• Where is the tablet sweet spot? ‣ Dec 14, 2009
• How do you get your data? ‣ Dec 11, 2009
• Does user experience or developer experience drive platforms? ‣ Dec 5, 2009
• Sean Ellis on “Milestones to Startup Success” ‣ Dec 2, 2009
• More on smart vs. dumb, thick vs. thin ‣ Nov 22, 2009
• Smart terminal, dumb terminal ‣ Nov 21, 2009
• The next iPhone multitasking stopgap: sync? ‣ Nov 20, 2009
• Query for judgment ‣ Nov 17, 2009
• Error messages are part of your UI ‣ Nov 10, 2009
• Silence is golden ‣ Nov 8, 2009
• Two weeks' notice? Or twelve months? ‣ Oct 28, 2009
• Throwing decisions into the bottomless pit ‣ Oct 23, 2009
• “No” is better than “maybe” ‣ Oct 22, 2009
• Sucked into the black hole ‣ Oct 21, 2009
• Crossing the Rubicon ‣ Oct 19, 2009

Also

Children’s book recommendations

A philosopher orders pizza