Comments for Moments In Succession

Comment on Why Jobs and Zuckerberg Are Bad Role Models, Luck is Understated in Success Stories, and “Nice Guy” Business Leaders Are Ascendant by Eric

Eric — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:12:24 +0000

I completely agree with your innovation model & that we over-emphasize the individual over the confluence of synergistic factors.
But I’m not as sure about the nice-guy hypothesis. Seems to me a nice-guy corporate culture is a luxury afforded by over-achieving companies (eg, Google) and perhaps a kind of motivation in smaller, personality-driven cultures (Tina Brown vs. David Remnick). Success will always attract talent, even if the bosses are assholes, seems to me.

Comment on Why Jobs and Zuckerberg Are Bad Role Models, Luck is Understated in Success Stories, and “Nice Guy” Business Leaders Are Ascendant by Rufus Griscom

Rufus Griscom — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:13:59 +0000

Andrew — I completely agree that winners keep on winning, and that is partly because people under value the luck quotient in winning. As a consequence, people who have a much easier time succeeding the next time, so the inevitability of their success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Job’s success with Pixar was not easy, but it probably would not have happened at all without all the relationships and financial and repetitional advantages he had after starting Apple. A Steve Jobs in another era would not have this advantage.

I would not have this opinion if I had not read the Jobs bio (the first half anyway) — there are a lot of immature jerks in the world of business, but he is on another level. Had he not experienced extraordinarily good historical timing he would have had to either compromise his world view, like most people, or become a starving poet in Paris, his plan b. More compromise would have made him more functional and it would have removed some of his magic.

People love to say how amazing it is that Zuckerberg never sold. That’s not because he was unusually confident, it’s because he was young. Young people always think their company will grow to be 1,000 times larger, it’s endemic to the state of being young. People who happen on success early have a lot of behaviors they would have otherwise had to unlearn had they not been lucky, behaviors that make them bolder and more narcissistic, but sometimes that’s the right combination. — r

Comment on Why Jobs and Zuckerberg Are Bad Role Models, Luck is Understated in Success Stories, and “Nice Guy” Business Leaders Are Ascendant by Andrew Boer

Andrew Boer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:59:18 +0000

I always find you thought-provoking. Quite hard for me to imagine Steve Jobs as a failure in another era — he succeeded in several very different eras, and he restarted a few times as well.
I think history tells us that people mostly want to be led/sold to by a winner; and if you keep winning and creating value for your followers/customers – people will overlook everything else. When you stop winning–then people start to look at how you treated them — but I think in general folks give far too much credence to what corporate culture or personality “wins.”
If you had the right mixture of charisma, drive, calculation, ambition, and callousness — I think you were likely to succeed in almost every historical era. Napoleon bragged that he could train men to sacrifice their lives for a scrap of ribbon – and I could see French Steve Jobs arguing the same. I don’t see him content to be a poet (for long).
Collaborative approaches are definitely in vogue in the corporate world, academia, and politics — Bur when it comes to entrepreneurship, where you can now create a 80 billion dollar company in 7 years — I see plenty of wonderful, collaborative men and women who are successful founders and I also see plenty of jerks. What do the rich ones all have in common? They kept winning.

Comment on The Fate of the Purple Spotted Editor: Evolve or Die by Marissa

Marissa — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 17:54:52 +0000

Wow! Such a wonderful, multidimensional discussion. Thank you for the article and for opening a discussion that is relevant for everyone in the writing, publishing, and blogging arenas.

A great many valid points on both sides. Interesting considerations well worth pondering!

~Marissa

Comment on The Fate of the Purple Spotted Editor: Evolve or Die by Greg Zeck

Greg Zeck — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:44:09 +0000

Yes, both writers and editors must become humble “content providers.” We will dump it in (the box, outside of which we are not invited to think), in mass quantities, a la the Coneheads.

Comment on The Fate of the Purple Spotted Editor: Evolve or Die by Carol Tice | Make a Living Writing

Carol Tice | Make a Living Writing — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:13:20 +0000

Sure, editors will be extinct — as soon as all writers online learn how to use correct grammar at all times, spell correctly, and punctuate perfectly. My sense as someone who reads many blogs is we have a long way to go on that.

I don’t agree that length no longer matters. I think length has never mattered more. Being able to write a really useful 300-word post, crafting a print-and-save quality 1,000-word post…length on good blogs is as important and intentional as it is when the copy has to be squeezed between print ads. Those who ramble on online without writing tight will face the same fates as many in the editorial departments of traditional papers that don’t change with the times.

Comment on The Health Benefits of Losing Arguments to Your Wife by Jason

Jason — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 04:59:09 +0000

Extremely well said. Found my way to your post via your TED discussion w/ your wife Alisa. My wife and watched it together, chuckling at virtually the same sections. Linking the post with the talk, I’m wondering if your growing family (congrats on the arrival of bambino numero tres BTW) and the associated responsibilities as husband/father is augmenting or challenging your community connectedness?

Happy New Year to you & yours.
Jason

Comment on An Old Trunk by Rufus Griscom

Rufus Griscom — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:24:10 +0000

Thanks my friend. I love the Freudian mispelling, actually … memory sells seems kind of accurate. What I don’t have in there but I may have somewhere is R&L detailing! Happy holidays.

Comment on An Old Trunk by Leif

Leif — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:13:15 +0000

Cells

Comment on An Old Trunk by Leif

Leif — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:12:41 +0000

The tshirt ad really brings it back. Fun to read about the time capsule. Nostalgia gets a bad rap and actually I think there is a difference when one doesn’t actually have perfect recall so that going through the trunk is to revive the actual knowledge of the past. With a rocky memory, I really appreciate giving these dormant memory sells a kick. Wishing you and family happy holidays and great success with santa. I am sure you are on his good list. At least, that is my hope.