Mental Models

Fight Right on Conflict Styles:

Partnerships generally fall into three main conflict styles, each existing along a spectrum: 1) Avoiding, 2) Validating, and 3) Volatile.

Conflict Avoidant Couple: They shy away from active conflict, preferring to focus on what works in the relationship rather than tackling issues head-on. This can sometimes lead to cl

Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality. But you can't avoid the consequences of avoiding reality". This is an apt analogy for over-motivated marketing/sales folks trying to optimize for the short-term, at the expense of fixing the real underlying (product) issue, or those who are gaming scorecards, rather than focusing on true financial bottom-line.

Howard Gardner (developmental psychologist) on 7 Types of Leadership that can help understand the way different people think:

1. Linguistic: ability to speak and write well

2. Logic-mathematical: ability to use logic and mathematical skills to solve problems

3. Spatial: ability to think and reason about objects in three dimensions

4. Musical: ability to perform an

Ben Horowitz on Peacetime vs. Wartime CEOs:

Management literature is almost entirely written for peacetime CEOs. Everything you learn about decision-making and delegation and “don't micromanage”, all these things are very peacetime oriented in the sense that in peacetime, you're much more focused on the development of the people and the organization

Cenk Uygur on cultural hardware vs. cultural software (from Lex Friedman podcast):

“You have a spectrum of integrity, empathy, etc. That’s what I would call your hardware. You layer on top of that your software, which is cultural influences, your parents, media, your friends. So, now when you’re in certain industries, they value more integrity. So,

Acquired, on Microsoft's integrated value prop for Enterprise solutions: "if you make everything integrated together work well and come from one vendor, you no longer have to be best of breed. You don't have to compete with any point solutions, because you offer the full stack."

Acquired, on Netscape stock tanking after MSFT announced free IE: "The key lesson here is, if your distribution channel decides to compete with you, and they make that a priority. You might be toast."

Steve Jobs on happy accidents: "Process makes you more efficient. But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has

I think consensus is really the enemy of scale. So I say, “Whenever we’re making an important decision, there should be winners in the room and losers. We shouldn’t find that negotiated settlement that everyone is happy with. Somebody should be unhappy, three or four people should walk out unhappy, and one should walk out happy, and we’re all going

“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” — Daniel Kahneman