Greatness
exploring the foundations of quality and the currents that fight against mediocrity
sari and
Greatness
Intellectually, we know details and small differences matter. We can see the slight differences between two products that look similar on the surface but one is merely functional and the other is delightful. We can hear the differences between two orchestras playing the same notes, yet one rendition makes you yawn, and the other gives you... See more
Small Differences and Consistent Compounding
In Search of Greatness
amazon.com
to watch list
When I see outsized success I’m aware it’s a result of trying more, sometimes trying and failing for years or in a way that lacks social recognition. When I’m moved to tears by mastery of craft — the elegance of movement, of process, it’s due to devotion of time and spirit. Things don’t just become great by accident. Most times its a long and quiet... See more
Nix 🕊 • highly concentrated effort
Quality is so rare generally that people are often surprised by it.
Quality rarely happens as an accident, it usually means someone is willing to go further building something that necessarily. At least, someone has to be motivated and allowed to do it, not forced to solely focus on some measurements.
Quality, brand and culture are some of those... See more
Quality rarely happens as an accident, it usually means someone is willing to go further building something that necessarily. At least, someone has to be motivated and allowed to do it, not forced to solely focus on some measurements.
Quality, brand and culture are some of those... See more
Karri Saarinen • Tweet
sari and
Morale compounds via work: high morale helps you do good work, which increases your morale and helps you do even better work. But this cycle also operates in the other direction: if you're not doing good work, that can demoralize you and make it even harder to. Since it matters so much for this cycle to be running in the right direction, it can be... See more
Paul Graham • How to Do Great Work
My philosophy re startup speed has completely changed over the last few years.
I grew up at Uber, professionally, which held speed as the absolute, ultimate goal.
Now, I still value speed, but hold quality as the binding constraint.
Flo Crivellotwitter.comagree w/this point. speed gets less important the more competitive your market is. when the market is already full of crap you really need to rise above the rest
Love this definition of art, from Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
... See moreArt is anything you can do well, anything you can do with quality, anything where there are options for doing it well or poorly. And there are very few things in this world that don't have options for doing it well or poorly. So you can make an art
“anything where there are options for doing it well or poorly”
I asked Kelly about the tradeoffs of focusing on a single thing if you want to be great (which is what I had been getting at before). “Greatness is overrated,” he said, and I perked up. “It’s a form of extremism, and it comes with extreme vices that I have no interest in. Steve Jobs was a jerk. Bob Dylan is a jerk.”