nicole

When it’s just you and me, taking turns is easy: you go, I go, repeat. When it’s you and me and Nina and Marlon, who should talk next? It’s often unclear, so we all stand around waiting for someone else to take their turn or to invite us to take ours. Givers try to salvage these situations by turning them into laborious seminar discussions (“Why... See more

Don’t ship crap.

And it’s really dangerous thinking, but it’s also difficult to know how to do what’s right when you’re doing something new and how much to take from the playbook because it is the right thing and how much to be the innovator.

[6:22] Once something is too painful or not fun or not enjoyable I just stop... we're done, we're taking a break, we're moving on.

[4:04] If I have to do something, or if I have to work for something in the week, the first question I will ask myself is how likely am I to not want to do this task, and how much energy will this take. So, depending on these two factors, it will either go into any part of my day.

Takers can present big, graspable doorknobs (“I get kinda creeped out when couples treat their dogs like babies”) or not (“Let me tell you about the plot of the movie Must Love Dogs…”). Good taking makes the other side want to take too (“I know! My friends asked me to be the godparent to their Schnauzer, it’s so crazy” “What?? Was there a... See more

If I’m ever struggling to understand a business, taking a step back and saying “What is every party incentivized to do?” brings instant clarity. … When push comes to shove, Microsoft needs to defend their castle. They weren't defending it against a productivity upstart. They were defending it against an advertising company that was looking at it as... See more