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During the start-up phase at Fairchild Semiconductor there had been no sense of bosses and employees. There had been only a common sense of struggle out on a frontier. Everyone had internalized the goals of the venture. They didn’t need exhortations from superiors. Besides, everyone had been so young! Noyce, the administrator or chief coordinator or whatever he should be called, had been just about the oldest person on the premises, and he had been barely thirty. And now, in the early 1960s, thanks to his athletic build and his dark brown hair with the Campus Kid hairline, he still looked very young. As Fairchild expanded, Noyce didn’t even bother trying to find “experienced management personnel.” Out here in California, in the semiconductor industry, they didn’t exist. Instead, he recruited engineers right out of the colleges and graduate schools and gave them major responsibilities right off the bat. There was no “staff,” no “top management” other than the eight partners themselves. Major decisions were not bucked up a chain of command. Noyce held weekly meetings of people from all parts of the operation, and whatever had to be worked out was worked out right there in the room. Noyce wanted them all to keep internalizing the company’s goals and to provide their own motivations, just as they had during the start-up phase. If they did that, they would have the capacity to make their own decisions.

The young engineers who came to work for Fairchild could scarcely believe how much responsibility was suddenly thrust upon them. Some twenty-four-year-old just out of graduate school would find himself in charge of a major project with no one looking over his shoulder. A problem would come up, and he couldn’t stand it, and he would go to Noyce and hyperventilate and ask him what to do. And Noyce would lower his head, turn on his 100 ampere eyes, listen, and say: “Look, here are your guidelines. You’ve got to consider A, you’ve got to consider B. and you’ve got to consider C. ” Then he would turn on the Gary Cooper smile: “But if you think I’m going to make your decision for you, you’re mistaken. Hey… it’s your ass.”

Products are born from usage patterns and not from something that imposes a paradigm upon you. Imposing is weird

—Sparrow takes flight: how a startup built the Gmail app Google couldn’t | The Verge

putorti:

After a year of building Votizen with the team, I finally had a chance to take a small break over the holidays and reflect. I’ve worked in the Valley for almost five years now. Crazy to think how fast the time flied, and how I’m more excited than ever. Since I haven’t written much lately, I…

(Source: putorti)

no matter whether you believe in fate or free will, they both affect many paths in life: from the college we go to, to where we live, to the jobs we take and to the people we run into and with whom we become friends and lovers. but i think the most powerful of these factors is location – where we are now and where we choose to live. i think that location, more than anything else, is a powerful determinant of which path one will take in life.

Leadership, by Tom Brady

This is a pretty unbelievable clip. The Patriots were down by 7 with about 8 minutes left in the game. They had to score quickly; stop the Bills; get the ball back and score to tie the game. Pressure-packed but doable by football standards.

Brady executes by throwing a flawless pass to Chad Ochocinco near the endzone. Ochocinco drops it. Physical - but not mental - mistake. Watch Brady’s reaction…most quarterbacks would have cursed or at least put their hands on their helmet with exasperation. Brady doesn’t react, and moves to the next play. He knows that people will make physical mistakes - that’s part of the game - and there’s nothing constructive about “showing up” a fellow player who just made one. Just move on to the next task.

The Patriots ended up scoring but it took about 3-4 minutes longer than necessary so they ran out of time. Lots of people claim to have poise - and that’s usually measured by how you execute with immense pressure. But this clip showed me that “poise” is not just measured in whether you executed, but how you react when things don’t bounce your way.

betashop:

Here at Fab.com we’re compiling some awesome data on the design industry and consumers’ tastes and interests with regards to design.

Our goal over time is to publish a regular “Fab.com Social Design Commerce Index” with data on what’s trending.

Here’s a manual version as a first step towards…