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“Indefinite attitudes to the future explain what’s most dysfunctional in our world today. Process trumps substance: when people lack concrete plans to carry out, they use formal rules to assemble a portfolio of various options. This describes Americans today. In middle school, we’re encouraged to start hoarding “extracurricular activities.” In high school, ambitious students compete even harder to appear omnicompetent. By the time a student gets to college, he’s spent a decade curating a bewilderingly diverse résumé to prepare for a completely unknowable future. Come what may, he’s ready—for nothing in particular.”
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
“In philosophy, politics, and business, too, arguing over process has become a way to endlessly defer making concrete plans for a better future.”
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
“It’s amazing to consider that no matter what size customer we were pitching, or where in the world we were selling, a singular idea drove all our accomplishments: we never sold features. We sold the model and we sold the customer’s success.”
― Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry
― Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry
“The government used to be able to coordinate complex solutions to problems like atomic weaponry and lunar exploration. But today, after 40 years of indefinite creep, the government mainly just provides insurance; our solutions to big problems are Medicare, Social Security, and a dizzying array of other transfer payment programs. It’s no surprise that entitlement spending has eclipsed discretionary spending every year since 1975. To increase discretionary spending we’d need definite plans to solve specific problems. But according to the indefinite logic of entitlement spending, we can make things better just by sending out more checks.”
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
― Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Justin James’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Justin James’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
44 books
|
1,754 friends
290 books
|
171 friends
62 books
|
57 friends
519 books
|
94 friends
236 books
|
53 friends
101 books
|
34 friends
0 books
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19 friends
6 books
|
43 friends
More friends…
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