• The real secret of Silicon Valley is that it’s really all about the people. Sure, there are plenty of stories in the press about the industry’s young geniuses, but surprisingly few about its management practices. What the mainstream press misses is that Silicon Valley’s success comes from the way its companies build alliances with their employees. Here, talent really is the most valuable resource, and employees are treated accordingly.

    The most successful Silicon Valley businesses succeed because they use the alliance to recruit, manage, and retain an incredibly talented team of entrepreneurial employees.

    — The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al.

  • The only defense a person has in our overcommunicated society is an oversimplified mind. Not unless they repeal the law of nature that gives us only 24 hours in a day will they find a way to stuff more into the mind. The average mind is already a dripping sponge that can only soak up more information at the expense of what’s already there. Yet we continue to pour more information into that supersaturated sponge and are disappointed when our messages fail to get through.

    Advertising, of course, is only the tip of the communication iceberg. We communicate with each other in a wide variety of bewildering ways. And in a geometrically increasing volume. The medium may not be the message, but it does seriously affect the message. Instead of a transmission system, the medium acts like a filter. Only a tiny fraction of the original material ends up in the mind of the receiver.

    — Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout

  • When you strip away all the rational mechanics of decision making — the generation of options, the weighing of information — what’s left at the core is emotion. What drives you? What kind of person do you aspire to be? What do you believe is best for your family in the long run? (Business leaders ask: What kind of organization do you aspire to run? What’s best for your team in the long run?) Those are emotional questions — speaking to passions and values and beliefs — and when you answer them, there’s no “rational machine” underneath that is generating your perspective. It’s just who you are and what you want. The buck stops with emotion.

    — Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

  • Creativity is needed to come up with original ideas, which need to be critiqued, evaluated, and elaborated. Many different possibilities need to be explored before focusing on those that have the most potential value. And it is product teams that are able to combine these different behaviors—and switch between them in flexible ways—that are best suited to succeed in the world in which we now find ourselves.

    — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan

  • Product marketing is truly a great on-ramp for any career path in tech. It can lead anywhere, and if you’re lucky enough to lead people doing it, help grow them into tomorrow’s company leaders.

    — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco

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