The Hard Thing About Hard Things- Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz from the venture capital firm Andreesen-Horowitz is a nice, frank guide to what it’s like to run a startup.

My brief (unedited) notes

technical debt (when you do a quick hack but have to fix it later) corresponds to management debt. It’s almost always better to make the hard decision right away. [ technical debt is sometimes okay as long as you recognize it and have a plan for paying it back: ‘we did this to get to market first, but then we have to refactor’]

Andreeson’s philosophy: titles are free, so give them away. Zuckerberg: no, reserve titles for the best-of-the-best.

Culture

dogs at work, yoga, etc. aren’t culture because they don’t apply to everyone.

Ones and twos CEOs

• Ones: feel comfortable knowing stuff

  • Like to hire twos

• Twos: feel comfortable rallying others to do what you know

• Peacetime vs wartime Most management books are about peacetime.