inluminent

Things on the internet have a way of disappearing, so I’m copying the below so I know I have it, if I ever want to reference it. Originally posted at http://www.ycombinator.com/pagequotes.txt:

(This article originally appeared on a site that split it across
*eleven* pages. To save people from that I copied it into a single
text file. -pg)

Secrets of success from Google co-founder Larry Page

January 5, 2009

# If you have a product that’s really gaining a lot of usage, then
it’s probably a good idea.

# When you grow, you continually have to invent new processes. We’ve
done a pretty good job keeping up, but it’s an ongoing challenge.

# We built a business on the opposite message. We want you to come
to Google and quickly find what you want. Then we’re happy to send
you to the other sites. In fact, that’s the point. The portal
strategy tries to own all of the information.

# Pretty early on, I saw a newspaper story about Googling dates.
People were checking out who they were dating by Googling them. I
think it’s a tremendous responsibility. If you think everybody is
relying on us for information, you understand the responsibility.
That’s mostly what I feel. You have to take that very seriously.

# Part of our brand is that we’re pretty understated in what we do.
If you look at other technology companies, they might preannounce
things, and it will be a couple years before they really happen,
and they don’t happen in the way they said they would.

# Through innovation and iteration, Google takes something that
works well and improves upon it in unexpected ways.

# If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a
better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and
balancing going on.

# The ‘be good’ concept also comes up when we design our products.
We want them to have positive social effects. For example, we just
released Gmail, a free e-mail service. We said, ‘We will not hold
your e-mail hostage. ‘ We will make it possible for you to get your
e-mail out of Gmail if you ever want to.

# The dotcom period was difficult for us. We were dismayed in that
climate… We knew a lot of things people were doing weren’t
sustainable, and that made it hard for us to operate. We couldn’t
get good people for reasonable prices. We couldn’t get office space.
It was a hypercompetitive time. We had the opportunity to invest
in 100 or more companies and didn’t invest in any of them. I guess
we lost a lot of money in the short term — but not in the long
term.

# Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them
to change the world. Google has large computational resources and
distribution that enables individuals to make a difference.

# We don’t have as many managers as we should, but we would rather
have too few than too many.

# We think we’re an important company, and we’re dedicated to doing
this over the long term. We like being independent.

# Serving our end users is at the heart of what we do and remains
our number one priority.

# It definitely helps to be really focused on what you are doing.

# My experience is that when people are trying to do ambitious
things, they’re all worried about failing when they start. But all
sorts of interesting things spin out that are of huge economic
value. Also, in these kinds of projects, you get to work with the
best people and have a very interesting time. They’re not really
taking a risk, but they feel like they are.

# From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user
experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers
first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices
to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to
make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come
to the site.

# You (the Google user) want answers and you want them right now.
Who are we to argue?

# Many leaders of big organisations don’t believe that change is
possible. But if you look at history, things do change, and if your
business is static, you’re likely to have issues.

# If we are not trusted, we have no business. We have such a lot
to lose; we are forced to act in everyone’s interest.”

# I would rather have people think we’re confused than let our
competitors know what we’re going to do.

# We chose it (the name Google) because we deal with huge amounts
of data. Besides, it sounds really cool.

# The ultimate search engine… would understand exactly what you
mean and give back exactly what you want.

# Our company relies on having the trust of our users and using
that information for their benefit. That’s a very strong motivation
for us. We’re committed to that. If you start to mandate how products
are designed, I think that’s a really bad path to follow. I think
instead we should have laws that protect the privacy of data, for
example, from government requests and other kinds of requests.

# Many companies are under pressure to keep their earnings in line
with analysts’ forecasts. Therefore, they often accept smaller,
predictable earnings rather than larger and less predictable returns.
Sergey and I feel this is harmful, and we intend to steer in the
opposite direction.

# We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun
elements. I don’t know if other companies care as much about those
things as we do. We spent a lot of time getting our offices right.
We think it’s important to have a high density of people. People
are packed together everywhere. We all share offices. We like this
set of buildings because it’s more like a densely packed university
campus than a typical suburban office park.

# We’re trying to use the web’s self-organising properties to decide
which things to present. We don’t want to be in the position of
having to decide these things. We take the responsibility seriously.
People depend on us.

# Google is organised around the ability to attract and leverage
the talent of exceptional technologists and business people. We
have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working
stars. We hope to recruit many more in the future. We will reward
and treat them well.

# By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has
built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come
not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one
satisfied user to another.

# You don’t want to be Tesla. He was one of the greatest inventors,
but it’s a sad, sad story. He couldn’t commercialise anything, he
could barely fund his own research. You’d want to be more like
Edison. If you invent something, that doesn’t necessarily help
anybody. You’ve got to actually get it into the world; you’ve got
to produce, make money doing it so you can fund it.

# Invariably we try 10 things that don’t quite work out in order
to do one thing that’s successful. And we learn a lot in doing the
10 things that didn’t quite work.

# We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things
we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I
think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.

# We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun
elements. I don’t know if other companies care as much about those
things as we do.

# It is an advantage being young. You don’t have as many other
responsibilities.

# If you have a great product that meets people’s needs, they start
telling their friends, especially when it’s a search engine, which
is something that everybody has to use. So we’ve actually been
growing 20 per cent per month, compounded, for our whole history,
and without spending any significant money on advertising. It’s an
incredible phenomenon.

# We were, I guess, lucky enough to be trying to be profitable long
before it was fashionable, and that was a really good decision. I
think it’s more luck than real insight on our parts, but Sergey and
I really felt a lot better about having a business that could
actually make money. So we figured that once we were at that stage
then not much could hurt the company.

# We are focused on providing an environment where talented, hard
working people are rewarded for their contributions to Google and
for making the world a better place

# The amazing thing is that we’re part of people’s daily lives,
like brushing their teeth. It’s just something they do throughout
the day while working, buying things, deciding what to do after
work and much more. Google has been accepted as part of people’s
lives. It’s quite remarkable. Most people spend most of their time
getting information, so maybe it’s not a complete surprise that
Google is successful.

# Our goal is to organise the world’s information and to make it
universally accessible and useful. That’s our mission. When we
started, we had about 30 million Web pages, which was quite large
for the time — that was two years ago. Now, we have well over a
billion Web pages. So that gives you some idea of how we’ve grown
in content. So we try to make more and more stuff available to
people. We try to, when you come to Google, fulfill that need that
you have as quickly as possible.

# Because of our employee talent, Google is doing exciting work in
nearly every area of computer science. Our main benefit is a workplace
with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow.

# We’ve actually been very deliberate about making all of our
decisions in a way that minimises the risk that we will go out of
business basically. We have pretty conservative financial planning.
That turned out to be really smart, and we’ve had tremendous viral
growth anyway, so we haven’t really had any marketing expenses or
things like that and we have huge volumes.

# The increasing volume of information is just more opportunity to
build better answers to questions. The more information you have,
the better.

# You can try to control people, or you can try to have a system
that represents reality. I find that knowing what’s really happening
is more important than trying to control people.

# In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our
online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to
daily life in our Googleplex headquarters.

# Technology knowledge is going to drive wealth: people’s ability
to deal with technology and to build interesting things.

# Always deliver more than expected.

# It is a tremendous responsibility for us to have all eyes focused
on what we do and to give people exactly what they need when they
ask for it.

# We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with
respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and
improve their health and productivity.

# Our opportunity and responsibility has continued to expand. It
doesn’t feel all that different to me than it did a few years ago.

# The thing that matters is experience. We have lots of executives
from failed companies; they learned a lot from these things. They
say, ‘We can’t do that — we tried that and it didn’t work.’ So
failure is useful.

# When you have basic technology you find interesting things to do
with them, and if you’re lucky they’ll turn into something big.

“Today is the best day to do something, if you want something done.” - John Engler, 1/5/2009 in a IM conversation with a friend.

I got an email from Southwest Airlines today, touting a sale to Las Vegas this spring. 50% off. That’s good!

I have a trip planned for Las Vegas from January 11 - 13, so I clicked the link. Read that their fare sale starts on January 13th, so I knew I wouldn’t get their fare sale prices, so I just searched their site for pricing on regular tickets (Southwest has always had great prices, so I figured I’d check them out).

Their search engine showed me that my round trip would cost me $700 or so… which is pretty rediculous for a flight a) to Las Vegas from Austin, Texas, and b) for any flight on Southwest anywhere…

So, I went to AA.com, and check American Airlines‘ prices for a flight on the same day. The result: $150 round trip.

Sold. Flight booked.

See you in Vegas at Affiliate Summit West 2009, if you’re going (and if you’re not, you should think about it - it’s one of the best performance marketing shows out there, and it’s run by the two best people in trade shows today: Shawn Collins and Missy Ward).

I got this from a friend on Thanksgiving this year. It’s no secret I went to Texas A&M, which has been doing pitifully in College Football lately. I got a good chuckle out of this:

From: Roy Hayhurst
To: John Engler
Subject: Fwd: From a Baylor Fan on How To Cope with being in Last Place….
Date: November 23, 2008

John: I thought of you when one of my Baylor alumni friends sent this to me. Hope you’re well and all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving.

From a Baylor Fan on How To Cope with being in Last Place….

I wanted to share some thoughts from the hit book, How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South. This book, originally authored by fans of Baylor University, with foreword by Oklahoma State, has been a work in progress for 25 something years now.

Now that we have handed that prestigious torch off to your school, and it looks like it will stay that way for quite some time, you and your Aggie friends may want to really get into this material. Here are some highlights:

Chapter 1. Bring up past records when discussing your program with friends. The best way to do this is to start from the present and go back through the past until you can find where you have more wins than “x” team. Inconsistencies in time frame do not matter - it can be 5 years for one team and 45 for another.

Chapter 3. Find other parts of your athletic program that you can be proud of and meticulously learn and promote their accomplishments, no matter how embarrassing the sport. Baylor has done this recently with women’s basketball, tennis, and most notably, track and field (Olympic gold medalist anyone?). Rumor has it that your men’s club lacrosse team is pretty awesome. Just throwing that out there.

Chapter 5. Find a couple of solid scapegoats and complain tirelessly about them. Your fan base has already advanced far in this area, with “Shermione” and “$Bill” taking the brunt of this effective relaxation technique.

Chapter 10. Pick a team to hate and root for their failure. For Baylor fans, this has been you, and look how well it’s worked! It’s like The Secret - the power of positive thinking. It’s very refreshing to change the channel from a frustrating loss and watch your sworn enemy fail. You may have to really dig deep here - you want a team that is average to pretty bad. You losing and them winning is a double whammy, so don’t set your sites too high (UT/Tech). Arkansas is a good start, they’re down this year.

Chapter 11. THIS IS A BIG ONE. Focus on moral victories. This chapter has a lot of content, so really pay attention to it. Within the umbrella of the moral victories chapter you’ll find subsections such as: a) Don’t pin your hopes on winning the game, pin your hopes on covering the spread. The spread is key, and beating the spread will bring you years and years of joy. b) Get excited about first downs. These may be harder to come by than you think, so really cherish them. c) Find remote stats that can highlight your improvement. Really dig into improvement. This should be a buzzword to use in the coming years.

Chapter 12. Talk about the other redeeming qualities of your school. This is tricky, because it’s actually really dorky to engage in academic smack talk, but, if done correctly, can deflect the focus of a conversation away from your school’s crappy football program and onto other areas where the playing field is more level. Now, I’m tailor making this to A&M a little here, but I would recommend you focus on your strong engineering and business school reputation, and don’t forget to bring up your various traditions! People never get tired of hearing about this.

Chapter 14**. Find another school to support on the side. This chapter is very controversial and was only added in later editions. I myself never went down this road, but several of my friends found a great deal of relaxation and comfort in finding a side school. While immediate family connections are the best (grandfather graduated from Penn State or mom and dad met at Florida), it is also valid to dig deep into your family’s history to find that great aunt that went to Alabama or that second cousin who got a masters at USC. The further away the school, the better. Claim that you have been watching them for years - especially as a little kid growing up. This helps ward off eye rolls and front-runner accusations from your friends. **Note: though highly successful, this chapter can be very dangerous, and is probably the only method that will incur hatred from fellow alumni and students. Use Chapter 14 at your ownrisk. Advanced students only. I’d say you’ll be there en mass around 2013 - although seeing how your fan-base is bailing after 3 losing seasons out of the past 24, you may be there as early as 2010. Talk about advanced students!

That’s it folks. I’ll send you a copy for free - we’re so excited to share this with a team not named Baylor. And you may read this and think: wow, Baylor is pathetic. This is really sad stuff. No, no! This is you! This WAS Baylor and now IS your school! I’m talking about what you and your fan base will be and have already started saying and doing.

So there you go. Gig ‘Em.

Merry Christmas Everybody:

LOL:

Mandles: Candles for Men. 1% Wax, 99% testosterone. Mandles come in a variety of scents: Chuck Norris Sweat, Raw Meat, Wet Dog, Pigskin, and many other manly scents. so get your mandles now.

Love this video:

I ordered a new computer monitor from Dell last Friday. Black Friday.

It “shipped” according to Dell, on Monday, 12/1 at 5:17 p.m. (that’s when I got the email from them).

How come at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, they still don’t know what shipping carrier it’s going out on, or what the tracking number is? Or for that matter where it’s being shipped to? (See screenshot below, click for larger version)

Seriously. The item is “Shipped”. I can see that plainly on the order tracking page.
But the Carrier and Tracking Number aren’t available?

I’m in Austin. Dell is in Round Rock. It’s about a 30 minute drive, at most. I wouldn’t mind driving up there to pick up the item too… though I understand that’s probably not very efficient for them to offer…

But seriously, is the item shipped? Or just ready to ship?

Their interface is a bit confusing.

updated on 12/3: The monitor arrived today. I love it, but oddly the “order status” page still can’t tell me if it’s being shipping by a certain carrier (it was UPS) or what the tracking number was. Not a very good customer experience.

Great concept. Great question. Great video:

Seth Godin writes things all the time that just make so much sense. In his post “The You Show” I found this nugget:

“Some bosses don’t want to hire people who have a vision, a personality and a shtick. That’s okay. You don’t want to work for them anyway.”

[via @tylerfonda]

If someone can deep link to your site, and your site requires login, figure out how to make your “Access Denied” page more inviting. Take for example this page from SocialToo:

I clicked a link from @GuyKawasaki’s twitter feed and the resulting page didn’t tell me why I wanted to create yet another account on yet another system, at all. What is SocialToo? What am I missing out on by not being part of that community? Why should I create an account, other than to read what Guy was linking to?

I’m a busy guy… give me a reason to sign up. You’re missing an opportunity to sell your service to me SocialToo.

The next time someone asks you about “monetizing social media” or asks “what about Facebook, do you have a way for us to make money with Facebook?”, send them this article:

P&G Ad Man: “I Don’t Want To Buy Any More Banners On Facebook.”
Nicholas Carlson | November 17, 2008 5:15 PM
Procter & Gamble spends more than $300 million a year advertising its soaps and foods. If Facebook’s going to be an ad-supported business, it needs some of that money.

Too bad then, that Procter & Gamble’s GM for interactive marketing and innovation, Ted McConnell,” just told a conference: “I really don’t want to buy any more banner ads on Facebook.”

“I have a reaction to [Facebook] as a consumer advocate and an advertiser: What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

McConnell says branded Facebook applications could work, but that mostly, he rejects the idea that Facebook is social “media”:

“Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

Facebook won’t be able to win over ad buyers like McConnell with its new “engagement ads.” Advertisers want to be seen as providing new functionality on the social network; they don’t want to pay extra for users to comment on their banners.

Here’s what Facebook should do instead. First, extend Facebook Connect to online retail stores. Second, analyze users’ spending behavior and activity on Facebook, make that data anonymous and sell it to marketers. Third, turn on personal ads and charge more than the New York Times does — about $48/week.

My buddy sent me this today, with the title “Best iPhone Support Message Ever”.

Here’s the whole thread on Apple’s forums, if you want to read the gory details.

LOL!