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They tend to assume that things are impossible, rather than starting from real-world physics and figuring out what’s actually possible.
It’s also true that many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes.
So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future.
“Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader.”
And generally, in our experience, once a knave, always a knave.
If you focus on your competition, you will never deliver anything truly innovative.
Talent—Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do
Scouting is like shaving: If you don’t do it every day, it shows.
“Our people are our most important asset”
A workforce of great people not only does great work, it attracts more great people.
Google is renowned for its fabulous amenities, but most of our smart creatives weren’t drawn to us because of our free lunches, subsidized massages, green pastures, or dog-friendly offices. They came because they wanted to work with the best smart creatives.
Passionate people don’t wear their passion on
their sleeves; they have it in their hearts.
“anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
Favoring specialization over intelligence is exactly wrong, especially in high tech.
Recruiting is everyone’s job, so grade it that way.
The only way to get good at interviewing is to practice. That’s why we tell young people to take advantage of every opportunity to interview.
Getting people to interview is like pulling teeth.
The hiring committee ensures that people don’t hire their friends, unless those friends happen to be superstars.
The urgency of the role isn’t sufficiently important to compromise quality in hiring. In the inevitable showdown between speed and quality, quality must prevail.
“To be a thought leader, you have to have a thought.”
For something to be innovative, it needs to be new, surprising, and radically useful.
20 percent time is more like 120 percent time, since it often occurs on nights and weekends.
Once you see that the project will not succeed, you want to pull the plug as quickly as possible, to avoid further wasting resources and incurring opportunity costs
We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.”198