Imagine being in a heated debate and hearing someone say, “Let’s disagree and commit.” You’d respond, “Commit to what? My idea or yours?” So what did Barksdale do? He created a piece of lore so memorable it outlived the company itself. At a company all-hands he said: We have three rules here at Netscape. The first rule is if you see a snake, don’t call committees, don’t call your buddies, don’t form a team, don’t get a meeting together, just kill the snake. The second rule is don’t go back and play with dead snakes. Too many people waste too much time on decisions that have already been made.
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