James > James's Quotes

“these foundational business concepts mental models, and together, they create a solid framework you can rely on to make good decisions. Mental models are concepts that represent your understanding of “how things work.” Think of driving a car: what do you expect when you press down on the right-side pedal? If the car slows down, you’ll be surprised—that pedal is supposed to be the accelerator. That’s a mental model—an idea about how something works in the real world.”
― Josh Kaufman, The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

“Business is not (and has never been) rocket science—it”
― Josh Kaufman, The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

“I have no way of knowing that it’s not just some kind of feel-good hoax set up to make customers think the vendor cares while they actually discard the submissions.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“(I should note that when Tom Reingold was at Bell Labs, he not only called and congratulated the submitter of every 1,000th request, he took them to lunch and used it as an opportunity to ask them how they would like to see service improved.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“Schedule Reading Time Never get caught up reading all those computer-industry magazines that come to your mailbox? Schedule a one-hour reading time each week. Find a place to hide, and read as much as you can. Throw out what you weren’t able to read, which keeps your reading material fresh.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I remembered who was telling me this. — Emo Philips”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“You’ll hear me say this again: save your brain for higher-level thinking. Use your organizer for storing information. Don’t trust your brain.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“Calling someone to reschedule wastes time and creates work for the other person. The time I’ve spent fixing double bookings in my life is time I’ll never get back.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“Most companies have a yearly rhythm. For example, retail often has a busy time around December. If you identify the rhythm, you can plan your projects around it. If you don’t, you will find yourself swimming upstream. If your company doesn’t have a defined rhythm, define one for yourself.”
― Thomas A. Limoncelli, Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

“Remember, no developer has ever died from not meeting a deadline.”
― Moshfegh Hamedani, The Blueprint for a Productive Programmer: How to Write Great Code Fast and Prevent Repetitive Strain Injuries

“The Principle of Least Resistance, protected from scrutiny by the metric black hole, supports work cultures that save us from the short-term discomfort of concentration and planning, at the expense of long-term satisfaction and the production of real value.”
― Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

“Writing in the early 1990s, as the personal computer revolution first accelerated, Postman argued that our society was sliding into a troubling relationship with technology. We were, he noted, no longer discussing the trade-offs surrounding new technologies, balancing the new efficiencies against the new problems introduced. If it’s high-tech, we began to instead assume, then it’s good. Case closed.”
― Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Our past is but a former now, our future a potential one. To”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“We often work with young first-time founders at TechStars. Most of them have bought into the myth that you have to work constantly in order to succeed. We think you just have to work productively, and there's a huge difference. To”
― David G. Cohen, Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

“Every minute of every day, the question is never will we be doing something, but rather what that something is we’ll be doing. Sometimes”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Resting is as important as working. There are a few examples of successful people who violate this, but they are not our role models. They succeed in spite of how they rest and renew—not because of it.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Some lead by example, like Rand Fishkin of Moz (formerly SEOmoz), who says his goal is to create a hundred new millionaires — then issued additional stock grants for every Moz employee as a part of the Series B funding, directly out of his personal holdings, to ensure that a financing round wouldn’t be dilutive.”
― Dan Shapiro, Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook

“A lot of new entrepreneurs tell me they’re hustling, and then they’ll ask me if I liked the last episode of Ballers. They’re trying to get a business off the ground and they’ve got time to watch TV? It’s like wanting to lose weight and sneaking away to scarf down a Big Mac. It’s just not going to work. I’m twenty years into my career with two businesses under my belt and the only time I take to watch TV is when the Jets are on. There is so much hustle in my day I don’t even have a second to spare to “hang out” and catch up with the people around me when I’m at work. It may not be ideal for most, but I love it because it allows me to get the things done that I seek to accomplish. You”
― Gary Vaynerchuk, #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness – Timeless Marketing Insights for Business Success

“We shouldn’t view our work as a series of isolated events. Static. Unique. Only vaguely related. The fact is, those presumably isolated events combine to build the story of our lives. A”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Some people just aren’t cut out for the high-octane world of competitive rock-paper-scissors,”
― Justin Groot, The Forest

“Another way in which values can be expressed is in how different teams are treated throughout the organization. As also mentioned in Part III, it is common in startups for engineering teams, especially web and mobile development ones, to be valued more than other, nonengineering teams. While this usually is not explicitly stated, it becomes apparent through behaviors such as allowing more flexible schedules or remote opportunities for engineers; giving them a higher budget for swag, training, and travel; and giving them more recognition for their accomplishments.”
― Jennifer Davis, Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale

“Another harmful myth is “I’m not technical.” In an industry that increasingly glorifies engineers, people in disciplines outside of engineering can stop believing in the value of their own skills and discount their contributions in the workplace. Engineers should not be put on pedestals at the expense of other employees, as it takes more than just engineering skills to grow and maintain a successful business.”
― Jennifer Davis, Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale

“Competing in a 100-pushup challenge in the office This is another example of an activity that can be a way to facilitate group bonding but isn’t necessarily inclusive of people with different levels of physical ability. Especially in startups with a younger median age, team activities can tend to skew toward those enjoyed by a very specific subset of the population. Things like fantasy sports teams; foosball, ping-pong, or pool tables; and fitness challenges can give off a “tech bro” kind of vibe. This isn’t to say that they shouldn’t be allowed, and it might not be possible to find an activity that every single person will love, but it’s important to pay attention to the type and variety of activities and rituals and who they might be unintentionally favoring or excluding.”
― Jennifer Davis, Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale

“Remarkably, in the vast majority of companies (not the ones that are good at product), the actual product teams don't do much ideation themselves. This is because what's really going on is that the ideas are already handed to the product teams in the form of prioritized features on product roadmaps, where most of the items on those roadmaps are coming either from requests from big customers (or prospective customers), or from company stakeholders or execs. Unfortunately, these are rarely the quality of ideas we're looking for.”
― Marty Cagan, Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

“Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

“Liberty is a thing that simply is. It’s wild, natural, and frightening to stare in the face. It promises no comfort, no promises of safety, no easy answers. But it does provide unfettered opportunity. It’s up to each individual to decide just how much liberty they can stomach.”
― Jason Anspach, Order of the Centurion

“When an entire cohort unintentionally eliminated time alone with their thoughts from their lives, their mental health suffered dramatically. On reflection, this makes sense. These teenagers have lost the ability to process and make sense of their emotions, or to reflect on who they are and what really matters, or to build strong relationships, or even to just allow their brains time to power down their critical social circuits, which are not meant to be used constantly, and to redirect that energy to other important cognitive housekeeping tasks. We shouldn’t be surprised that these absences lead to malfunctions.”
― Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

“Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.”
― Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

“To be clear, conversation-centric communication requires sacrifices. If you adopt this philosophy, you’ll almost certainly reduce the number of people with whom you have an active relationship. Real conversation takes time, and the total number of people for which you can uphold this standard will be significantly less than the total number of people you can follow, retweet, “like,” and occasionally leave a comment for on social media, or ping with the occasional text. Once you no longer count the latter activities as meaningful interaction, your social circle will seem at first to contract.”
― Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World