Goktug Yilmaz's Reviews > Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

- Ordered, disciplined but boring work > Chaotic, unorganized but fun work. Fun goes away when you make no money.
- If you have an epic technology or a technology creator, put the company around that tech to showcase it as best as you can.
- Remove all distractions in your life except work and you will be successful.
- Read everything, learn and experiment everything in your line of work to be successful.
- Small, highly motivated lean teams produce much more than large teams.
- After a certain number, about 10, software teams do not get any value from increased headcount.
- Find a growing distribution channel and conquer it.
- Find a growing market and conquer it.
- Everything trendy in the software world was discovered 20 years ago by id software, history repeats itself.
- Open source the software you created after 5 years passes when your competitive advantage is worn off.
- Make software that is hackable in terms of UI so your hardcore users can edit and mod it.
- Do not patent software, don't be evil. All of science, technology, culture, learning and academics is built upon using the work that others have done before. But to take a patenting approach and say it’s like, well, this idea is my idea, you cannot extend this idea in any way, because I own this idea—it just seems so fundamentally wrong. - Carmack
- “In the information age, the barriers just aren’t there. The barriers are self-imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don’t need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the dedication to go through with it. We slept on floors. We waded across rivers.” John Carmack
- No matter how successful you become, focus on the product, not publicity.
- “Carmack was of the moment. His ruling force was focus. Time existed for him not in some promising future or sentimental past but in the present condition, the intricate web of problems and solutions, imagination and code. He kept nothing from the past–no pictures, no records, no games, no computer disks. He didn’t even save copies of his first games, Wraith and Shadowforge. There was no yearbook to remind of his time at Shadowforge. There was no yearbook to remind of his time at school, no magazine copies of his early publications. He kept nothing but what he needed at the time. His bedroom consisted of a lamp, a pillow, a blanket, and a stack of books. There was no mattress. All he brought with him from home was a cat named Mitzi (a gift from his stepfamily) with a mean streak and a reckless bladder.”
- Create a great workspace & environment that fosters creativity.
- Romero wants an empire, I just want to create good programs. (Good programs win)
- Team with people who have similar vision.
- Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.