Many companies loudly proclaim their desire to innovate, but how many know what it actually takes? The most innovative companies don’t tell their employees how to innovate. They suppress traditional management and instead manage the chaos, trusting it will lead to creative breakthroughs. This approach is epitomized by former Google CEO and Alphabet Chair Eric…
It isn’t easy leading an organization that’s doubling or tripling in size every year. To lead a blitzscaling organization, you need to be as skilled at breaking plans as you are at making them. And few people do this as well as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who has been instrumental in building two of the…
Over the holidays, I had a chance to reflect on 2016 and everything that occurred during it. Obviously, this included major geopolitical events like the U.S. election and Brexit. But I also spent some time reflecting on events taking place closer to home, including an unfortunate situation involving one of the country’s most important institutions…
Each time someone buys Trumped Up Cards until Inauguration Day, I’m donating $10 to the ACLU When we started selling Trumped Up Cards to the public in September, we noted that we’d be giving all profits to charities already working to make America great. Our first area of focus will be on organizations that protect civil liberties. As…
TL;DR: Today, my wife Michelle and I are announcing a $20 million commitment to support the work of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a new laboratory space in San Francisco where researchers and clinical scientists from Stanford, UCSF, and UC Berkeley will pursue life science breakthroughs in a cutting-edge, collaborative environment. I will be joining the Biohub board. Software…
WE MUST VOTE YES on PROP 62. In California, all executions take place in San Quentin prison. In 2010, the administrators there built a new “lethal injection room” for this purpose that has yet to be used. The medical exam table in the center of the room is outfitted with tranquil mint-green cushions and a set…
In this series, professionals attending Next:Economy share their insights on the future of work. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #NextEconomy somewhere in the body of the post and @mention Next:Economy conference panelists when sharing. For more insight and news on the Next:Economy, sign up for the weekly newsletter here. The idea that we’re shifting to the “next economy,” to…
In this series, professionals attending Next:Economy share their insights on the future of work. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #NextEconomy somewhere in the body of the post and @mention Next:Economy conference panelists when sharing. For more insight and news on the Next:Economy, sign up for the weekly newsletter here. In the U.S. alone, almost 5.9 million jobs currently go…
Earlier this year, as Donald Trump turned the Republican primary debates into an endless Friars Club Roast, my team and I started talking about this political circus and its impact on democracy. Is it good or bad to present presidential debates as glitzy, prime-time game shows? Are campaign rallies that feature more group chanting than…
In 2012, Donald Trump called President Obama “the least transparent president in the history of this country.” Then he offered to donate $5 million to charity if President Obama would release “his college records and applications” and his “passport applications and records.” Now, in 2016, Trump is facing a similar challenge from a 26-year-old Marine…
Recall Judge Aaron Persky Three months ago, former Stanford student Brock Turner was convicted on three counts of sexual felony assault, for crimes he committed against an intoxicated and unconscious woman next to a dumpster outside a frat party. Today, he is being released from Santa Clara County Jail after serving just half of his six-month sentence. While…
The Seventh Sense will help you develop a feel for the Networked Age As Joshua Cooper Ramo suggests in his important new book, The Seventh Sense, massively scaled, always-on connection changes the nature of objects and institutions. A heart-rate monitor that shares information with a million other heart-rate monitors functions differently than one that operates in standalone fashion. The…
Spoiler Alert: Richard is the best manager on the show (True spoiler alert: This essay contains spoilers about the Season 3 finale; you have been warned!) While you might think that HBO’s Silicon Valley is a hit comedy about startups, venture capital, programming, egos, sex (well, for Erlich and Jared, at least), friendship, mind-altering drugs (well, for Erlich…