<ul><li>During the early days, most startups are full of energy with no process. They use their sheer force and energy to figure stuff out. </li><li>Being at Google in the early days was like being in graduate school. There were so many interesting projects going on, but no deadlines or plans. </li><li>The interesting part was all of the raw material was there in the room. The trick is all you need to do is to ask the right questions and the answers would come out. For example: If you asked for a product plan, they could create a great product plan — they just didn’t think it was important at the time.</li></ul>

The startup phase

When Eric Schmidt joined Google, they were at 150 employees. In some periods (2004–2005), he had tripled their employees; this is classic Blitzscaling.The approach: It’s easy to double every year — you can imagine adding a person to each team, adding a country, adding a product line, etc.It’s hard to quadruple. It’s difficult to even imagine what quadrupling looks like within an organization.

Scaling Google

No product scales before it works.

An example of when not to scale was Google Wave. It was launched to great fanfare and a base of passionate users. The difficult part is you can’t tell if something is successful until 6 months after the initial wave of excitement.Great products have this big fanfare, big drop off, then a small bump back upwards, and steady usage upwards. Google Wave on the other hand had a wave of excitement and then a steady drop-off downwards.Once you have an app and business model that works — you can scale and go global fast.

When not to scale

I have also noticed the greatest products are typically designed for the benefit of the people who are building them.In Uber’s case, the original product was a private car sharing for a small set of people. Google was built for Stanford but mainly for Larry and Sergei themselves. The first Google server was in their bedroom. Once they outgrew this, they put several servers in their home, the garage, then took over the whole house, etc.

<ul><li>This is an error especially made by non-technical people. They listen to the technical people who say it works and start to scale the organization before the product is working.</li><li>It’s best to think of this process as a very long and tight funnel. It takes a long time to get the product right, then once you get it right you scale up the team as quickly as possible, then go off to a global expansion strategy.</li><li>Another way you know a product is ready is when you and your team can’t stop using it. </li></ul>

Believing you have a product that works before it works

There is a way to systematically hire people better than anyone else. Bob Taylor (founder of ARPANET) said to “sell the dream.”Here is his approach:<ul><li>He called people</li><li>Described what he wanted</li><li>They either got it and got incredibly excited or they didn’t</li><li>If they didn’t, he went to the next person.</li></ul>How hard is that? If people don’t get it initially, are they really going to get it after some persuasion? Probably not. You want someone who gets it.

How to hire the right people

<ul><li>Stay away from "friends of friends". The constant problem was somebody was a good employee, had someone they had worked with, who was very loyal, but not from a great university, and did not have a high GPA. </li><li>Stay away from "glue people.” These glue people are nice people that sit between different groups who assist in activities. They are very loyal and people love them, but the reality is you don't need them — they just slow things down.</li></ul>

Hiring rules at Google in the early days

I don’t agree that you should narrow your focus, you get the best outcome when you get the broadest appeal. (...) I’d be careful to conclude to just do a small thing. All success stems from doing one thing very well — then moving broader.

The idea is you could ask your employees to work on the company for 80% of their time, and the other 20% of the time they could work on whatever they want. If they are passionate about something, they could work on it as their 20% project. At Google, many of the features started as projects turned into core features. Part of the management job was to listen for those 20% project ideas and then aggregate them.

 "20% time"

One major complaint is the teams who are doing the work with the products you see are far larger than they should be. This is a failure of architecture — when you have this many programmers programming, it means they don’t have the right libraries, aka the problem hasn’t been generalized enough.

Failure of architecture

2 people can go off and change the world. Every successful project I have worked on within Google over the past 40 years has started off with 2 people working on an idea together.

"Don’t be evil"

<ul><li>The right founders. The founders have to be smart and good but more importantly the project they are working on needs to be their life's work.</li><li>You need to have some luck.</li><li>Be careful about how much margin you have. The ideal business is to have a business like Microsoft — a monopoly software business with hardware competitors — who are competing for good treatment by you — in a growing industry.</li></ul>

Advice for entrepreneurs

This is session 8 of Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, a Stanford University class taught by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Allen Blue, and Chris Yeh. This class features Reid Hoffman interviewing Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google).

Stashed ideas

Blitzscaling 08: Eric Schmidt on Structuring Teams and Scaling Google

"The Art Spirit", by Robert Henri is about creativity through the lens of an art student.  The book starts, "Art, when really understood, is a province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things - anything. Well, it is not an outside extra thing. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He opens ways for better understanding." Startups are interesting to others. They don't have to be painters to be artists. They can work in any medium.

Startups are like artists

It's not just how important the end product is but the actual craft of doing the work, inventing within the work. Few have the courage and stamina to see it through. You have to make up your mind to be alone in many ways.

Learn how important the work is

The old masters did know how they compose their pictures. Do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them.  It's easy to fall in the footsteps of others, to do what they do because you think it's the right way. You may think if they've had success, you can copy that success. Yet, you have to find your own path to be successful.

Do what has not been done before

An art student must be a master from the start. He must be a master of his own tools. That mastership is not a destination. It is a process and constant practice. It is not enough to think of great things. What really matters is the work. To implement those ideas. Other's success seems like it happened in just a moment, but it takes years and years of patience.

Be a master of your own tools

If you don't have purpose that is shared between everyone, you will not do anything that is timeless. You must focus on building what you want to see in the world. When you have a passion for building for yourself, that' will draw other people to your cause and your team.

You cannot do anything without a shared sense of purpose 

Bill Walsh took a football team near the bottom and brought them to the top. He focused entirely on a new standard of performance. The most challenging transition for an entrepreneur is going from individual action to leading a team. First, start with an idea and a philosophy of purpose, then find people to help you implement it.

The Score Takes Care of Itself, by Bill Walsh

<ol><li>Start with a comprehensive recognition of reverence for identifying the specific actions and attitudes relevant to your team's performance.</li><li>Be clear on your expectations of effort and execution of your standard.</li><li>Let all know that you expect them to possess the highest level of expertise in their area.</li><li>Teach your beliefs, values and your philosophy.</li><li>Teach connection and extension. You don't want independent contractors, you want people who feel connected that can expand the organization.</li><li>Make the expectations and metrics of competence.</li></ol>

Establish a standard of performance

<ol><li>Be yourself</li><li>Be committed to excellence</li><li>Be positive</li><li>Be prepared to recognize fortunate situations and act on them immediately. Good luck is a product of good planning.</li><li>Act professional. Push in your chairs, tuck in your shirts. If you build an organization that does that, you build an organization that cares about itself.</li><li>Be organized.</li><li>Be accountable</li><li>Be near-sighted and far-sighted.</li><li>Be firm</li><li>Be flexible</li><li>Believe in yourself</li><li>Be a leader. Ensure to show and not tell.</li></ol>

Habits of a leader

<ol><li>Exbihit paralyzing patience.</li><li>Engage in massive delegating. </li><li>Act in a tedious, overly cautious manner.</li><li>Become best buddies with certain employees or play favouritism.</li><li>Spend excessive time socializing with superiors or subordinates</li><li>Fail to continue performance evaluations of long-time or tenured staff members.</li><li>Fail to actively participate in efforts to praise and acquire new hires.</li><li>Trust others to carry out your fundamental duties.</li><li>Find ways to get out from under the responsibilities of your position.</li><li>Promote a laid-back organisational environment.</li></ol>

What not to do

<ol><li>Praise is more valuable than blame.</li><li>Set expectations. Use every means before and after comment to tell troops what they're going to do and what they have done.</li><li>Discipline is based on pride in the profession of arms, meticulous attention to detail, and mutual respect and confidence.</li><li>Officers must assert themselves by example.</li><li>General officers must be seen in the front line during action.</li><li>There's a tendency for the chain of command to overload junior officers with excessive requirements in the way of training.</li></ol>

How General Patton ran his army during World War One

<ol><li>Formally celebrate and observe the momentous achievement and ensure everyone feels ownership of it.</li><li>Allow pats on the back for a limited time.</li><li>Be apprehensive about applause.</li><li>Develop a plan for your staff that gets them back into the mode of operation that produced success.</li><li>Address specific situations that need shoring up. </li><li>Be demanding. Do not relax.</li><li>Don't fall prey to overconfidence. Make change for the sake of change.</li><li>Make hard decisions immediately after success.</li><li>Never fall prey to the belief that getting to the top makes everything easy. It doesn't.</li><li>Mastery is a process, not a destination.</li></ol>

How to protect against the success disease

Keep a list of everything that you want to do every day and a list of things that you don't want to do. This will help to establish patterns for yourself. Every day for a week, wake up to this note. Check it throughout the day and before you fall asleep.For example:Do's<ul><li>Stay present.</li><li>Be vulnerable. Show people your mistakes and fears.</li><li>Drink only lemon water and red wine.</li><li>Exercise.</li></ul> Don't's<ul><li>Don't avoid eye contact.</li><li>Don't be late.</li><li>Don't set expectations for someone and not meet them.</li><li>Don't eat sugar.</li><li>Dont drink hard liquor or beer on weekdays.</li></ul>

Keep daily notes

Jack Dorsey at Startup School 2013. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/

Jack Dorsey at Startup School

Gluten is an insoluble protein composite consisting of two proteins: gliadin and glutenin.Gluten is found in certain grains such as wheat, rye and barley. It is responsible for the elastic consistency of dough and the chewiness of foods made from wheat flour, such as bread and pasta. These foods cause problems for some people, like wheat allergy, celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Gluten

<ul><li>Wheat allergy is uncommon and occurs when a person's immune system reacts to wheat proteins leading to mild problems. However, in rare cases, it can lead to anaphylaxis.</li><li>Celiac disease is inherited. Eating foods with gluten leads to inflammation and damage to the lining of the small intestine, which impairs intestinal function.</li><li>People with non-celiac gluten sensitivity experience painful gut symptoms and suffer from fatigue, brain fog, joint pain or skin rash.</li></ul>

Gluten can cause problems for some people

Diagnoses of gluten sensitivity are based on the development of symptoms, the absence of wheat allergy and celiac disease, and subsequent improvement on a gluten-free diet. There's no reliable blood or tissue test because gluten sensitivity isn't a single disease but has several possible causes.

Diagnosing gluten sensitivity

The problems people develop when they eat wheat and other grains aren't exclusively due to gluten. <ul><li>Some people claim gluten sensitivity but are really sensitive to the sugars found in wheat and other foods, called fructans. The intestine can't break down or absorb fructans, so they are fermented by bacteria in the large intestine or colon, causing unpleasant symptoms in people with bowel problems.</li><li>Another possible explanation is the nocebo effect. A person believes something will cause problems, and because of that belief, it does.</li></ul>

Explanations behind gluten sensitivity

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-s-the-big-deal-with-gluten-william-d-chey If you've been to a restaurant in the last few years, you’ve likely seen the words gluten-free written somewhere on the menu. But what exactly is gluten, and why can’t some people process it? And why does it only seem to be a problem recently? William D. Chey unravels the facts behind celiac disease, wheat allergies and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Lesson by William D. Chey, animation by Stretch Films, Inc.

What’s the big deal with gluten? - William D. Chey

People think that memory is supposed to be perfect. However, our brains are not designed to remember everything. People over the age of 50 often think all kinds of forgetting mean they have Alzheimer's. They're always forgetting names, and if they don't write down what they have to do later, they won't remember to do it. However, this is normal for all people.

Forgetfulness is normal

Alzheimer's starts with a sticky protein called 'amyloid beta.' It will bind to itself and form 'amyloid plaques.' If you have enough amyloid plaques accumulated in your brain, it will reach a tipping point at some stage that causes neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, cell death, and other symptoms we classically know as Alzheimer's. Before that tipping point, you're symptom-free. After the tipping point, the glitches in memory formation and retrieval are different.

How Alzheimer's start

Alzheimer's starts in your hippocampus, the place responsible for forming new memories. So, the very first symptoms of Alzheimer's will be not remembering what someone said a few minutes ago, repeating yourself over and over because you don't remember what you just said, not remembering what happened last week, even if it was meaningful. Things you would normally remember from last week won't get consolidated.

Alzheimer symptoms

It will invade your frontal lobe, so you'll have problems with problem-solving and decision-making. It will invade parts of your brain that have to do with where things are in space, so you might get lost in your neighbourhood. It will invade the parts of your brain that have to do with language so that you will have trouble to find the right words more and more. The disease will then move on to your limbic system and cause changes in emotion and personality.

Alzheimer's doesn't just stay in your hippocampus

The accumulation of amyloid plaques takes 15 to 20 years and can be influenced by how we live. Things that influence the amyloid plaque levels.<ol><li>Sleep. While you sleep, the glial cells in your brain clear away all the metabolic debris and amyloid beta accumulated in your brain while you were awake.</li><li>Diet. A Mediterranean diet can reduce your risk of Alzheimer's by almost half.</li><li>Exercise. A brisk walk for 30 minutes, four to five times a week, is enough to decrease your amyloid plaque levels.</li><li>Chronic stress will increase your risk of developing Alzheimer's.</li><li>Learning something new.</li></ol>

The good news

Every time you learn something new, you build new synapses, neural connections, and a 'cognitive reserve.' If someone with Alzheimer's built a lot of redundant connections,  they can dance around those roadblocks and still get to the memory they need.  So, learning new things gives a way to build an Alzheimer-resistant brain.

Learning something new

Only 2% of Alzheimer’s is 100% genetic. The rest is up to your daily habits. Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/c/bigthink Up Next ► 4 ways to hack your memory https://youtu.be/SCsztDMGP7o People want a perfect memory. They wish that they can remember everything that they want to remember. But it doesn't work like that. Most people over the age of 50 think that forgetting someone's name or forgetting why they went into the kitchen is a sign of Alzheimer's. It isn't. Most of our forgetfulness is perfectly normal. If you are worried about developing Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, some simple lifestyle modifications can help prevent it: getting enough sleep, exercising, eating a balanced diet, and managing stress. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/videos/cognitive-decline/ 00:00 The truth about memory & forgetting 01:12 Alzheimer's cause & symptoms 04:21 You need sleep 05:13 Eat a healthy diet 05:45 Exercise, even a little bit 06:15 Reduce stress levels 07:15 Always learn new things 08:39 The good news ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Lisa Genova: Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Every Note Played. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases she writes about and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and NPR. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times. The New York Times bestseller REMEMBER is her first work of nonfiction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read more of our stories on cognitive decline: Your personality is linked to risk of dementia and cognitive decline ► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/personality-mental-health/ Is sleeping longer than 6.5 hours a night associated with cognitive decline? ► https://bigthink.com/health/sleep-cognitive-decline/ Risk factors that determine whether you’re more or less likely to develop cognitive decline ► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/risk-factors-cognitive-decline/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century. ► Big Think+ Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want more Big Think? ► Daily editorial features: https://bigthink.com/popular/ ► Get the best of Big Think right to your inbox: https://bigthink.com/st/newsletter ► Facebook: https://bigth.ink/facebook ► Instagram: https://bigth.ink/Instagram ► Twitter: https://bigth.ink/twitter

5 ways to build an Alzheimer’s-resistant brain | Lisa Genova

Harvey Spencer is flawed and fictional, yet his portrayal can teach you about confidence and power. Much of learning to convey a deep sense of confidence and power has to do with frames.Frames are the unspoken context that dictates the rules of any interaction.

Showing confidence and power

Harvey often surprises people by entering big and bold. He established the frame that the other person will react to his emotional state. You’ll often see Harvey respond slower and subdued when somebody directs him to do something. He takes his time which communicates that he doesn’t need to jump because they say so. When Harvey is in conflict with someone, he responds by not rising to it.

Control the frame with your body language and tone

Harvey has the ability to dictate the frame. Broadcasting that you’re always in control is not a good way to be,  but it does contribute to a sense of awe. Harvey frames himself as nearly omnipotent. He dictates not what he’d like to happen or what he hopes will happen but how things will undoubtedly unfold.

Dictating the frame

<ul><li>When people are nervous or want things to sound more like an invitation, they will use an upward inflection.</li><li>Commands and certainties are often spoken with downward inflections.</li><li>When you tell people what’s going to happen, you typically do it with a downward inflection.</li></ul> For the purposes of charisma, setting a higher energy frame is best in entrances and greetings, while a slower, less reactive frame is more powerful in moments of conflict.

Tonality

Challenging the content would imply that you’ve accepted their frame and need to defend yourself. Shifting the framing is a verbal way of taking back control. The simple act of not being so concerned with defending yourself when someone makes a joke about you will take you a long way. The less you focus on defending yourself, the better your banter will become.

When in confrontation, attack the frame, not the content

The unspoken frame is that others are lucky to be working with you. When others treat Harvey as inferior, he quickly asserts that he has the power to leave them.  If you’re in any kind of sales role or client-facing role, you will do much better if you shift your mindset from “I’m selling to this person” or “I work for this person” to “this person needs me to partner with them.” Rather than work for the praise of a client, Harvey allows them to earn his favour.

Have the belief that you are not there to impress

That way you can make people feel like you have total control over the situation. In reality, you only have control over the menu. The person who controls the menu controls the outcome.  Harvey is savvy enough to recognise that there is always another option that suits him better than what the menu would offer.

Become an expert at framing people’s options

In any negotiation, the person with a better second option will win. Harvey knows that he can always get another client or another job or find another way. He doesn’t need anyone specific to do anything for him. Instead, he can get what he wants and needs from various sources. In your career, create options. You are more likely to get a raise if you’ve been developing your skills in your free time and you know you could get another job.

Create options for yourself

Check out Charisma University: https://bit.ly/2psreFK Subscribe to Charisma On Command’s YouTube Account: http://bit.ly/COC-Subscribe Game of Thrones: How Power Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NQiHtbpa8s Harvey Specter isn't exactly the perfect man. He can be rude, emotionally stunted and sarcastic. But even though he is flawed and of course fictional, his portrayal can teach you quite a bit about confidence and power in the real world. So in this video you’ll learn concrete steps and deeper mindsets for conveying a deep sense of confidence and power. ⏰TIMESTAMPS⏰ 0:48 - #1: Your body language & tone. 4:29 - #2: Attack the framing, not the content of the insult. 5:52 - #3: Don’t be there to impress. 8:09 - #4: Learn to become an expert at framing your options in any particular scenario. 9:20 - #5: Create options for yourself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #HarveySpecter #CharismaOnCommand -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with us further: Website: http://www.charismaoncommand.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/charismaoncommand Instagram: @CharismaOnCommand Or if you want to see our personal stuff: Instagram: @CharlieHoupert Instagram: @IamBenAltman

Blitzscaling 08: Eric Schmidt on Structuring Teams and Scaling Google

Jack Dorsey at Startup School

What’s the big deal with gluten? - William D. Chey

5 ways to build an Alzheimer’s-resistant brain | Lisa Genova

How To Radiate Confidence Under Pressure

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