YouSaid · the spoken record

Alex Kantrowitz

lines on the record: 90
first: 2020-05-04
most recent: 2020-05-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“They'll deliver. There's a lot of innovation happening right now. By the time the stairs, I'm sure we'll have curbside pickup, or at least I hope”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You want to find me online, I'm pretty online person, so Twitter is good. My last name is my handle, K-A-N-T-R-O-W-I-T-Z. And then if you want the book, just Google or use whatever search engine you want to type in always day one. And it's available at all bookstores, Amazon, Barnes& Noble, Indie Bound.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. Well, I think on a hello tour with it. And I was like Text next time, Mark. Come Mr. WhatsApp. That's right. Well, you know, he's not going to eye message you because he hates Apple. It's amazing how much Apple.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's interesting. They haven't invited me in recently. That's right. Well, I think every time I talk to a different reporter, they're like, oh, I just met with Mark. I'm like, oh, I didn't. I'm looking at WhatsApp. No, nothing, nothing. Although, to be fair, he wrote me one some WhatsApp and I don't use WhatsApp. And so I didn't see it for six months. And I was like, oh, sorry. Text next time, Mark. Come on. Mr. WhatsApp. That's right. And he's like, why weren't you looking at it? I was like, I don't use that stupid product. Ridiculous. He's not going to I'm.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd like to say yes. I mean, I've seen some signs that I think it might change a little bit. For instance, I talked about this feedback culture inside Facebook. And so Facebook has been very bad at considering non-techno-optimist perspectives. And I do think they've made a real effort to change their feedback culture and start adding new people into it. So I have a section called New Inputs that talks about the adversarial media buyers and the journalists and the academics and even some ex-spies that they've hired into the company to sort of inject them into this, into the way that they build products. So it's a sign.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think that's been sort of my bang on that drum. I call them like that. The lack of self-reflection is really quite astonishing over the years, just this idea that they can't possibly reflect on consequences and consider it a negative to they think it slows them down for sure. That's right.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But there's this obsession with growth and the incentives, like the way that it's weighted in people's evaluation, did you grow your product? Did you hit your metric? To me, that's absurd. When companies start to move towards, did you build a good product? Did you build something that's going to help society? And eventually help the company. That's when you start to get into a place where the products they build and the company cultures are much healthier. But as long as they're obsessed with growth, you can say, once you set that incentive, your employees will find a way to meet it. And it won't necessarily always be in an above board way. And then five, six years later, you're answering about it in front of Congress. So chill out with the growth tech giants and think about.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I've written about this in BuzzFeed, but to me, it's amazing. I don't think it's needed. Like if you build a good product, eventually people will come to it.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're never going to knock off the tech giants. But I do think that once this knowledge starts to become democratized and people inside the economy that are not them start to work this way, maybe make some experiments with automation, then there's a chance that we can start to beat them. And I've sort of been heartened by the response to the book, like we've not had any book buys from the tech giants, but we have had bulk buys from startups and from media companies and from a contractor that works with the government. And this is exactly the type of people that I want the book to reach. So this is sort of my perspective. I think that if we change culture, we change the way we work, we have a chance to elbow in and make sure that the next book I write doesn't have a subtitle about the tech giant staying on top, but how the economy became more even.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You begin by changing the way you work. And I know this is going to sound biased, but it really is the case because I really think that it all begins with culture, it all begins with the way that you lead companies. And right now there are so many companies that are operating in this knowledge economy paradigm that was built in the 1970s that is just ineffective right now. And they ask why the tech giants are lapping them. And sure, there are some nefarious practices that need to be reined in. But having sat with these companies and researched them and spoken with people both through the front door and then sources not approved by the companies, I will say that to me their cultures are what's powering them. It's really what's making them power ahead. And as long as we have their competitors operating in this old type of mentality where all the ideas come from the top and everyone's just there to execute.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they've done a good job Things like ingesting Great, great. Now we're seeing Donald Trump as a walking-talking misinformation. So how can you blame Facebook at this point? All right. Last question. What about other companies? One of the things that we have left out here, like this is amazing. These companies are going to do so well. And I'm actually writing Colin about this idea of power. What is power? How do other people get power? You know, you have Netflix sort of, I recently called them the Amazon of Entertainment, showing huge gains. Do you see companies like Zoom, which I still think is a small company no matter for now at least? How does anyone get their elbow in here in this pool filled with giant elephants, essentially? There's no room for anybody else. What does it take to get in here?”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's fascinating. It has that trust, it has that trust problem. And I think so their efforts on misinformation, I know you don't like the term make or break, but they get into that stratosphere for sure. They really need to be good at making sure that the rumors that can get people killed do not circulate like so far. Yeah, they've done president's press conferences that have had people trying things like ingesting hydrochloroquine. But if there are other rumors that started on Facebook, it would be very difficult for that company to explain why they know this is a problem. They need to be on point on it. And if they're not, it's going to be a tough one to explain away.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, people don't like them. They say it's a similar, I don't like Amazon butt. I think the sentiment is more profound with Facebook.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Facebook, I think. That's right. The coronavirus. Yeah. Well, my dad is a pediatrist, actually, and I've been speaking with him about coronato. And he said he just saw a patient with it. And I said, you did what? But it was over video conference, right? So probably WhatsApp, you know? So yeah. And so, Dad, if you're listening, please stay at home and keep using the WhatsApp.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm in a couple of interesting ones. One is like fulfilled by Amazon sellers, which is just kind of sort of a nerdy passion. And the other is a group of doctors, or I think I'm in two doctors groups. And I'm not participating, but I'm just watching. And it's amazing. We know nothing about this disease pretty much, right? And you see them comparing treatments. And actually on the fly collaborating with each other to figure out what to try. Should we prone somebody? Should we give them this drug? How did you handle this situation?”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Facebook's the opportunity is, again, we talk about building a consumer behavior. You can't ask for a much better situation than have everybody locked in their homes and using Messenger and WhatsApp and the news feed and groups as a way to connect with people. I mean, I have to say, I'm in this one group. I like to lurk inside groups.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So Microsoft built Azure basically made it capable of being something that CIOs could bring to their company and feel good about as opposed to CIOs saying if we go to cloud we're going to get fired. And I'd talk a little bit about how that happened. And so then Azure grew pretty rapidly. So Microsoft is really in great position on both of those fronts. Trying to think of Microsoft's weaknesses, I mean, you could see something like Office sort of plummet or Windows become less relevant, which those are already on the back burner. I mean, the one thing that could happen we talk about regulation, this might be something interesting, right? Regulators have already had success in sort of bashing Microsoft. Are they going to wake up to the fact that it's the most valuable tech company, not Amazon or Facebook, and start?”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Microsoft, I mean, they are the one that I think is positioned to come out of this as strong as anyone. They're already the most valuable of any of these companies, but it seems like the bets that they are making are really making undersatya nadella are really paying off. I mean, he invested really in two things. One, cloud. We're all on the internet right now. Cloud services has had a pretty impressive rise. He had a natural entryway into it because Amazon didn't really have any relationship with enterprise buyers, what Microsoft did.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's searched. Yeah, they've done a poor job selling cloud services right now that seems to be a two-company game in Amazon and Microsoft.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wear headphones so they were okay. I don't think they could set it off. Right, right. But Google came late to the game because Amazon had the head start. So if Amazon is able to get the Echo's technology in that voice assistant inside, working well, answering questions, then Google is going to be playing from behind, especially now. Right now we're all in our homes. This is an amazing moment for people who developed voice assistance and smart speakers because now they're getting much more training data. So if Google falls behind here, it's going to have a real hard time trying to catch Amazon.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're at Yahoo search. That's right. So it wasn't actually going on google.com, which people don't realize. Then they had to build their own browser. So they built Chrome. And most of Google search was going through that. Then, of course, they developed Android, had a big mobile operating system where Search Thrived. And now I think we're entering a moment where voice computing is becoming... And Google obviously late to the game where, and I'm not going to say the A word because I have one in my house and I don't want to set it off in the middle of this discussion. But who came late to the game?”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Biggest asset is search. I mean, it's funny, people think Google's been this model if the company that invented search and stayed on top because it had search, but it's actually reinvented it so many different times throughout its history. And I go through this in the Google chapter in the book, but they started out as a website, which was accessible on Microsoft's browser. So everything's going through Microsoft. And they became a toolbar, a browser extension on Internet Explorer. And more than 60% of Google search was going through Google Toolbar, which people had to install.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, you've already had Joe Biden go out and say that he wants to revoke Section 230, which is like the nuclear bomb.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay. Yeah. competitors like Google is what you're talking about. Yeah, and I do want to weigh, I mean, let me weigh on regulation real quick. I think that we just don't really have a regulatory body that's capable of breaking these companies up in the way that that's been talked about. And so there have been candidates that have talked about, well, I want to break them up. What I'd really like to see is a platform where a candidate says, I'm going to fund the FTC to give them the teeth to be able to do something if they want. That's across the board. I'll tell you.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Having choice behavior though. Right. Okay. Not you didn't say regulation. Interesting. Okay. You don't have to. I don't want you to discuss it because you didn't say it. You said these other competitors like Google is what you're talking”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that's the opportunity, the challenge. So, I think there's two challenges to them. One is obviously protecting workers. And I think that, again, the idea of what customer obsession means is going to expand, especially the more concrete they become in people's lives, the more this idea of custom obsession is going to be rethought. And I think the more vocal consumers are going to be. The other challenge that few people speak about is what happens with platforms that are not Amazon. Ben Thompson, who's a terrific tech analyst, had this great long article about it this week, which probably will be a week or two after this podcast goes live, talking about how Google has now made their shopping results free and how third-party merchants can now choose to build a Shopify shop and list on Google, which is an important search venue, as we know, and say we don't really need to go through Amazon's marketplace. We'd much rather go through something else.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. Yeah, there are other places out there. So I do think that that's a major opportunity like sort of a, if you're Amazon, you couldn't dream for a better, unfortunately, but a better business situation than having everybody locked in their house and then saying, well, we can actually get you the stuff you need. Exactly.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the most difficult thing in consumer technology, and I think this is going to be a theme throughout this lightning round, but the most difficult thing is to build a consumer behavior. And Amazon's building a consumer behavior right now where people are like, oh, I can get that on Amazon and it comes that quickly. So it's going to be very difficult for any other retail to start to claw back against it. So it could cement itself.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Amazon. I mean, biggest, I mean, it's funny because it's hard to think about any of this stuff, not through the lens of the pandemic. But, I mean, it's obviously changing things in a very important way. So Amazon right now is in the middle of having this behavior built where people are starting to use that company's delivery services in the way that they even now lukewarm Amazon users are full-throated Amazon users. Yeah.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How they will. I really hope that people. Yeah. Well, can you think of a competitor? They don't have competitors. There used to be the idea that there could be competitors. I think of all the different FTC things, the looking at buying up small companies is the most interesting one of all their investigations. Not that it's going to go anywhere, but...”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. And before I do it, I just want to note that the subtitle of my book is how they plan to stay on top forever, not how they will. I really hope that people. Yeah. Well, can”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, what is the important part in this? These companies are running this way and wanting to be fully dominant, and they are. I would want you to stack rank them in terms of the ones you think are going to be the most successful and what they have that is going to cause that. And then what's their greatest, not weakness risk to what they're doing? So start with Amazon, because I think they're on the top. They're just easily on the top.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think Sundar will eventually realize this and then start to say, okay, you know what, we're going to open back up some of the things that they've closed down.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I think he's been trying to have it both ways. But I do think he's still running a pretty collaborative company. And I feel confident that over time, he's going to realize that the best way to do this is to open it up the way that it was before he started putting some of these controls in and let Google be Google. Because, okay, what's the worst thing that's going to happen to a company that has these dissent movements? Are they going to think twice before they pay off people accused of sexual harassment? That's probably a pretty good thing for Google. Are they going to be more thoughtful about selling their technology to military potentially to be used autonomously to kill people? If they think more about that, that's probably good. So I think Google has everything to gain by allowing this collaborative culture to persist and everything to lose by shutting it down. The only thing is if you're a person, like we're all humans and if you're a person who has to face that dissent, a lot of times that's uncomfortable in a way that's typically uncomfortable for people running companies.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I think Sundar is, as you said, a person that won't force his opinions onto other people. And that's why they've been able to be so good at building products like for Chrome, for instance. I was trying to speak with someone who was working on Chrome. And I was like, so who did the approval? Because it was all open source. And he goes, no, no, it wasn't approval. You'd go speak with them. I'm like, who did the approval, though? And he goes, you need to think of this differently than any organization you've thought of before. And it takes a special leader to be able to say, I'm going to empower my employees to do that. And I think that Sundar has been able to do that effectively when it comes to a process and building products standpoint. When it comes to managing the descent, I think unfortunately he's trying to find a middle ground here where he's trying to keep the collaboration going on products and tamp down some of the dissent. And I just don't think you can have it both ways. And I think it's been a real struggle for him. And in fact, his approvals ratings did decline in the Google survey that they give to all employees in terms of the way that he handles the company.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not that it mattered, right? Right. They went ahead and did those terrible things around sexual harassment issues. They went ahead and went ahead and did whatever they wanted because they had the actual control of the company. want to use the term peaceful but he's thoughtful he's earnest he's cooperative he's i i really like him personally and i don't like a lot of them personally um so how does he handle this so you to stay on top here when this amount of dissent is happening and yet they have to keep create being creative”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I would agree. When that was happening, everyone was like, how could they let this happen? I'm like, this is how they grew these kids. I was like, these kids got to throw shit at the walls all day long. They got to do whatever they want. They got to work when they wanted. There were so many, like the original TGIS really, they came and yelled at their founders and they had really, and the founders yelled back, which was really, I found that fascinating because you didn't really see that kind of level of, and I thought it was actually smart because it allowed them an escape valve and actually was very canny on the parts of the founders because these people who work for them thought they had power, but they didn't really. The people who had power were Larry and Sergei and Eric, but they gave them the notion that they had power. You know what I mean? I got to say what I wanted to Larry Page.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Has a tough time dealing with. And I think that's what Google's done right now. I mean, we've seen a bunch of unrest inside the company. There have been protests against using drones for autonomous warfare. There's been protests against the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations and exit packages in that sense. And the employee base is totally activated politically. And so the question for Google is, how can Google keep the good from the collaboration that exists for the products and mitigate some of the challenges when it comes to dissent? And I kind of think that like people have been trying to figure this out. To me, that's a false choice because I believe Google is stronger when they are able to collaborate on products and when they're able to give voice to people that dissent inside their companies.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, Google is a fascinating example, right? So I talked a little bit about technology that can minimize execution work and make room for ideal work and also systems that make sure ideas get to decision makers. Inside Google, it's kind of one and the same, right? They have all these internal communication networks. They have listservs and an internal social network for memes. And they also use Google Drive in a fairly open way. So if you're working with another division, you can go in and access their documents and get caught up to speed fairly quickly. And because of that, ideas just kind of move back like across divisions in a pretty impressive way. And that's how they've been able to build something like the Google Assistant. They gave Apple a six-year head start on the assistant and theirs is already better because they have this ability to collaborate. The other side of this is sometimes your employees will end up expressing views and actually forming into movements that maybe management has”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I think that when people saw Ballmer at Microsoft, he was making a ton of money. And people were like, great leader. And Apple's making a ton of money now. And Apple has tried to go into new things and hasn't been very successful at it. They viewed Siri as an iPhone refinement. It was a fun feature. Meanwhile, the whole voice computing revolution came by. These companies Google and Amazon turned them into platforms. And for Apple, it was still a fun thing you can do on your iPhone. They lost. Apple's also tried to build a self-driving car. And because the communication isn't there. So with a machine learning engineers that I spoke with Inside Apple can't speak with each other. So you had people identifying faces doing face ID and you had people identifying the road doing the self-driving car. And they couldn't talk to each other. So think about how much that slows down the progress. And, you know, it's no surprise to me because of the culture. And that's, again, the point for me in the entire book is you can really change everything once you change the culture in the process.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nicer, definitely nicer, probably a little better, but fundamentally similar. Ballmer did one thing very well. He had an asset, which was Windows, and he milked that asset to the very end, to the point where the company became, you know, it was a desktop operating system in the age of mobile and cloud, eventually just was untenable. And that's why Microsoft became a joke. Apple right now has an asset, which is the iPhone. And we'll see. Like right now, in the book, I call them a culture of refinement versus a culture of invention. And the reason why is because they spend all their time refining the iPhone. So they make the device faster and smaller and thinner and the battery life last longer. And they do this by siloing their employees and having a culture of secrecy. And when you ask product managers inside Apple, hey, how do you get ideas to Tim Cook? They laugh at you because it just doesn't happen.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so I think that Apple is in the position. This is going to be controversial, but I think Apple's in the position that Microsoft was under Steve Ballmer. Oh. Maybe a little bit better. Because, all right, what Balmer do?”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So when you think about, give me one more example, say, of Apple, what's something that they had a big transition? There's a founder who was so charismatic and so important to the company who had a certain level of aggression, but not, you know, it was a different kind of aggression, but certainly was sort of a cult around him. Talk a little bit about how Tim has done, as Tim Cook has done They continued to be successful, even though people give him an enormously hard time for not being Steve Jobs.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They missed it exactly. Miss Cloud until Saya came in. But his point was talk at people. And when you talk at people, when you don't make room for their ideas, that's when you get into trouble. And the economy's moving so fast, right? In the 1920s, company on the Fortune 500 would stay there for 70 years. Now it's 15. So if you start talking at people and are unreceptive to different ideas, don't tell your employees to think of new things. You end up becoming balmer. The difference between Saya is amazing where he's been able to go in and say, okay, what do you think? And he's been doing this for 20 years since he's been there, like taking young people out for dinner, even when he was sort of midway through. So it's not symbolic. It's an actual different perspective.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah. And this is exactly it, by the way. Why do you think Microsoft missed the mobile revolution? It's because Bomber.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was like, why don't you ask why they all have them? Like the question is, why do they all have them not stop using them? And it was really, I remember thinking, boy, he's a shitty leader. Like, you know what I mean? Like, what a bad thing to say publicly in front of your employees. And then not to let them use it. And they all had secret iPhones, by the way. Oh, yeah.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the whole Absolutely. He's a very gifted leader in that regard. He's selfless. Well, you know, you're going from like a complete ego maniac to the opposite. I'll never forget being at an event with Steve Bommer and everybody. It was an investor event and everyone had their computers up in a dark room and they were all Apple computers. And so you saw the glowing apple that he saw from the stage. And he went on a rant about it. And I thought, why aren't you, you know, and then he wouldn't let people use iPhones in the company and this and that. That's right.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It valued people like standing on desks and, you know, Bomber in his big, you know, you can watch them on YouTube. They're kind of fun. He's big company rallies when he would bring the company together. He would just jump on the stage. There'd be lights. There'd be music. People inside Microsoft said he probably chugged a full honey bear before going on stage. People on YouTube think it was a different substance. But the whole point was that it was him talking at the company in Microsoft. So Saya came in, not the founder, right? A longtime employee. And he said, we're not doing this anymore. Instead, we're going to do a hackathon. And, you know, hackathons, again, are kind of this cliche in Silicon Valley. But what it really taught the employees were was it's not about me. It's about your ideas. And everybody inside the company felt empowered to say this can make our company better. Let's get together and discuss it. And that's a big part of why Microsoft's been a much more effective company now than it was.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A founder is helpful, but not necessary. So, one of my favorite examples in the book, and it's like amazingly like the second most valuable company in the world, which is Microsoft, right? Which is the second, I think, outside of Saudi Aramco. And, you know, they've gone through three leaders, Bill Gates and then Balmer and Alsat Inadella. And Satya Nadella came into a culture that really didn't value feedback at all.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I hate There's also a culture of everything is around Mark. There's a single person to worship. I mean, that makes it a lot easier. And it's easier in these founder cultures to do that. There's a single person, Jeff Bezos. There's a single person, not at Google anymore. But, you know, the S-ben, a very helpful thing is when you have the actual founders sitting there.”
2020-05-04 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Alex Kantrowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT