Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

It's hard to believe that Google has only been around for slightly more than a decade. Today, Google's presence and share of mind are near ubiquitous: its name has become synonymous with Internet search, it offers an amazing variety of online products and services, and the company itself has become renown for its quirky corporate culture. It's also a billion-dollar company, a Silicon Valley success story if there ever was one.

Of course, this wasn't always the case. There was a time when Google was a just a start-up operating out of someone's garage with an uncertain future ahead of it. Douglas Edwards, Google's former director of consumer marketing and brand management, takes us back to those days and through the company's meteoric rise in his memoir I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59.

I'm Feeling Lucky offers an unprecedented eyewitness account of the inner workings of Google, from the moment that Edwards joined the outfit from the San Jose Mercury News in 1999 to his departure in 2005, months after the company's public offering. It is a fascinating account of what it was like to work at Google as the company matured into what it is today, every step (and misstep) along the way. The book depicts a side of Google few get to see, from the obstinance of its mercurial and visionary founders, to the company's bias for product-orientedness and data-driven decision-making, to the many debates that raged within Googleplex on issues such as user privacy, product launches, and, yes, what it means "not to be evil".

While the book is touted as "The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59", it isn't a work of sensationalism and scandal, nor one of self-aggrandizement, nor one written to settle old scores with former co-workers. Yes, one must assume that some stories are exaggerated for dramatic effect, and the book does discuss some of the more intimate details of being a Google employee (including the euphemistic "noncomputation parallel processing" that certain Googlers would engage in on office premises back in the day). Yes, Edwards' personal successes are amply highlighted, such as coining "AdWords" (which rhymes with his surname), drafting the successful "More than the usual 'Yada, yada'" privacy statement, or codifying Google's "Ten Things We Know to Be True". And yes, there is a fair amount of detail surrounding Edwards' disagreements with his co-workers, particularly with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Marissa Mayer. But in every instance, Edwards approaches such themes with undeniable respect and nostalgia, portraying himself less as the protagonist and more as part of the supporting cast, as if to bring to life what in retrospect were some of the best years of his life.

Ultimately, such is the charm of I'm Feeling Lucky: that it is as much the story of one man's six years spent at Google as it is the story of Google's evolution throughout that six year period. Edwards is particularly suited to tell this story, a copywriter amongst engineers. He is the appropriate everyman to which readers will relate, as if his struggles and triumphs are ours, too.

With a mixture of pride and sadness, Edwards writes in I'm Feeling Lucky that he came to Google as the big company guy working at a start-up, and left as the start-up guy working at a big company. Yet the journey in between was a remarkable one, having allowed him to work at the greatest place in the world at a most eventful time in the company's history.

We should all feel so lucky.

[Douglas Edwards' I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on 12 July 2011. This review is based on a pre-publication proof obtained through NetGalley.]

Genki Sudo | World Order

For the record: I find Genki Sudo / World Order mesmerizingly amazing.







I say again. Genki Sudo. World Order. Mezmerizingly amazing.

Kindle Screen of Death?

Anyone else out there ever have this happen to a Kindle?

For the record, mine's fine. I waited; it collected information and restarted when done. But I was admittedly freaked out until it went back to normal.

It just goes to show how sometimes paper and print does trump e-ink and bits, just like I said.

The Truth About Confident Presenting

James O'Rourke's contribution to the Truth About series of business books, The Truth About Confident Presenting, is in its own way a somewhat unusual source of presentation wisdom. Unlike other presentation books, it is a relatively dry and an exclusively textual exposition of fifty-one presentation dos and don'ts, many of which are painfully obvious to anyone steeped in the business of making presentations. Yet in the proper context, it can be a useful guidebook to aid in the preparation and delivery of quality presentations.

The book is divided into ten sections that discuss varying dimensions of the presentation process. These include: getting ready to speak, what makes people listen, developing support for a presentation, getting up to speak, managing anxiety, nonverbal communication, the use of visual aids, handling an audience, what makes a presentation work, and so on.

More seasoned presenters may find this spread of topics rather elementary, and to them this book will be just a refresher of things to keep in mind. But for novice presenters The Truth About Confident Presenting is a useful resource for developing a sense of the minimum standards expected of any professional presentation, whether or not slideware is involved.

Aristotle on Politics [Presentation Thursdays]

As I've said before, it's nearly impossible to talk about political thought without discussing classic Greek philosophers. And among classic Greek philosophers, it doesn't get much better than Aristotle, whose Politics details his various ideas on the subject.

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What is remarkable about Aristotle is both the depth of his ideas and his methodical approach to presenting them. He quite convincingly argues, for instance, why man is a political animal, and moreover explains why the end of politics must be "the good life". These are lessons we would do well to heed today, lest people forget that politics is not the exclusive province of politicians.

Also, the fact that Aristotle clearly considered democracy as mob rule never failed to scandalize students, which was amusing in its own way.

The slides below are my attempt at drawing some broader lessons about Aristotle's ideas. Make of them what you will.

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[Confused about Presentation Thursdays? Then read the first in the series].

Currently Unavailable [The Internet Is Down]

Like a lot of people last week, I was inadvertently shut out of my blog while Blogger went about trying to solve some problems it experienced over a 20.5-hour period.

I knew the service was undergoing some maintenance, but I thought the fact that my posts are scheduled in advance (mostly, anyway) would leave me unaffected. I only discovered later on that the post scheduled for Friday did not automagically publish, and each attempt to log on to the blog left me stymied before the error message above.

And so I'm posting that error message here for posterity.

My blog's been on Blogger for a little over six years, and this is the first time I've ever experienced such a hiccup. Notwithstanding the inconvenience, I can't find it in myself to be upset. Overall, I'm glad the Blogger team got everything back up and running when they did and that I didn't lose any data in the process.

[Confused about The Internet Is Down? Then read the first in the series.]

Designing for Growth

Design thinking has emerged as one of the dominant business paradigms of our times, and anyone looking for a practical guide for applying design thinking principles would do well to check out Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie's forthcoming book, Design Thinking for Growth: A Design Toolkit for Managers.

Liedtka and Ogilvie make the case for design thinking by pointing out the inherent limitations of traditional management training. The logic of business, they argue, is rooted in objectivity: the emphasis on numbers-based management as exemplified by financial statements, marketing reports, and business models. As a consequence, traditional managers have a tendency to see only the logical, rational and quantifiable. In contrast, design thinking gives importance to subjectivity, emotion and experimentation as decision-drivers, for which reason it has plenty to contribute to the business of business.

When done right, that is; this is at the heart of what Designing for Growth has to offer. Liedtka and Ogilvie identify and elaborate upon ten tools that constitute a design thinking-oriented approach to products or services. Visualization. Journey mapping. Value chain analysis. Mind mapping. Brainstorming. Concept development. Assumption testing. Rapid prototyping. Customer co-creation. And learning (beta) launches. These tools are also brought to life with brief case studies and profiles of professionals who have successfully put them into practice, leaving no doubt that this is a playbook meant to be put to use in the real world.

Criticisms notwithstanding, it's plain to see that design thinking can be useful for different organizations, the yin to the traditional manager's yang. As Liedtka and Ogilvie rightly point out, design thinking is ultimately all about empathy, innovation and ideation and thereby complements the underlying logic of business. Fortunately for us, they have written a book to help show us the way.

[Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers, from Columbia University Press, will be published on 6 June 2011. A review copy was obtained through NetGalley.]

Funny 404s [The Internet Is Down]

Back in October 2009, I saw Twitter's Fail Whale and thought it would be interesting to curate amusing error pages found across the Internet. So began The Internet is Down, my attempt to enjoin readers to send in funny error pages they come across, which I'd feature on a semi-regular basis.

Far be it for me to assume that I'd be the only one to think of this. It turns out that last September 2010, Mashable featured 35 entertaining 404 Pages. This was followed up in January of this year by 33 more entertaining error pages, this time as sent in by their readers.

It's an interesting collection of 404 pages overall, certainly much more amusing than the few I've come across on my own (including the few that were sent my way). Of course, Brain Drain ain't no Mashable, but all the same I'm happy that there's only one that I've found that was also included in their articles.

And, of course, I got started posting mine first, which is (a very) small consolation.

[Link: 35 Entertaining 404 Pages (Mashable) ]

[Link: 33 More Entertaining Error pages (Mashable)]

[Confused about The Internet Is Down? Then read the first in the series.]

Science Fair Season

Someone ought to give Judy Dutton a pat on the back (if not a medal) for her latest book, Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch...and What It Takes to Win. The reason? It's bound to kindle all sorts of enthusiasm and excitement for science.

One way of looking at Science Fair Season is to see it as the story of the 2009 Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) as experienced by several of its student competitors. Of course, ISEF is arguably the world's most prestigious high school science fair, which by definition means that these are no ordinary high school students that Dutton has chosen to follow. One managed to cobble together a nuclear fusion reactor as his science project. Another became a living case study refuting preconceptions about a dreaded disease. Yet one more would develop patents worth millions of dollars. And so on.

There's no mistaking that Dutton's book is an easy reader about science experiments, albeit one that shies away from the minutiae in order to appeal to a broader set of readers. But it's not necessarily watered down, nor is the book strictly all about the science, per se. It's also inevitably about the unique subculture surrounding science fairs in America, which can translate to thousands of dollars in scholarships and prize money for deserving projects. As such, both the level of commitment that participants devote to their experiments and the quality of these projects, as depicted in the book, are simply remarkable.

But the real draw of Science Fair Season is that it is an anthology of human interest stories -- the different students Dutton profiles -- bound together by ISEF 2009. As such, the book is an interesting peek about the way science and science fairs can change people's lives. Be it the way that science opens up children's imaginations to better things, or how working on a science project is a constructive outlet for even the most wayward of students, or even how having a deserving science fair entry creates opportunities for scholarships and the like, the underlying message is loud and clear: being a science nerd can be a rewarding, fulfilling, life-changing experience. That, and the simple fact that science can be cool, too.

In his State of the Nation Union Address on 25 January 2011, US President Barack Obama opined, "We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair." Judy Dutton's Science Fair Season will go a long way to help make this happen.

[This review is based on a pre-publication proof obtained through NetGalley.]

Political Thought: Plato [Presentation Thursdays]

There's no better place to get started with Political Thought than the Ancient Greeks, and thus with Plato's Republic.

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Plato was the one who articulated the notion of a "philosopher-king" as an ideal ruler, which few people would object to. Yet his notion of an ideal form of government is always an eye-opener. I distinctly remember discussing this with students each semester, who would agree with the premises -- specialization of functions, concern for the common welfare of society -- but then be flabbergasted at how Plato would jump from those principles to the idea of a seemingly harsh and communal type of state.

Suffice it to say this lecture always got their attention, and I would like to think got more than a few of them interested enough to stick with the course for the rest of the semester.

[Confused about Presentation Thursdays? Then read the first in the series].

Why a Print Book is Better than an E-book

1.) A print book never runs out of battery.

2.) You will never be puzzled why your print book hung up.

3.) You don't ever have to figure out how to hard reset a print book.

4.) With just enough imagination, a print book can have customized nifty animations, too (albeit on the margins, in the corner).

5.) You can't burn an e-book "in protest".

6.) When was the last time you worried about what might happen if you dropped a print book?

7.) No one ever asked someone reading a print book to turn it off during takeoff and before landing.

8.) You can lend out print books. Easily. As many times as you want. Forever.

9.) No DRM. 'Nuff said.

10.) And just how is an e-book useful when you run out of toilet paper?

Don't get me wrong: I'm a happy Kindle owner. But these things just had to be said.

Delivering Happiness

Reading Delivering Happiness, one gets the sense that Tony Hsieh is really just an ordinary guy who made good. He's a practical joker, a weekend poker player, was at one time an enthusiast of late night raves and similar parties, and has been a precocious entrepreneur since childhood. So as he relates the turn of events that allowed him to hit the jackpot in Silicon Valley -- not once, but twice -- one can't help but cheer and think, "It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."

Of course, it helps that Hsieh graduated from Harvard, obviously has talent, and put in the hard work to achieve such success. Perhaps for this last reason above any other, Hsieh's story is one to which most people will immediately take a liking.

Such is the appeal of Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose. A personal account of how Hsieh earned his fortune through his involvement with both LinkExchange and Zappos, the book is also partly an exposition of corporate philosophy detailing the underlying principles that give life to Zappos. This combination makes it a somewhat unusual if enjoyable business book, part personal autobiography and part corporate history. Of these, the autobiographical sections arguably outshine later chapters about Zappos' unique corporate culture, presented as much by Hsieh as his peers, colleagues and employees. Yet even then, where else can one read about a company that espouses the core value "create fun and a little weirdness"?

Overall, the book is a thoughtful manifesto on how to be successful at business and use one's resources to do what you love and also make a difference. True, most people would pick up Delivering Happiness to learn more about Zappos -- that critical darling of unsurpassed customer service -- but the real star of the book is Tony Hsieh himself, who tells both his own story and that of Zappos with unmistakeable candor, humor, and charm. Reading the book one gets the sense that Hsieh is a remarkable individual, an ordinary guy who put his talent to good use and became successful. And because he tells his story so personally, it's hard not to root for him in the process.

Lightning struck twice for Tony Hsieh in Silicon Valley -- and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.