They just came through me, it wasn’t like I was having to compose them. That doesn’t happen anymore, I just can’t write them that way anymore.
Ten business memos, and eureka musical moments to digest this weekend.
This morning the alarm went off at 4:50am so I could join a Zoom call to talk about the Stripe Press book The Making of Prince of Persia. The book itself is the journal of Jordan Mechner as he wrestled with launching his game.
“You’ve dug your way deep into an active gold mine and are holding off from digging the last two feet because you’re too dumb to appreciate what you’ve got and too lazy to finish what you’ve started.”
The Making of Prince of Persia is such a great read for anyone that’s ever tried to make something from scratch and share it with the world. It also contains two perfect descriptions of San Francisco and New York. First, New York:
“I’ve only been here seven months, and already I feel like I’m part of a network of people that keep meeting and crossing and cropping up in different combinations. That I can link Patrick Ladislav to Kevin Burget and Mark Netter; that Patrick and I can go to a lecture and find Mark already there and all go out for dinner together and then find John Bruno in the bar across the street; that Karl Shefelman is doing my storyboards for Prince 2 and sharing an editing space with Kevin; that I run into someone I know almost every time I step outside – these things fill me with a deep and primitive satisfaction.”
And San Francisco:
“San Francisco on certain days has that special, piercing beauty that’s almost painful, because it arouses a hunger it can never satisfy. You know that even if you live with that beauty, see it every day, wake up to it every morning, get as close as it is physically possible to get, you still can’t possess it, and its distance from you will make your heart ache.”
Experiencing America through Twitter this past few months has been deeply disturbing. Being on the call this morning reminded me of why I love America so much. The warmth, the openness to ideas, the confidence to share them, and the passion and curiosity… it was nice to soak that in for an hour.
This week I published an internal memo I’d written at MyFitnessPal in early 2015, and it occurred to me that much of my best writing in the past few years has been for internal use only. Full of things you can only say within the confines of your own team.
1. How To Lose 200M Pounds - How & Why MyFitnessPal Works
“It sounds counter-intuitive maybe, that just writing down what you eat could make any difference, but it does. It makes an incredible difference.
This keeps being true, even after months of use. The value of tracking what you eat stays incredibly high for a really long time.”
It made me wonder how many worthy things have been written ‘for internal use only’ that have never seen the light of day. I thought I’d start this weekend by sharing five of of my favourite pieces of internal writing that ultimately ended up being published externally.
2. Stevey's Google Platforms Rant
“Jeff Bezos is an infamous micro-manager. He micro-manages every single pixel of Amazon's retail site. He hired Larry Tesler, Apple's Chief Scientist and probably the very most famous and respected human-computer interaction expert in the entire world, and then ignored every goddamn thing Larry said for three years until Larry finally -- wisely -- left the company.
Larry would do these big usability studies and demonstrate beyond any shred of doubt that nobody can understand that frigging website, but Bezos just couldn't let go of those pixels, all those millions of semantics-packed pixels on the landing page. They were like millions of his own precious children. So they're all still there, and Larry is not.”
3. Jeff Raikes’ email to Warren Buffett explaining Microsoft
“In some respects I see the business characteristics of Coca Cola or See’s Candy as being very similar to Microsoft. I think you would love the simplicity of the operating system business.”
4. Dave Goldberg’s leaked email about the music industry
“Music is becoming a purely digital product. A digital-only recorded music company will be a much more profitable one after one-off restructuring costs. It will have lower revenue and higher margins. Its revenue will be very stable and grow with the overall digital music market growth. It will be a much more valuable company with its revenue base solidly coming from subscription and ad revenue. It will be valued like music publishing companies or cable channels, not like recorded music companies today.”
5. Evan Spiegel negotiating an $800M valuation with Benchmark (when he was 23)
“THAT SAID, we are still in very early days in mobile application market. I remember growing up wishing I had been a part of PC revolution – and I feel very fortunate to havethe opportunity to watch smartphones take off. Snapchat has become one of the top 5 mobile phone brands with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
For Snapchat to capitalise on market conditions in next 3 years, it is imperative that we become a revenue-generating company. That will allow us to attract the best talent and prosper despite extreme scrutiny on traditional social media that will have failed to deliver on $US$US$US dreams. Team is working overtime to drive revenue and innovate on core product – we have a solid 3-year roadmap that we intend to follow.”
6. Steve Jobs negotiating ebook pricing with James Murdoch
“So, yes, getting around $9 per new release is less than the $12.50 or so that Amazon is currently paying. But the current situation is not sustainable and not a strong foundation upon which to build an ebook business.
Apple is the only other company currently capable of making a serious impact, and we have 4 of the 6 big publishers signed up already. Once we open things up for the second tier of publishers, we will have plenty of books to offer. We’d love to have HC among them.”
7. Cavs GM David Griffin’s email from when they were down 3-1 in the NBA Finals.
“Let me be the first to tell you, NBA HISTORY HAS BEEN WAITING ON US. No one has done this, because WE have never been here before. We will become the first, because that is all we have ever known how to do.
NBA HISTORY HAS CHOSEN US. Don’t run, don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged. WE WILL SEIZE OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THAT HISTORY!”
The musical equivalent of the internal use only email is the in-studio process of producers, and musicians.
8. Which is why I love this When RAPPERS Hear New Beats compilation.
9. Pitchfork gave Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways a 9.0.
Six decades into his career, Bob Dylan delivers a gorgeous and meticulous record. It is the rare Dylan album that asks to be understood and comes down to meet its audience.
Whether it’s worthy of a 9.0 or not, it’s a good reminder to go back this weekend and listen to When I Paint My Masterpiece.
“We sat on the patio outside his room and talked for two hours. I was really nervous, because he was one of my heroes. And I was also afraid that he wouldn’t be really smart anymore, that he’d be a caricature of himself, like happens to a lot of people.
But I was delighted. He was as sharp as a tack. He was everything I’d hoped. He was really open and honest. He was just telling me about his life and about writing his songs. He said, “They just came through me, it wasn’t like I was having to compose them. That doesn’t happen anymore, I just can’t write them that way anymore.” Then he paused and said to me with his raspy voice and little smile, “But I still can sing them.”
- Steve Jobs, on meeting Bob Dylan
10. The Magic of Rick Rubin Is in What He Doesn’t Do
“But what you mostly get—what Rubin has always mostly given you, and the artists you love—is an industrial-strength ease, is an oceanic calm, is a power nap with the force of a revelation.
The 21st-century music business is not built for a person like this, expensive beyond imagining and existential beyond belief. Fire up GarageBand and do it yourself. That’s basically what he always said. But remember: When you see only one set of footprints in the sand, that’s when he’s carrying you.”
Related: Broken Record Presents: Questlove Supreme with Rick Rubin
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
– Sherlock Holmes