Monday 2015-12-07

From an interview with Patrick Collison.

Q: You spend more time reading history than anyone I follow on Twitter. Why?
A: It's a way to cheat. Everyone ignores history. All these solutions are written down in books that you can read!
Q: You guys have a reputation for being excellent at hiring developers. How long did that take?
... One thing that I think is helpful to frame the importance is to think about each person not in isolation but in terms of the fifty additional people who they're going to hire or who will join because of them. Do you want to hire that tree?
Student Q: Can you talk about shifting from developer to leader?
... Ali Rowghani points out that the CEO's role can be reduced to three things: The strategy (and if it's right, it doesn't take much wall clock time), the culture (no one else can do it to the same degree), and selecting the senior management of the company. The fourth one is optional -- the CEO can be involved with one specific function like Product or Sales.