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{"id":4968,"date":"2022-05-03T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/03\/how-big-companies-kill-ideas-and-how-to-fight-back-with-tony-fadell\/"},"modified":"2022-05-03T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:20:09","slug":"how-big-companies-kill-ideas-and-how-to-fight-back-with-tony-fadell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/03\/how-big-companies-kill-ideas-and-how-to-fight-back-with-tony-fadell\/","title":{"rendered":"How big companies kill ideas \u2014 and how to fight back, with Tony Fadell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23053632\/tony-fadell-build-decoder-apple-iphone-google-alphabet-steve-jobs<\/a>
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Tony Fadell was instrumental in the development of the iPod and iPhone at Apple and then co-founded Nest Labs, which kicked off the consumer smart home market with its smart thermostat in 2011. Tony sold Nest to Google for $3.2 billion<\/a> in 2014 and eventually left Google<\/a>. He now runs an investment firm called Future Shape<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s written a new book called Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making<\/em><\/a>, which, I\u2019ll be honest, is total bait for Decoder<\/em>. It\u2019s one part memoir, one part tech industry gossip, and one part org charts and decision-making. Seriously, this book has a lengthy section with actual diagrams of org charts to illustrate how company cultures change as things get bigger.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve known Tony for years. Nest launched in November 2011<\/a>, just like The Verge <\/em>itself, and one of my first big stories for our new tech website was a feature on Tony and his thermostat. He has always been a huge character and completely open with his time, advice, and opinions. There\u2019s an f-bomb within the first eight minutes of this interview, which is very much in character for Tony Fadell.<\/p>\n

I hope that doesn\u2019t scare you away because Tony has some great stories that you\u2019ll want to hear. Okay, Tony Fadell. Here we go. <\/p>\n

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tony Fadell is the principal at an investment firm called Future Shape; was instrumental in building the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Thermostat; and wrote a new book called <\/strong>Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making<\/strong><\/em>. Welcome to <\/strong>Decoder<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hey, thanks Nilay. It is always great to talk to you. It has been a while, before Covid-19, so it\u2019s great to be here. Thanks.<\/p>\n

You and I have known each other forever. One of the first big stories <\/strong>The Verge<\/strong><\/em> ever published was one I wrote about the Nest. I don\u2019t know if you remember since it was before the site came out, I showed you PDFs of what our website would look like during one of our interviews.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I remember. It was great. We were both launching our companies at the same time. That was a fun set of days.<\/p>\n

I think that period was formative for me. Obviously with Nest, it was very formative for you. That was 10 years ago, and a lot has happened since. Why write a book about building things now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why? I woke up one day and realized the only reason why I am sitting here \u2014 and able to talk to you and so many people \u2014 is because of the successes due to mentorship offered by various people along my career. All these things we have done are because people helped me. I thought about who those people were, and most of them had died, and I was like, \u201cWait a second. I\u2019m not getting any younger.\u201d I think the baton has been passed to me; I have to give back just like people gave to me, without any financial reward.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to call myself a master, but it is a master-to-an-apprentice kind of thing. I wanted to take all those stories and mentorship lessons, and give them back to people creating around the world by putting them in a book. Back in the \u201890s, it was Silicon Valley and maybe a couple other places. Now it\u2019s everywhere. <\/p>\n

It is not about this one technical thing we did with the iPod or the Nest Thermostat; it is about human nature. I say it is an unorthodox book because human nature does not change. Technology changes. It is moving faster than everyone, and it is going to continue to move even faster. But human nature doesn\u2019t change. <\/p>\n

Many people ask, \u201cOh, what\u2019s the latest and greatest?\u201d Most management and mentoring books are about doing some kind of crazy thing that has never been tried before. Most of that stuff never works. It is all flash in the pan to sell a book or get on a podcast. This is really about the details of human nature \u2014 about how to build yourself, your team, your project, and how to build companies. That\u2019s what I think is really important and why I wanted to write this book, to give back and help people.<\/p>\n

As I was reading the book I thought, \u201cWell, this is just bait for <\/strong>Decoder<\/strong><\/em>,\u201d because one of the core ideas of this show is that every company and every leader have the same problems. We are really just talking about trade-offs on the fine edges of similar problems across the industry. I ask a bunch of questions on <\/strong>Decoder<\/strong><\/em> in every episode, but because it\u2019s a book and because it\u2019s you, I am going to ask them in a slightly different way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

This is the Tony special, man. I always ask everybody how they make decisions, which I do want to ask you. The book is basically about how to go through all the decisions you make as a leader. For you that was knowing when to quit a company that was failing, knowing when your time at Apple had run out, and knowing when to fire your lawyers for overcharging you. You have run through the full gamut.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is also knowing about yourself and how you want to approach your career if you are going to be a leader. It\u2019s not just about being a CEO. I try to make sure it\u2019s all the steps along the route as you individuate from your family and become a professional.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I mean. In the most abstract sense, how do you think about making those decisions for yourself? As you were writing the book, how did you think to communicate, \u201cThere is a framework and a process here?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was exactly another reason why I did the book. I just get a gut feeling. It\u2019s not always the most logical thing. These are opinion-based decisions, not data-based decisions. There is a chapter in the book about that. The book was just my opinion saying, \u201cI think this needs to happen. I am going to go explore it and see what happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

That is the same thing that happened with the iPod or with Nest. I find a pain or some kind of thing I want to solve, and I just pull on that thing. I keep going. Obviously, you use your brain a lot, but there is a lot of gut in it. You\u2019re not going to go out and ask 20 people, \u201cShould I write a book?\u201d then go do that. A lot of people think about products that way. When they are going to do the V1 of anything, they say, \u201cI\u2019m going to ask a lot of people and see what they think. Then I\u2019m going to come back and make my judgment based on that.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cNo, no, no, no, no!\u201d You have got to know inside what you want to do.<\/p>\n

Every decision I have made and every job I have had \u2014 except for the one at General Magic<\/a> \u2014 I created myself. I was dying to go to General Magic because that was in my gut, so I just took whatever job they gave me. When it came to Philips, or my own startups, or obviously Apple, I was able to create the position I wanted because I came with ideas. I came with certain knowledge, and said, \u201cThis is what I want to do and this is how I want to do it.\u201d I think a lot of leaders and people respect that, as opposed to just taking what is given. You are going there and offering value beyond what they do. I hope that was also in the book. I am trying to offer value beyond what you normally would see. <\/p>\n

It was really an exploration about how to format the book. I would say that my co-writer, Dina Lovinsky, and I spent six to nine months just getting the format right, because I did not want a long-form book. I was trying to make micro chapters for the TikTok generation. \u201cWe only have so much time and attention span. How do you get people engaged and get them drawn in?\u201d The format of the book is not a regular book. It\u2019s really odd and many of the publishers that I pitched to were like, \u201cI don\u2019t get it. Just write a book.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, no, no, no, no! We are going to innovate the format. It\u2019s time to innovate.\u201d So I hope we did that. It was another leap of faith. We spent a lot of time iterating to get it right. It was kind of frustrating at the beginning, I must say, but I hope we nailed it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this book to help. All the profits of this book are going to be matched five times by me, and they are going to go into a climate-focused fund to help find businesses solving our climate crisis. Any monies that come out of those investments are going to go right to climate initiatives and philanthropic entities and NGOs who are working on climate change.<\/p>\n

So how do you think about making decisions now after your whole career? How has that changed? Now that you\u2019re an investor, there\u2019s a lot of mentoring people or deciding when to spend money. How do you make those decisions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, it is a mix of gut, rational, and emotional decisions. Do I like this team? Do I like the person? Are they transparent? Are they trustworthy? Are they able to break down walls \u2014 because you are going to get tons of walls? Are you doing something that matters? <\/p>\n

For me, \u201cmatters\u201d means \u201cexistential.\u201d Are you doing something to help society or the planet or health? I don\u2019t want to hear about the Metaverse. I really don\u2019t. Fuck the Metaverse. I understand VR and AR in certain applications, like in design, but I don\u2019t want to meet people in the Metaverse. I want to be able to look into somebody else\u2019s eyes. I want to see and feel and look into their soul and build a relationship. Zoom is much better than a phone call, but the Metaverse? Give me a break.<\/p>\n

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