Software eats the organization

Marc Andreesen’s battle cry — software is eating the world — is true at both the macro and the micro level. As organizations become increasingly software- and data-powered, software development practices have escaped from IT to become organization- and process-design principles for the entire enterprise. This point was driven home for me this week by continue…

“Exercise Your Options in Washington”

I was chatting with a startup lawyer here in Seattle the other day about California’s recent income tax changes and their potential impact — both real and psychological — on how high-performing startup founders think about where to build their next company. I’m mostly a tax policy skeptic when it comes to entrepreneurial decision-making; in continue…

Embrace the mess

This post first appeared on Medium.com Startup culture fetishizes simplicity. In products, business models and founder narratives, points are given for clean lines and beveled edges, and deducted for rough spots, long explanations and run-on sentences. Blame Steve Jobs, or @ev, for that matter — for creating this beautiful lie. Just don’t let their considerable continue…

Microsoft, Amazon and the “Resource Curse”

For the past week or so I’ve been devouring — and hugely enjoying — Daniel Yergin’s comprehensive survey of the energy business, from the first oil strike in Pennsylvania, through the energy crises of the ’70’s and ’90’s up to the present era of fracking and (once again) abundant fossil fuels (natural gas this time continue…