Build
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in thirty plus years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure, and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia. So that's what this book is: an advice encyclopedia, a mentor in a box. Tony uses examples that are instantly captivating, like the process of building the very first iPod and iPhone. Every chapter is designed to help readers with a problem they're facing right now, whether that's how to get funding for a startup, to quit their job or not, or to deal with the jerk in the next cubicle.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
22mentions
21people
2022–2025years
59% recommend36% neutral5% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Here’s a human recommendation if you like that you may like these that I’ve read:
1.Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games — Sid Meier 2.Source Code: My Beginnings — Bill Gates 3.Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making — Tony Fadell 4.Prince of Persia: The Journals — Jordan Mechner 5.A Theory of Fun for Game Design — Raph Koster 6.Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s Legendary CEO — Viz Media (Editor) 7.Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games — Cliff Bleszinski 8.Once Upon Atari: How I Made History by Killing an Industry — Howard Scott Warshaw 9.Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry — Jason Schreier 10.Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture — David Kushner
- 51. The Dream Machine - A deep dive into the history of computing.
52. Mindstorms by Seymour Papert - Groundbreaking work on computers in education.
53. Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir by Don Eyles - The Apollo Guidance Computer.
54. Build by Tony Fadell - Memoir and innovation lessons.
55. Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy - Punic Wars and Carthage's fall.
56. Making PCR - The story of polymerase chain reaction development.
57. Moonwalking with Einstein - Memory training and championship.
58. The Rickover Effect by Theodore Rockwell - First nuclear-powered submarine.
59. The Idea Factory - Bell Labs and American innovation.
60. Hackers by Steven Levy - History of computer hackers.
61. Fire in the Valley - Personal computing revolution.
62. Monk in the Garden - Life of Gregor Mendel.
63. Leadership Moment - Lessons from leaders in crises.
64. The Man Who Discovered Quality - W. Edwards Deming and quality management.
65. Eccentric Orbits - Iridium satellite network's rescue.
66. The Road to Character - Human nature and moral development.
67. The Spy and the Traitor - Soviet spy Oleg Gordievsky's story.
68. Billion Dollar Spy - Cold War espionage.
69. Skunk Works - Lockheed's F-117 and SR-71 programs.
70. Working by Robert Caro - Insights into Caro's research.
71. The Wager by David Grann - 18th-century British maritime disaster.
72. Caro's LBJ Series - Biography of Lyndon B. Johnson.
73. The Prize by Daniel Yergin - Oil industry history.
74. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf - Alexander von Humboldt's contributions.
75. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - Theranos scandal.
76. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson - Memoir and business insights.
77. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - Leadership lessons.
78. Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman - WeWork's rise and fall.
79. Tuxedo Park - Invention of radar during WWII.
80. Insisting on the Impossible - Edwin Land and instant photography.
- I have rarely been so let down by a purchase as I have been by my investment in Nest hardware. Of course, it's the software that is the problem; the hardware itself is best-in-class.
I don't know how good or bad the Nest app was before what was clearly a botched acquisition, but the user experience is terrible today. The worst offender is the doorbell camera, which usually takes about 25 seconds to establish a video feed. 4/5 times, the person has already left. If someone actually sticks around, activating the speaker to talk to them is so buggy that it's much more likely to beachball or crash entirely than actually let me tell them to wait.
The whole thing is so broken that it's worse than having no automation at all. The only reason I suffer with it is sunk cost + I believe it would be unethical to sell it.
It is for all of these reasons and more that today's price increase notification makes me see red. They haven't addressed the terrible app, they haven't added any new features. Storage, bandwidth haven't gotten more expensive. There is no new value, no upside. We are simply a captive market and they feel like making 25% more money.
The closest thing to an explanation offered is "Subscription prices can change to keep up with market shifts, which can include inflation and local tax updates." This horseshit is IMO far more insulting than just saying they need to recoup their investment faster.
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/13856600
Google's acquisition of Nest should stand as one of the sadest bad-outcome acquisition case studies. I really enjoyed reading [the founder] Tony Fadell's biography/advice book "Build" last year. He was professional about it, but the animus was unsubtle. Google ruined an amazing product company.
- On „General Magic“, recently read „Build“ by Tony Fadell. I can recommend that for people interested in building startups. Will also give a bit more background on General Magic
- If you’re looking for a good read, pick up a copy of Tony Fadell’s “Build”. There are a few interesting chapters where he writes about the process of selling Nest to Google.
- Build by Tony Fadell
