Companies run at room temperature by default. Founders are exothermic — they inject heat into the system. The job is to protect that heat from being politicked away.
Invest Like the Best EP.394 — Tobi Lütke: Building Islands of Innovation · Patrick O'Shaughnessy / Colossus
Every interaction between two people either charges or drains the battery. You can't skip to high trust — you have to charge it.
Invest Like the Best EP.394 — Tobi Lütke: Building Islands of Innovation · Patrick O'Shaughnessy / Colossus
Make a large ask first so your real request looks like a generous concession.
Influence: Science and Practice · Robert B. Cialdini
Small commitments grow their own legs; what you say today becomes who you are tomorrow.
Influence: Science and Practice · Robert B. Cialdini
Map every account by who really approves vs. who merely recommends
Getting to VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) · Anthony Parinello
Grade every teaching pitch for boldness before it gets watered down to the safe middle
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation · Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
Prepare your Bitcoin business to seize the public markets window before it closes
Preparing to Take a Bitcoin Company Public | Bitcoin 2026 — Bitcoin Magazine · Bitcoin Magazine
CEOs get bad data because they give bad signals — transparency is a reciprocal exchange protocol
Uber CEO: I Have To Be Honest, AI Will Replace 9.4 Million Jobs At Uber! · Dara Khosrowshahi
Create a system where the best ideas win regardless of hierarchy
How to Build a Company Where the Best Ideas Win · Ray Dalio
Power is never held alone and the most dangerous position is number one without allies
Chimpanzee Politics · Frans de Waal
Identify when organizational behavior diverges from stated values
Losing Faith: How the Grove Survivors Led the Decline of Intels Corporate Culture · Bob Coleman and Logan Shrine
Separate what you actually know from what your tribe wants you to believe
How People Think · Morgan Housel
Structure, not culture, determines whether organizations nurture or kill breakthrough ideas
Loonshots Framework · Safi Bahcall
Impact, execution, and optics — align all three or fail at one
Shreyas Doshi on Pre-Mortems, the LNO Framework, and Strategy vs. Execution · Shreyas Doshi
Great leaders protect their people from internal danger to unleash external performance
Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe · Simon Sinek
Healthy organizations outperform smart ones every time
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team with Patrick Lencioni · Patrick Lencioni
Create an environment of complete honesty and openness where issues are surfaced and dealt with directly
Principles: Life and Work · Ray Dalio
Mapping influence networks and building strategic alliances to advance your agenda beyond direct authority
The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded_Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter · Michael D. Watkins
See through surface symbols to find the universal truth they encode
The Hero With a Thousand Faces · Joseph Campbell
Lead through structure, protege-placement, and streamlined communication
The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books) · Robert Greene
Master the unwritten rules of organizational power to advance without enemies
The Daily Laws - Robert Greene · Robert Greene
Your executive peer team must be your primary loyalty, not your department
untitled · Patrick Lencioni
Make yourself indispensable by becoming the resource others cannot replace
Brainpicking Robert Greene: His Key Ideas About Power · The Sapiens Network
Suspend assumptions to think together beyond individual capability
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook · Peter Senge
A mathematical model for when organizations flip from innovation to politics
Loonshots · Safi Bahcall
Four structural rules that let large organizations nurture radical innovation
Loonshots · Safi Bahcall
Distinguish formal hierarchy from actual influence networks
Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes · Frans de Waal
Read the room by understanding relationships between others
Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes · Frans de Waal
Combine all twelve ingredients in situation-specific mixtures like a chef cooking meals
Twelve and a Half · Gary Vaynerchuk
Drop packaged beliefs and tribal affiliations to see reality and make decisions from first princi...
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness · Eric Jorgenson
Building processes that eliminate political behavior before it takes root
The Hard Thing About Hard Things · Ben Horowitz
Navigate power hierarchies without threatening those above or below you
The 48 Laws of Power · Robert Greene
Master timing, restraint, and long-term positioning to outlast opponents
The 48 Laws of Power · Robert Greene
Evaluate engineers by measurable output—lines of code committed—not by title or tenure
Elon Musk · Walter Isaacson