The book contains lessons learned the hard way. Tony spent the first 10 years of his career failing, and the next 20 building some of the most amazing devices in history – the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Learning Thermostat. It has enough stories and advice about leadership, design, startups, mentorship, decision making, devastating screwups, and unbelievable success.
“The most wonderful part of building something together with a team is that you’re walking side by side with other people. You’re all looking at your feet and scanning the horizon at the same time. Some people will see things you can’t, and you’ll see things that are invisible to everyone else. So don’t think doing the work just means locking yourself in a room—a huge part of it is walking with your team. The work is reaching your destination together. Or finding a new destination and bringing your team with you.”
“Being a good designer is more a way of thinking than a way of drawing. It’s not just about making things pretty—it’s about making them work better.”
“People do stupid things when they have a giant budget—they overdesign, they overthink. That inevitably leads to longer runways, longer schedules, and slower heartbeats. Much, much slower. Generally any brand-new product should never take longer than 18 months to ship—24 at the limit. The sweet spot is somewhere between 9 and 18 months. That applies to hardware and software, atoms and bits.”