Alaska Bound

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When I turned 30 my wife and I went to Alaska to celebrate (actually our second trip there as our first was our honeymoon). We had an amazing time and said when she turned 30 three years later we’d go back. Well, life got in the way. Two kids, a new house, a very different Infinity Softworks and nine years later, we are finally going back. On my way out the door I thought I’d share a number of extremely thought-provoking articles for you to read. This should be enough to tide you over until I return.

Fred Wilson and Mark Suster wrote some great strategy articles over the past couple of weeks. I recommend reading them in order. We have:

Derek Sivers wrote a post on the rules, or rather, the fact that there are no rules called No Rules In This Game. After all if the rules matter none of us would start companies.

Speaking of start-ups, Steve Blank wrote a post called Fund Raising Is A Means Not An End. Too many companies think fund raising is the event. It’s not. The product, the market, the job to be done, those things matter. Fund raising is just a way to get there.

Speaking of product, here is something we’ve all done: prioritized feature lists. Ken Norton writes why they are poison in Babe Ruth and Feature Lists. Ken includes a wonderful example from his days running Google Apps. (via Om Malik)

George Will had a thought-provoking article on the American Dream and the role of education called America’s Broken Bootstraps. In short, it won’t be good enough to have a college degree. In the future, my kids will need the right college degree.

Finally, I’ll link you to two excellent business stories, one on the destruction of Kodak and another on a rising Twilio. I highly recommend both of these, too:

See you when I get back!