"I just happened to choose the color that everyone else in the industry was choosing for no reason at all" is not very persuasive, especially 28 years later.
On the contrary, it's very persuasive, because if it was mere fashion, plenty of people would dissent, while if it was convergent evolution because it was the only feasible choice...
Interviewer here. Thanks for the post. It was a lot of fun to ask Marc about his productivity routine, how he spends time, how he makes decision and his "build" essay.
I remember this particular memo very well as I was at Microsoft at the time and it felt so unfair to see the reaction to what you expect any good CEO to do.
Does an executive at such a large company really have any internal behavior? If your emails are going out to 1000+ employees is that really any different than a public statement? I think there is a point at which executives, through their various assistants, act internally in the same way as celebs act publicly, at least when they speak beyond the confines of the board.
I used to see Steve Ballmer at the gym every week or two, and never heard him "talking shop" or acting like anything other than a dude at the gym. Take that however you like - I guess he could have been Jedi-mind-tricking all of us.
Yes they do. People are people at the end of the day - they will focus some of the time on the stuff they think is important/fun.
CEOs/presidents have even a larger amount of individual influence on what they do, as the roles are more open than say a CFO/CTO.
Sure - there are things they need to do, but there are also things they choose to do. Sure - when they do those things they are aware of their overall responsibilities, but they still choose among what things they do and dont do.
I can testify to this. I'm 6'6, turned 30 recently and developed chronic back pain which made walking/standing for over 15-20 minutes painful. I got frustrated and started going to the gym again and doing very basic deadlifts/leg presses/lunges a few times a week. It's been a couple of months and my back is about 70-80% better.
FWIW, I think Nathan will make a fascinating commencement speaker. He gets a lot of flak (rightfully) for Intellectual Ventures but he has a lot of success in multiple unrelated fields (cooking! archaeology! Microsoft).
And
https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/1481098552658956290?s=21