Throughout history, we see again and again conservative elites who underestimate a populist strongman, thinking they can use him as a mere figurehead without ceding power. They are almost always proven wrong.
Fareed Zakaria in Age of Revolutions
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Highlight from ‘Helsinki Bus Station Theory’ by Oliver Burkeman
“This goes on all your creative life: always showing new work, always being compared to others.” What’s the answer? “It’s simple. Stay on the bus. Stay on the fucking bus.”
Oliver Burkeman in Helsinki Bus Station Theory
Highlight from ‘Age of Revolutions’ by Fareed Zakaria
The English word comes from the Latin word revolvere, meaning “to roll back.” That spawned not only “revolve” but also “revolt,” which grows out of the idea of “rolling back” one’s allegiance to a king or institution. Perhaps there is some strange affinity between these two meanings. We see that dualism right from the start, in the most famous initial use of the word in science, by the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1543, Copernicus published his treatise On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, which used the word in its first, scientific meaning. But while Copernicus was using “revolution” in its regular sense, he was proposing a thesis that radically reordered our understanding of the cosmos, moving the Earth from the center of the universe to the periphery. For the way it overturned both astronomy and theology, the shift he set in motion came to be known as the Copernican Revolution. His was a “revolutionary” theory in both senses of the word.
Fareed Zakaria in Age of Revolutions
Highlight from ‘The Midnight Assassin’ by Skip Hollandsworth
(The phrase “Everything is bigger in Texas,” which would become the state’s most popular motto, probably was first uttered in New Orleans in April 1885.)
Skip Hollandsworth in The Midnight Assassin
Highlight from ‘The Midnight Assassin’ by Skip Hollandsworth
When Sam Houston regained the presidency of the republic in 1841, he tried to relocate the capital back to Houston. A group of his supporters came to Austin in the dead of night to take back the government’s archives. But one of the town’s more devoted female loyalists, an innkeeper named Angelina Eberly, fired a six-pound cannon at the interlopers. Other gun-wielding Austinites recovered the archives and returned them to the General Land Office. Barely, Austin was saved.
Skip Hollandsworth in The Midnight Assassin
Highlight from ‘Product Leadership Theater’ by Marty Cagan
two important things for product leaders to keep in mind, especially if they wish to embark on a transformation to the product model: first, you have as much ownership as you have credibility; and second, part of your job as a product leader is to change hearts and minds.
Marty Cagan in Product Leadership Theater