Episode · a16z Podcast · 2019-03-25
Books mentioned on a16z Podcast: Incenting Innovation Inside, Loonshots to Moonshots
with Safi Bahcall (@safibahcall), Vijay Pande (@vijaypande), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) A "moonshot" is a destination (like going to the moon, quite literally) -- but nurturing "loonshots" (which often involves a number of stumbles along the way) is how we get there. This goes beyond the trite mantra of failing fast!
Vijay Pande discussed Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall is a pragmatic and well-written examination of how groups foster radical innovation and manage critical phase transitions.
Discussed“and so one of the things I thought was interesting about the book was that face transition interplay between the two and how it's not a bad thing to have that face transition that and and that that was maybe one of the more surprising things”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
“today we have one of our book launch episodes with sfie ball author of loonshots The subtitle is how to nurture the crazy ideas that win Wars cure diseases and transform Industries”
Plugged Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
“the underlying theme of this book is let's look at structure rather than culture you know when I became a first-time CEO I think I was 32 or three and probably like a lot of first time CEOs and entrepreneurs I read everything I could find About Management”
Plugged Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
“but to get to your question yes this is a phase transition that's kind of the theme of the book CEOs at the end of the day they're sort of lamenting oh no one cares well that's cuz they don't own half the equity of the company like you do”
Plugged Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
“and actually it's just sort of straightforward mathematics and the book that innovating well and and a focus on politics or not is is a phase of human organization I love that you actually have an equation that you outline in the appendix”