…fault-tolerant hardware gets sold in tranches (great, ok, bad) and the bad tranche sold off-label.
— Nat Torkington’s summary of an investigation into bad MicroSD cards, Four short links: 18 February 2010
A single rogue trader can bring down a bank…. But a single rogue bank can bring down the world’s financial system.
— Simon Johnson, Goldman Goes Rogue — Special European Audit To Follow [via Duncan Black]
Politicians want to pass the ball forward, and if a banker can show them a way to pass a problem to the future, they will fall for it.
— Gikas A. Hardouvelis, economist and former official in the Greek government, quoted in Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis
For Some Firms, a Case of 'Quadrophobia': Study Suggests Companies Tweak Per-Share Earnings to Meet Expectations; 4 Is a Lonely Number
Scott Thrum: “In theory, each digit should appear in the 10ths place 10% of the time. After reviewing nearly 489,000 quarterly results for 22,000 companies from 1980 to 2006, however, the authors found that “4” appeared in the 10ths place only 8.5% of the time. Both “2” and “3” also are underrepresented in the 10ths place; all other digits show up more frequently than expected by chance.” [via Kevin Drum]
It’s not an accident that almost all the executives in charge of Microsoft’s music, e-books, phone, online, search and tablet efforts over the past decade have left.
— Dick Brass, Microsoft’s Creative Destruction
In the moment, you’re angry, and focusing only on that one awful person that did you wrong. Your thinking is clouded. You start thinking everyone is awful, and see the world as against you.This is a horrible time to make a new policy.
— Derek Sivers, Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person’s mistake [via Merlin Mann]
We should reward people who kick significant ass and then go home. Early. Not those who pull all-nighters for things that were never that complex to begin with. All sorts of goodness happens when managers learn to reward results, not effort.
— Scott Berkun, Should Americans get more vacation?
![A comment on the Supreme Court’s decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commssion [via Charlie Todd]](http://artoftheprank.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/supremecourt-425.jpg)
A comment on the Supreme Court’s decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commssion [via Charlie Todd]
…So is it any wonder that, as companies get bigger, their productivity per worker goes down and down, until we get Microsoft, with billions flowing through it and amazing profitability and lots of smart people, unable to create anything new? For years and years?
— Bruce Eckel, Wrong Correctness [via The Faster Software Project]
Customer satisfaction, arguably the most important value that any company needs to consider, is often left out of a cost-benefit analysis because it’s too hard to include. Ditto employee satisfaction and employee effectiveness.
— Bruce Eckel, Wrong Correctness [via The Faster Software Project]
Big companies should have dedicated process simplifiers, senior people who just run around, point our areas that can be leaner or simpler, or where line level employees should be more autonomous…
— Scott Berkun, Why do big companies suck?
When a CEO who is starting up an online business says they want their product ‘to be as simple as Apple,’ we all know what that means. What start ups forget is how many people’s efforts and hours go into making Apple’s products that clean and simple. In my experience, it has been a real challenge to convey how much longer a simple solution takes over a complex one. A truly simple and elegant solution just demands more time and cycles than most people understand.
— Kristee Rosendahl, via Andrew Chen’s Update on the Steve Jobs post from an Apple alum [via Buzz Andersen]
