The problem is called hack.
At that time, the hacker was a positive name. If you want to complete a hack, it must contain a high degree of innovation, unique style, and superb skills. Therefore, the most capable people will proudly call themselves hackers. According to the values of early hackers, hacking must include three characteristics: fun, high IQ, and exploration spirit.
So, the original hacker spirit is to explore, even if it means a rebellion against the rules and challenges.
Until the early 1980s, thanks to the behavior of young hackers invading the computer system, illegal intrusion became the most famous tag for hackers.
Zuckerberg is a real hacker, both in front and back. He was in the first year of Harvard University and went to the school dormitory to download photos of the entire building.
In the positive sense, his entire entrepreneurial experience also follows the hacker. In the prospectus at the time of listing, Zuckerberg wrote:
“The media refers to those who invade computers as hackers, so hackers are unfairly labeled with negative meanings. In fact, hackers mean simply developing something, or testing what we can do. Boundary.
The hackers are trying to build the best service in the long run, and by continuing to make small-scale innovations rather than expecting them once and for all. ”
How to start a business like a hacker? Zuckerberg did this:
Quick Action
Among the many factors that can lead to success, the least important is perfectionism, which is Facebook’s first development criterion. The refusal to start action for perfection is the most intolerable thing in Zuckerberg’s hacker spirit.
Everyone knows Zuckerberg’s mantra: “Move fast and break things”, quick action, breaking the routine. In his opinion, If you have not made a mistake, it means that your actions are not fast enough.
The growth of Facebook is a perfect testimony to this statement. “If I had to figure out ‘how to connect people’ before starting a business, then I would never be able to start Facebook.”
In the beginning, Zuckerberg didn’t know anything but a vague idea, but he still wrote the first edition of the site with interest. And the large number of users and their feedback that followed, helped him build confidence and direction to continue.
A lotExperiment
Of course, fast action doesn’t mean blindness. In Zuckerberg’s hacking, experimentation is the most important path.
“One of my proudest things is our testing framework… At any time, not only is a Facebook version running, but about 10,000.”
The core of the scientific approach is experimentation: first propose a hypothesis, verify the hypothesis of the test by test, then analyze the result and propose new hypotheses based on the income.
In the face of unpredictable market conditions, as a CEO who started his business at the age of 19 and has little experience, he chose to use an alternative strategy:
We can intuitively decide which method to use to solve the problem, and experiment with these assumptions, get more data and feedback, and continually fix until we know how to do it.
Keep focused
A lot of experimentation necessarily means a lot of failures, so for a long time, Zuckerberg’s hacking theory was criticized for opportunistic, rash, and no need to plan to move forward. So, like a real hacker, pursue and stick to things that are really important, rather than being questioned about your emotions.
In an interview, Zuckerberg was asked, “Do you feel that people are insulted by his lack of empathy?”
“Insult?” He paused for a few seconds to consider.
“I don’t think this is an insult. I mean, of course I am very concerned. There is a difference between caring and letting emotions drive impulses.” He continued, “In the end, I think we are not stopping. Solving problems, usually you can’t rely on emotional decisions when you do this.”
Now on Facebook, people often hear a complaint that, despite allowing a lot of experimentation and exploration, if any of the things employees do have nothing to do with “connecting users,” then they will be Zachber. This is completely negated, which is one of the most important qualities that the young Zuckerberg later gained market recognition.
Another small example of persistence is that he wears a gray T-shirt all year round and is unwilling to bother with too many decisions.
Hacker companies“尴尬” is the stage each product must go through
The founders of American technology companies are usually young and not good at social interaction. Therefore, the general development of many companies is: in the stage from 0-1, the founder is the CEO; after a certain scale, the professional CEO with rich management experience will be introduced from the outside. Companies such as eBay, Yahoo, and Cisco have followed this path of development.
Zuckerberg faced the same accusation. A colleague commented on him: “In the 20s, Zuckerberg did two things: First, he created a global company, he must grow up. Second, the first thing becomes a reality.”
However, he did not choose to give up control of the company, but quickly invested in becoming a good manager. As an introverted programmer, when the CEOs of other companies rely on high emotional intelligence and good eloquence to gain hearts, Zuckerberg learned to face thorny management problems with hackers:
Programming is nothing more than two steps. Programming thinking is to first treat each problem as a system, and then gradually split, from the most general stage to the specific implementation of each small branch.
The same is true for a company. It is necessary to divide the complex system of the company into one hand to manage highly efficient talents. “You should not manage individuals, but teams, team management, and running a company.” The code code is no different.”
As a company that writes “hacking” into the company’s genes, innovation happens like this:
Don’t be afraid to launch a product that makes you “squeaky”
Zuckerberg, who started his business at the age of 19, is not a stable leader. He is well versed in his approach to motivating employees and has a forward-looking strategic vision. His only requirement for the team is to move forward like a hacker.
In fact, if you pursue perfection when you launch your first product, you may miss the time. Because you will assume what the user’s needs are, and your assumptions are inaccurate. You need to test real products with real customers as quickly as possible, and developing products that users can’t refuse is the fastest.
LinkedIn co-founders Red Hoffman and Zuckerberg have had a discussion about the innovative spirit of Facebook products. Hoffman believes that Zuckerberg’s success is because he boldly launched immature products, listened to users’ opinions and continuously improved.
Comfortable with the products of “尴尬”, Hoffman later summarized this view as “尴尬” theory:
If the first version of the product doesn’t make you feel awkward, it means that you are launching too late. When it comes to the second version or the third version, the feeling of 尴尬 will not disappear.. Even if your product has more than 1 billion users, this feeling will not disappear.
The most innovative products should be caused by continuous embarrassment.
Allow failure
Unlike other elites with business backgrounds, Zuckerberg is used to managing companies with hacker spirit. To encourage rebellious spirit, it also means tolerating the failure of the experiment.
There is a very famous story on Facebook. Ben is a young summer intern who, in one test, triggered a loophole that caused the site to stop serving for a full 30 minutes. However, he was not dismissed as a “back pot intern” but became a full-time employee. A similar thing is also called “Ben test” – for those who have good ideas and poor performance, the company allows employees continue.
This is the second principle of hacking companies: let the team explore areas that they think are worth exploring, rather than using high-pressure controls.
When the company operates in a hacker mode, employees do not need to figure out which instructions are high-level instructions issued by the CEO. For everyday affairs, most of the decisions are made in this way: “Well, will it ruin the company?” No, let them test it themselves. If the cost of the test is not very high, we will learn more through experimentation.
Hacker Marathon
People shape organizational culture, and organizational culture is transformed into an organization to shape employees. For new employees, the hacker culture is also integrated into the genes through a variety of activities.
Facebook has a famous traditional festival – Hackathon. During the event, volunteers, whether executives or regular programmers, will gather together and write code in front of the screen to focus on developing highly creative products.
Every moment in the hackathon, everyone is only responsible for their interests. In a maverick hacker culture, such activities allow participants to gain the power to despise authority and find inspiration in changing the world in subversive code.
Although only for the purpose of releasing imagination, in fact, many important Facebook products, such as Chat, Messenger, are produced in such a carnival.
In the future, the world will be a hacker?
Equivalent to each decision, authorization to the staff to conduct a large number of experiments, the efficiency will be higher. So if we understand the success of Zuckerberg and his Facebook as “lucky genius,” we won’t be able toExplain their vast experience of failure and lack of experience.
The real key to Facebook’s hacker spirit is to build a company that focuses on fast learning. In the letter to investors, Zuckerberg described the most is this strategy.
Similar mobility and spirit are also used by him in his personal growth trajectory. Beginning in 2009, he began to announce his annual personal challenge plan on the Internet. In those days, in order to show that he is serious about the future of Facebook, he announced that he would tie a tie every day;
2010, he started learning Chinese and now has a 30-minute Chinese speech and interview at Tsinghua University;
2012, he has rarely gone to the front line to write code, he began to restore the habit of programming; the challenges thereafter include reading 2 books a month, 365 miles a year, every day Meet a stranger…
Without exception, he did it throughout the world in the surveillance of this seemingly cynical and incompetent CEO.
Because of the well-known rebellious spirit and gray hoodie, Zuckerberg’s difference is that he does not deny that he has huge flaws from the beginning, and refuses to believe in perfectionism, willing to take every day. Progress and rapid iterations in exchange for the persistence of dreams.
Although today, in the inertia of the vast industrial era, we still live in a culture of obsessiveness in productivity – pursuing more tasks in less time and even outsourcing tasks through standardized processes. But in the era of high-speed transformation, people will realize the importance of hacker spirit.
Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley startup godfather, says the way he picks up potential companies is simple — focus on those hackers. In the book Hackers and Painters, he further explained that, like the profession of painters, hackers are a profession full of creativity and exploration.
Zuckerberg is undoubtedly the successful commercialization of this generation of hacker spirit. It is said that he carries a small leather diary that he calls The Book of Change. The title of the notebook reads the words of the Indian revolutionary Gandhi:
Be the change you want to see in the world.
|References:
“Hacker and Painter”, Paul Graham
The Nature of Social: Zuckerberg’s Trade Secrets;
“LikeKrberger thinks the same: five business secrets of Facebook genius CEO;
How Much Trust Can Facebook Afford to Lose?, Ou Yiwen, New Yorker.