Dan Lyons > Quotes

“Researchers have found that doing something boring makes people more creative. They suspect it might be because the brain, when bored, goes looking for things to do. It feels unsatisfied, so it goes into Search mode. Thanks to smartphones, we can keep ourselves from ever being bored. There’s always a distraction. But that distraction is unproductive. Our brains become occupied with empty activity, which leaves no room for daydreaming or creative thinking.”
― Dan Lyons, STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World

“it’s all about slowing down, speaking with intention, letting other people speak, asking good questions, and then really listening to the response.”
― Dan Lyons, STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World

“Silicon Valley now aims to remake the notion of the corporation itself, by inventing radical new ideas about how to build and manage companies. Unfortunately, many of their ideas are terrible.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable

“Most start-ups are terribly managed, half-assed outfits run by buffoons and bozos and frat boys, and funded by amoral investors who are only hoping to flip the company into the public markets and make a quick buck. They have no operations expertise, no special insight into organizational behavior.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable

“Hoffman estimated that “fifty-plus percent” of Valley billionaires had built some kind of doomsday hideout.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable

“You can’t build companies without them. But most venture capitalists seem to view employees as their adversaries.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable

“The problem is that a venture capitalist writing a book about how companies should treat employees is like Ted Bundy offering dating advice to young women.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable

“Choose a specific conversation today and focus on finding spaces where you can say nothing. You’re not being rude; you’re being polite. It’s easiest to do this with strangers.”
― Dan Lyons, STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World

“Grow fast, lose money, go public, cash out.”
― Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science, and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable