English articles

Reading guide

After the November 26 election, Robin shares The Five Temptations of a CEO and reprints translator Su Jin's preface. The five temptations are choosing career status over results, reputation over accountability, certainty over clarity, harmony over productive debate, and self-protection over trust. A manager's success is measured by results, not rank. Results are the entry threshold: without them, good character and relationships are not enough; once results are present, character becomes the make-or-break line. Overly close relationships can reduce criticism of mistakes to a token gesture. In a fast-changing world, cautious managers who wait for everything to be ready miss opportunities; they must learn to try, using judgment amid ambiguity. Good decisions require discussion before decision: encourage constructive conflict rather than superficial harmony or compromise for its own sake. Decisions inevitably bring mistakes, and saying “I was wrong” expresses trust in the team. Robin adds two questions: will loyal, close direct reports offer unwelcome advice when a manager errs? And what should be done with founding veterans who cannot keep pace or make major mistakes?

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This reprinted entrepreneurial Q&A puts survival first. Validate that customers will pay and that unit economics work before expanding. Expansion also has a logic: deepen business with existing customers, then expand geographically, and finally add business lines. The organization and founder can themselves become growth bottlenecks. Unsuitable early employees need attention, and the founder's outlook and learning speed set the company's ceiling. Before accelerating, confirm the ability to generate cash internally; otherwise, growth merely accelerates cash burn. The interviewees are not fully identified in the original, and the opinions belong to them.

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These book excerpts examine both sides of deadlines. Experiments suggest that urgent deadlines improve concentration and efficiency: a “focus dividend.” But a scarcity mindset has a cost. When deadlines capture attention, other important but nonurgent goals are systematically neglected—tunneling. Organizations in constant firefighting mode often lack slack rather than simply having too much to do. The response is not merely to use deadlines well, but to actively cut ineffective business activities and create buffers for what matters. Experiments and quotations follow the book and have not been independently verified. The benefit of deadlines should not be isolated from its costs.

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This retelling traces Beike's evolution into a platform. Lianjia first developed in-house solutions to five tensions in China's property-brokerage industry: listing authenticity, commission sharing, transaction cycles, back-office services, and agents' careers. It then opened its Agent Cooperation Network (ACN) to smaller brokers, shifting from “running our own stores” to “building the track for the whole industry.” Accumulate capabilities through direct operations, then open them up as infrastructure: this is the classic sequence of platform development. Gross merchandise volume and market values are historical. Property transaction GMV should not be conflated with ordinary e-commerce revenue, and the original does not address conflicts between the platform and its own brokerage business.

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A compilation of three Chinese entrepreneurs’ views on management. Wang Xing on learning: most people will do anything to avoid real thinking; managers need to keep learning and identify the central problem. Lei Jun on people: find self-motivated talent; good management means managing less, because the right people do not need constant supervision. Ren Zhengfei on incentives: do not let those who work hard lose out; direct rewards toward people who create value. All three perspectives point to finding a management approach that fits your own organization rather than copying another company’s system. The conversations and quotations are reproduced from the reprinted source and have not been independently verified.

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A common way OKRs go off track is to confuse what has been completed with what has been achieved. Cost-cutting programs can look impressive and task metrics can look strong, yet a closer look reveals that the original purpose has been lost. The objective (O) and key results (KRs) must stay connected: every KR should answer how it advances the objective. Setting OKRs is only the beginning; ongoing course correction is what matters. As conditions change and the team develops, OKRs must adapt, or the system itself can drift. John Doerr popularized OKRs rather than inventing them; the historical examples in the article are simplified accounts.

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This reprinted article compares several leadership transitions: Iger’s repeated extensions at Disney and eventual handover, Morris Chang’s succession planning, a founder returning to take the helm at Airbnb during a crisis, and Musk’s close identification with Tesla. What would happen if Musk left? The hypothetical itself raises a risk question. The central argument is that a great CEO must do more than lead growth: the role also demands difficult decisions and a system that allows a business to keep growing without its founder. Iger’s departure as CEO in 2020 did not mean retirement; valuations and dates are reproduced from the reprinted source and have not been independently verified.

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Robin’s introduction: understand how you win and keep innovating. Reviewing past battles is valuable not simply for examining the past, but for extracting a repeatable way to win. The reprinted article traces Tencent Games’ lessons from setbacks with Kai Xuan and QQ Fantasy. Tencent used QQ’s social gateway to build a distribution advantage, entered casual competitive games that major incumbents overlooked, and let multiple studios compete on similar projects through an internal ‘horse-race’ system that encouraged rapid iteration. This combination of a gateway advantage, flanking entry, and internal competition helped turn Tencent Games from a follower into a dominant player. Daily active users and gross billings figures come from the reprinted source and refer to its original period.

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A compilation of Bezos’s management methods, presented as a book excerpt. A bet with a one-in-ten chance of returning a hundredfold should be taken every time—but that does not mean ignoring whether the downside is bearable. Failure is the price of invention. Small teams can be more effective than large organizations; the ‘two-pizza’ team is a metaphor, not a precise headcount rule. Important reports use six-page memos rather than presentations to force real thinking. Maintain a Day 1 mindset and always start from the customer’s perspective. Schedules and quotations are reproduced from the reprinted source and have not been independently verified.

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Observations on Wu Pao Chun’s business transformation, drawn from an interview. DIY baking experiences can generate long-term revenue rather than one-off purchases: making bread yourself creates a different relationship with the brand. Store layouts and customer flow must be redesigned around the experience to avoid disrupting ordinary shopping. Online communities extend the physical experience rather than merely serving as marketing channels. The hardest transition concerns people: bakers must become teachers, and store supervisors must become managers. The content is quoted from an interview; details have not been checked against the original source.

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Robin explicitly argues that managers and employee referrals should bring in people stronger than themselves. The quoted material offers two classic stories. Ogilvy’s founder David Ogilvy used Russian nesting dolls to illustrate that hiring smaller people makes a company of dwarfs, while hiring stronger people makes a company of giants. Wu Jun describes Google’s early recruiting tradition: making room for better people and hiring stronger talent can help both individuals and organizations grow in Silicon Valley’s competitive environment. The quoted claims about competition in Silicon Valley are the original author’s views. Robin’s stated agreement concerns hiring stronger people and does not extend to every exclusionary argument in the quoted passage.

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He Fan explains the offensive and defensive dynamics of disruptive innovation. Attackers such as steel mini-mills enter low-end markets that mainstream customers overlook and keep moving up the performance curve. By the time incumbents react, it is too late: their financial structures and mainstream customers constrain their choices. Large companies have defensive options: fund a small autonomous organization to pursue a new market while retaining existing strengths, as Quantum did through an independent subsidiary making smaller hard drives. Small firms should first make money in an underserved market, keep adjusting strategy, and avoid rushing recklessly. Dates and ownership figures are reproduced from the book and have not been independently verified.

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Beginning with pressures in the Anthropocene, He Fan’s course draws three organizational metaphors from ecosystems. Tolerate failure: nature does not pursue zero mistakes, and small failures are the price of system learning. Embrace diversity: uniform systems may be highly efficient yet fragile, while diversity supports resilience. Adapt locally: solutions emerge on the ground, and small self-organizing networks can respond to change better than central commands. For companies, the question is how to balance centralization and decentralization. Ecological metaphors offer inspiration rather than proof; the claim that zero tolerance for failure inevitably causes greater disaster is the original course’s view.

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Robin’s opening question: can employees feel the mission in their daily work rather than merely read slogans in a handbook? Jack Welch argues that a mission should answer how the business will win, involving choices and direction while balancing the achievable with the ideal. Values are concrete principles for action. Managers must keep mission, values, and everyday decisions aligned; repeated messaging is not the same as putting them into practice. Consistency between words and actions matters. The GE mission statement is reproduced from the book and has not been independently verified.

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A retelling of Drucker’s The Effective Executive. Time management begins not with planning, but with recording, as it happens, where time actually goes. Most managers’ perceptions differ strikingly from reality. Second, eliminate: cancel unnecessary work, delegate what others can do, and develop systems for recurring crises. Third, consolidate fragments into uninterrupted blocks for important work. Do not remain busy with tasks whose costs are already sunk, or rank priorities by pressure alone. Examples and proportions come from the book; the claim that a busy factory must be poorly managed is overstated, and genuine emergencies cannot be ignored.

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Drucker’s approach to people asks what someone can do rather than what weaknesses they have. Organizations enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things, not by finding all-round perfection, but by placing each person’s strengths where they matter. The Lincoln–Grant story illustrates this: when others complained about Grant’s drinking, Lincoln reportedly asked what brand he drank so he could send barrels to the other generals. The same logic applies to managing up: help your boss use their strengths rather than merely complain. Historical details follow the book’s account; accepting shortcomings does not mean tolerating harm or violations.

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An excerpted account of 37signals’ Rework. Once goals are set, behavior can be distorted to meet them: cancellation becomes difficult to protect retention, or charging by company size to increase revenue drives away small customers. The authors are not saying goals are wrong; they remind us to keep the essentials beneath our feet in view while looking toward distant goals. Preserve both perspectives: do the work at hand well, and keep looking for new opportunities. This is an excerpted version; the original includes later discussion of opportunities and efficiency.

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The authors of Rework remind us that staying small can be a company’s final form; expansion need not be the default goal. Size should follow real needs. Retail and some other industries require scale, but many low-capital service businesses can operate without external financing. Financing creates commitments to growth, which can distort judgments about actual needs. Reducing requirements, focusing on the core business, and protecting enduring usefulness matter more than pursuing size. The article does not reject all financing or expansion; it challenges an unexamined default assumption.

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Asked about the harshest thing he had said to entrepreneurs, Robin answers: think it through. He tests commitment through concentric circles. Will you commit full-time? Can you discuss several years of income uncertainty with your partner? Would you ask your parents to risk retirement savings? Can you persuade talented people to join for less pay? Customers are the outer circle: can you convince them to replace their current solution? Each circle requires persuasion; do not rush outward if you cannot persuade those closest to the center. ‘Risking everything’ is a metaphor for testing commitment, not advice to use essential family assets.

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This reprinted article examines a motivational mistake: chasing tasks and transmitting anxiety will not bring out employees’ best work. Underappreciated alternatives include sincere recognition in conversation, attention to health and sustainable working rhythms, and thoughtful seating arrangements that support collaboration. Leaders need three kinds of language to mobilize a team: clear direction, empathy for people’s circumstances, and meaning in the work. Goals without meaning leave a team merely following orders. The reprint does not identify the studies it cites; measures such as seating changes must account for employees’ needs.

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Hermann Simon’s research on hidden champions describes little-known companies leading extremely narrow global markets. They offer few products, serve customers worldwide, and keep innovating; specialization and globalization lie at the heart of their eight characteristics. Japanese craftsmanship provides a parallel: Jiro Ono spends his life making sushi and pursues excellence in a tiny restaurant. Such wholehearted mastery is itself a competitive strength. Both suggest that doing one thing better than anyone else can be more powerful than doing a little of everything. Company counts and thresholds reflect the research period; the Jiro account is presented at the documentary’s 2018 reference point.

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This excerpt links entrepreneurship and giving. Start by solving real problems and creating value; in business, generosity can then extend influence, while sharing equity turns talent into partners. Examples include Feng Xuan ‘buying goodwill’ for Lord Mengchang, Duan Yongping lending employees money to buy shares, Niu Gensheng giving away his shares, and Sun Ce trading an imperial seal for troops. The historical anecdotes follow the book’s account. ‘Giving more makes you richer’ is a statement of values, not a guarantee; giving must begin with creating value.

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This excerpt groups startup mistakes into three areas. Product: a founder thinks it will change the world, but the market does not urgently need it—painkillers beat vitamins. Leadership: founders cling to the CEO role even though different stages need different leaders; replacing a CEO does not invalidate the founder. Finance: discipline breaks down when any investor’s money is accepted and burn becomes uncontrolled. The book argues that many startups die from financial mismanagement rather than the product. Products matter more than celebrity endorsements or patents. Claims such as most failures arising from financial management are the book’s views and have not been verified.

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This excerpt from Amazon’s 2015 shareholder letter explains how retail and AWS, though seemingly different businesses, share a culture of customer focus, invention, long-term thinking, and operational excellence. Bezos discusses failure and scale: take every bet offering a one-in-ten chance of a hundredfold return, and let the scale of failures grow with the company. Yet size cuts both ways, enabling accomplishments while potentially slowing the organization. Prime Now’s 111 days from concept to launch illustrates speed inside a large company. The betting logic is the letter’s view, not a claim of unlimited capital or permission to ignore losses; figures refer to 2015.

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This account of James Kilts’s Gillette turnaround describes a ‘doom loop’: unrealistic 18% growth targets, short-term measures to inflate results when targets are missed, then another disappointing quarter. Kilts prepared in detail before taking over, established direction and responsibilities immediately, and forced the organization to confront reality rather than repeat unrealistic targets and expedient fixes. His reforms addressed strategy, finance, and organization together. Merger values and financial figures are reproduced from the book and have not been independently verified. This is part one; the detailed measures follow in part two.

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Robin asks whether we truly understand users or merely imagine them. The article introduces five elements of a user experience map: persona, goals, touchpoints, journey, and emotions. Mapping the whole experience from arrival to departure reveals emotional highs and lows. Tencent’s story illustrates insights drawn from a user-centered narrative rather than lists of data. At the Open University, Pritti’s difficulty understanding course options prompted a guided journey based on learners’ stories instead of a bare catalog. Valuing stories does not mean abandoning quantitative analysis; the learning example is not an endorsement of overwork.

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Lei Jun’s experience suggests that hundreds of bilingual business-plan pages can fail to secure investment. Busy investors begin with the recommender’s credibility, then assess the team, then give you five minutes to explain what you do and the opportunity five to ten years ahead. Robin draws four lessons: seek a reliable personal introduction from someone willing to invest too; do not scatter business plans indiscriminately; make the first three to five minutes count; and get to the point without fashionable jargon. Disliking long plans does not eliminate information needs, and a recommender’s willingness to invest is a trust signal rather than a substitute for due diligence.

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A translation published by 36Kr’s translation desk compares Musk’s 2018 Tesla Model 3 production hell with his actions after taking over Twitter: layoffs, sleeping at the office, and bankruptcy warnings. Former Tesla managers and management scholars question whether crisis-driven management can build a stable company, warning of a culture of fear. Robin comments that it may be a good growth strategy for a rapidly expanding startup, but its suitability for a mature company such as Twitter remains to be seen. Perhaps the turmoil is deliberately intended to force transformation. Layoff figures are quotations from reporting in 2022.

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Robin’s opening thought is to do meaningful, valuable work that helps others grow and makes a difference to them. An excerpt from Build follows: the greatest benefit of being an Apple executive or Nest CEO is the opportunity to help people. Many arrive able to do one thing well and leave able to do a hundred. They simply need a push beyond their own V1 and the limits of what they imagine they can do. Like a product’s first version, V1 is never good enough, but development does not stop there. Leaders keep providing momentum, even when resented. The reward may arrive years later in a letter: ‘I hated every minute then, but that moment changed my career.’

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Robin’s personal impression is that YC selects teams for their promise rather than the quality of the initial idea. Airbnb’s idea was doubted, but selling cereal impressed Paul Graham; reportedly, more than a third of teams change ideas during the program. Changing direction early is therefore not the problem—pivoting promptly matters more. A case in Gao Chengzhang Siwei describes Apple’s integration of podcasts into iTunes devastating Evan Williams’s Odeo platform. The board asked whether he had other ideas; a hackathon surfaced Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey’s group-texting project, later Twitter. The YC selection account is Robin’s impression; quotations have not been independently verified.

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Robin begins with Facebook’s famous financing story: Reid Hoffman introduced twenty-year-old Zuckerberg to Peter Thiel in 2004. Thiel invested US$500,000 for 7%, and Hoffman added US$40,000. The point is the trust behind the introduction rather than the amount. The later section reuses ‘Why Should I Invest in You?’ Angel investing is personal, offers limited scope for due diligence or management involvement, and demands integrity. Unsolicited business plans rarely succeed; if friends and relatives will not support you, other angels are hard to persuade. Lei Jun’s investments in acquaintances and Jerry Yang’s fifty or sixty unsuccessful calls illustrate why unfamiliarity discourages investment.

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Notes from Silicon Valley 101’s discussion of the Middle East. The Arabic-speaking Middle East and North Africa is described as a roughly 400-million-person cultural market with similar language and culture. The Gulf Cooperation Council states, described as about 100 million people, are the wealthiest segment. The proposed path is to validate the business in Dubai, around four million people, expand quickly across the Gulf, then reach the wider region. Dubai’s ecosystem is described as self-sustaining, while Riyadh and Abu Dhabi remain government-led. Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Abu Dhabi sovereign funds, each described at hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars, are active investors. Robin recommends the episode to startups seeking overseas markets.

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The article first acknowledges David Swensen’s pioneering contribution to endowments and alternative investments, then recounts Buffett and Munger’s criticism of Robinhood for turning shares into casino chips. Robinhood responds that elitist commentary blocks broader participation. Then-SEC chair Gary Gensler also worries that platforms turn stocks into games and encourage more trading. Buffett’s advice to fear others’ greed and stop digging when in a hole leads to a reminder that platforms should prioritize users’ financial health. Robin concludes that investing should return to reason and value creation rather than become a giant casino. Robinhood’s planned IPO refers to 2021.

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In his New Year’s Day 2022 reflection, Robin observes that the pandemic changed life and work. Rather than chase every change, invest resources in enduring fundamentals. At work, portfolio company 91APP listed and became a Taiwan-born startup unicorn with market value above 30 billion; Great Tree’s revenue exceeded ten billion, and Zhen Yu Hardware listed on the OTC market. These were milestones, not endpoints. Robin sees VC itself as a traditional industry that must evolve; Taiwan’s VC, corporate VC, and private equity sectors need their own paths. He anticipates Web3, the metaverse, and digital assets shaping the next decade. Personally, he continues learning how to parent Shen Xiaobao. Values, revenue, and project progress reflect the end of 2021.

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An overview of Alibaba in early 2021. Core commerce formed a domestic/international and retail/wholesale 2×2 matrix, including Taobao, Tmall, 1688, AliExpress, and Lazada. In the global ‘3A1G’ cloud landscape, AliCloud had the largest share in China and Asia-Pacific. Digital media and entertainment included Youku, UC, and Alibaba Sports; innovative businesses included Amap and DingTalk. Investments included roughly 10% of Didi, 20% of Suning, full ownership of Ele.me, and over 70% of Intime. Cainiao covered 224 countries and territories and 2,800 Chinese cities and counties. Ownership, valuation, and structure reflect early 2021 and have since changed substantially.

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An imagined scene from The Power Law: an engineer at a large company has a great idea but an unsupportive boss—Christensen’s innovator’s dilemma. Without VC, the idea dies. With VC, a conversation opens: quit and I will invest; never founded a business? I will help; need engineers? We have a database; worried about failure? We can find work elsewhere in the portfolio. Eric Schmidt reportedly joined Google because John Doerr promised another CEO role if it failed. VC offers more than money: it makes risk less frightening. Robin says Taiwan’s VC industry must work harder at helping founders build teams and introducing senior executives.

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Beginning with Musk teasing Buffett for not investing early in Tesla, the article collects Buffett’s circle-of-competence ideas. Size matters less than knowing the boundary; someone who knows it can become wealthier than someone with a circle five times larger who does not. ‘We have no way to knock out Tyson’: do only what you can handle. Understanding what you do not know matters more than what you know. If no investment inspires confidence, wait rather than widen the range. Robin distinguishes knowing boundaries from learning to expand them. Buffett’s reading, independent thinking, avoidance of noise, and patience show how extraordinary results can emerge within known limits.

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A legendary story describes a retired Navy SEAL, John Jin’en, whose armored-vehicle company lacked money for a second-generation prototype. A large black box in the showroom was presented as holding a top-secret vehicle. Curious investors supplied funding, the vehicle was built and sold out—but the box had been empty. Robin is reserved: he does not recommend this and sees a parallel with Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes. Delivery may bring hero status and failure fraud allegations, yet successful delivery does not erase earlier false statements. Advertising also sells imagined futures; delivery is the distinction the story proposes. Details are reproduced from the retelling and have not been verified.

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An investment scenario: the sector is hot and growth impressive, but investment manager R has not fully understood the destination or path. Should he invest? Early-stage teams and investors often cannot see the endgame or sequence clearly. R identifies three situations. A clear story, well-developed thinking, and strong data attract fierce competition. A great storyteller with ordinary products and metrics warrants more observation; experienced investors have learned from years of being misled. The key is the second case: a good product, favorable market momentum, and rapid growth without a clear path. R would try to advance the investment and then jointly explore operating data, traffic conversion, and possible business models. An aside: R is short of deals.

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Robin reviews eight investment waves during pandemic-shadowed 2021: Clubhouse’s early surge and later silence, though audio-based knowledge sharing strengthened; electric vehicles ahead of carmakers’ combustion-engine deadlines; AI and robotics; space travel and low-Earth-orbit satellites, including Bezos, Branson, and Starlink; the metaverse, propelled by Facebook and NVIDIA; blockchain-based Web3 and its connection to metaverse narratives; biotechnology and gene editing; and quieter but continuing SaaS development. In a tenfold-speed era, he expects faster progress over the coming decade, with VC continuing to enable change. These judgments reflect late 2021, not current investment advice.