You Have To Be Different To Think Different
Welcome to The Art of The Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces of content which I hope will both inspire and embolden you.
PODCAST
I am a huge fan of Jessica Livingston - it was her book Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days which made me fall in love with tech when I was gifted it back in 2009. (It also inspired me to write Female Innovators at Work as part of the same “…At Work series.).
In this episode with Lenny Rachitsky, Jessica discusses:
Jessica is co-founder of Y Combinator, the first and most successful startup accelerator, based in Silicon Valley. Y Combinator has funded over 5,000 companies, doing billions of dollars in revenue, 200 of which are now unicorns, including Airbnb, Dropbox, DoorDash, Stripe, Coinbase, and Reddit.
Jessica played a crucial role in YC’s early success, when she was nicknamed the “social radar” because of her uncanny ability to quickly evaluate people—an essential skill when investing in early-stage startups. She’s also the host of the popular podcast The Social Radars, where she interviews billion-dollar-startup founders
Watch the full episode here.
Also, if you like podcasts, do check out the brilliant Dwarkesh Patel interviewing former PM Tony Blair this week.
Watch the full interview here.
QUOTE
It is in this gesture of "going beyond," to be something in oneself rather than the pawn of a consensus, the refusal to stay within a rigid circle that others have drawn around one - it is in this solitary act that one finds true creativity. All others things follow as a matter of course.
Alexander Grothendieck
INTERVIEW
Normally, I like to point you to written interviews at this point but this episode from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of investment firm a16z just got released and it is well-worth a watch!
In it, Marc and Ben dive deep into the REAL story behind the creation of Netscape—a web browser co-created by Marc that revolutionized the internet and changed the world as we know it. As Ben notes at the top, until today, this story has never been fully told either in its entirety or accurately…
In this one-on-one conversation, Marc and Ben discuss Marc's early life and how it shaped his journey into technology, the pivotal moments at the University of Illinois that led to the development of Mosaic (a renegade browser that Marc developed as an undergrad), and the fierce competition and legal battles that ensued as Netscape rose to prominence.
Ben and Marc also reflect on the broader implications of Netscape's success, the importance of an open internet, and the lessons learned that still resonate in today's tech landscape (especially with AI).
Recommended by LinkedIn
Watch the full interview here.
BOOK
The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety & Sleep Again by Dr Romie Mushtaq
What books have you got on your summer reading list - please feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you are reading.
Top of my list is this book from Dr Romie Mushtaq on how to find focus and quell your anxiety - a must-read for any founder!
Book blurb: An eye-opening guidebook for professionals looking to overcome their chronic stress, burnout and Busy Brain symptoms using a simple eight-week plan by Dr Romie Mushtaq. Traditional methods in neurology and psychiatry treat anxiety, ADD and insomnia as three separate diseases. The results are an addictive cycle that Dr Romie Mushtaq defines as the Busy Brain, using stimulants like caffeine to stay focused and energised during the day and then using sedatives like alcohol or sleeping pills at night. Based on over twenty years of clinical research and experience, The Busy Brain Cure helps to break the addiction of the stimulant-sedative cycle and restore sleep, sanity and a sense of connection.
WATCH
This is the story of David Park - CEO of Jenni AI - a service that uses AI to help researchers and graduate students conducting academic research quickly and easily find information and even generate citations.
In this video, David details his life from childhood, to the ups and downs of his eight-year startup journey, what happened when he met an investor on a plane and why he dropped out of uni to start a startup.
David also discusses his many “failures”, lessons learned and battling cancer, just as his startup takes off.
“A tree can't reach heaven unless its roots reach hell."
Watch here.
Thank you for reading the newsletter and for listening to the podcast, and if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too. And if you have two minutes, please do leave a review for the podcast - it would mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.
Danielle
PS I am taking a break in July and will be back towards the end of that month. Have a wonderful summer!
Technology Leadership and Consultation; Transformation Coaching; Student of "Love or Above" (Dr. David R. Hawkins)
4moThanks Danielle Newnham for this one. Very intereting - Just this morning I was having a conversation with my son. That topic was business and founders related hard copy /books that I have handy. And I told him to read Jessica's book (Founders at Work) that I have a hard copy of. Learning about how the lives of founders are/were in early days of starting business gives us views beyond the tip of the iceberg and encourages us to keep going. I do not have hard copy of Naveen Jain's book Moonshot (I have ebook) otherwise that would be a great read for him for the type of questions he asked me. I have yet to read your one. I am going to check. Thanks again.
Physician ✨Workplace Wellness Strategist ✨ Chief Wellness Officer, Great Wolf Resorts ✨Best-Selling Author: The Busy Brain Cure ✨ Speaker ✨ Helping High-Achieving Professionals Create Caring Teams & Reduce Burnout
5moThank you Danielle Newnham for featuring my book and Talks at Google on The Busy Brain Cure. I want to be of service to tech founders and the tech culture- in healing the burnout while being high achieving professionals.