Читать книгу Hacking Innovation - Josh Linkner - Страница 6

Hackers hack for different reasons, from social validation to massive financial gain. Their motives vary widely, but what they share is an insatiable curiosity, a willingness to experiment with unconventional approaches in order to conquer their challenges, a desire to forgo traditional thinking in favor of fresh possibilities.

In this sense, hackers have been the source of progress for generations. Martin Luther King, Jr. hacked racial injustice and protesting. Galileo hacked the scientific norms of his day. Charlie Parker hacked traditional harmonic structures, becoming the father of modern jazz.

Lab researchers hack new drug therapies to eradicate disease. Nutritional scientists hack molecular structures to deliver food that tastes better, lasts longer, and delivers optimal health benefits. Entrepreneurs hack entire industries whose leaders are asleep at the wheel, in order to better serve customers and unlock incredible fortunes.

So what does it mean to hack?

I’ve studied dozens of definitions, but to me there’s a simple answer:

Hacking [hak’ ing] verb. The act of solving complex problems in unorthodox ways. Discovering fresh, unconventional approaches that replace prevailing wisdom.

You may wonder...how is hacking different than traditional innovation approaches? Isn’t this just a new name for an old thing? As I’ll show you through the mindsets, tactics, and incredible examples in this book, hacking is the new model for innovation. The new model for growth.

Consider MySpace. It was a true Internet darling in July 2005, when it was purchased by media giant News Corporation for $580 million. In June 2006, it surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States and was unquestionably the dominant leader of social media. Now the folks at News Corporation were smart people with a deep understanding of traditional innovation and growth models. They had the finest degrees, limitless resources, and a proven CEO, Rupert Murdoch, at the helm. What could possibly go wrong?

In short? Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, quite simply, is a hacker. In fact, he proudly embraces that title. Zuckerberg used hacking to obliterate the top social media site, despite a tremendous resource disadvantage. After several rounds of layoffs, MySpace was sold in 2011 for a mere $35 million. The once most-visited website plunged to a pitiful ranking of #1749 by 2016, and the company is now a shell of its former self. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg’s Facebook is the #2 site today (just behind Google) and boasts a market cap of $323 billion as of this writing. Zuck is the 7^th wealthiest person in the US with a personal net worth of over $40 billion.

When Facebook filed to go public in 2012, Zuckerberg penned a letter to prospective investors. The letter shared that the value of his company, both current and future, is based on their approach, which he labels “The Hacker Way”:

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration.... Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.... There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments."

His point is that hacking, and Facebook, is a meritocracy where titles and tenure are meaningless when it comes to decision-making. The best ideas win, not the person with the loudest voice or fanciest title.

“The Hacker Way” is such an important element of Facebook’s success, they paid homage to it when building the company’s corporate campus. The street name has been changed, making the address of this multi-billion global company 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025.