Carly’s back and migraine-free for E&A’s 30th episode! In this episode, Dan, Carly and George debate the merits of working for startups vs more established companies, what employee retention rates mean for a company’s culture and bottom line, and how the career path trajectory has evolved over time. They also get into the complicated world of unicorn companies, VC funding and useful idiots.
Show Notes
- I’m sorry to start us off here, but I make the rules, so here’s a trip down Lil Jon memory lane
- The Great Gatsby, George’s idea of the perfect American novel. Phewf, a palette cleanser
- Tony Hsieh’s American Tragedy: The Self-Destructive Last Months Of The Zappos Visionary
- You can read The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization even if you don’t take George’s ethics class
- If you can’t wait for the book, revisit George’s interview with Chuck in Forbes Sales Of Recording Gear Are Soaring During COVID-19. Just Ask Sweetwater's CEO
- B&H photo, a somewhat niche but incredibly durable business with an incredibly loyal customer base
- Jim Collins’ Culture of Discipline concept
- Carly couldn’t find a clip of Ryan asking Michael real business questions, but just watch the whole episode, The Office S2:EP4 “The Fire”
- The book club is back! Get all the details and meetings times here
- Jean Tirole’s Economics for the Common Good, or read more about his work and research on the Toulouse School of Economics website
- Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
- The sad story of Brandon Truaxe, He Built, Then Nearly Broke, a Successful Beauty Start-Up. Can It Go on Without Him?
- The New Yorker’s How Venture Capitalists Are Deforming Capitalism
- If you missed the last episode with Peter Lockhart, please do yourself a favor and have a listen here
- George’s The Perils of Pivoting: The Fatal Attraction of Bright, Shiny Objects
- Dan’s Cordae “The Parables” Rollout: Music Industry Swipe File
- Carly’s How to Build a Press Strategy
Three Things
Carly
- Loving: Open Lab, a new initiative from The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ), that covers a wide range of topics at the intersection of journalism and the arts
- Inspired: By the Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism (ECFJ), an experimental grant program to support artists who want to engage with investigative reporting with major media outlets
- Watching: Parasite on Amazon, finally. Such an interesting examination of capitalism, wealth disparities, and the lengths we would go to for our families. Apparently an HBO spin off is in the works too, which she’s already excited about
Dan
- Reading: Cherie Hu’s 15 ways to incorporate gaming into your music strategy, an article he had in mind to write as well, but she’s gone into an impressive 22 pages of insights!
- Our first FAIL: Epic Records’ Man in the Mirror campaign, where they paid TikTok influencers to sing into the mirror, selfie-style while singing the song.
- Listening: To Where Did I Go? by Bradley James aka Five Times August, an album with a very different sound from his earlier work
George
- Quoting: Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Fear, “We have a great, habitual fear inside ourselves. We’re afraid of many things — of our own death, of losing our loved ones, of change, of being alone. The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch nonfear. It’s only here and now that we can experience total relief, total happiness… In the practice of Buddhism, we see that all mental formations — including compassion, love, fear, sorrow, and despair — are organic in nature. We don’t need to be afraid of any of them, because transformation is always possible.”
- Quoting pt 2: Brian Eno, “People in the arts often want to aim for the biggest, most obvious target, and hit it smack in the bull’s eye. Of course with everybody else aiming there as well that makes it very hard and expensive to hit. I prefer to shoot the arrow, then paint the target around it. You make the niches in which you finally reside.”
- Watching: The Hold Steady Massive Nights, their normally live annual show at the Brooklyn Bowl and holy hell, it was beautiful. Tim Marcin summed it up really well in his Mashable piece Hold Steady: The strangely sweet community of a virtual rock show. Stay positive, everyone
