Something that I often see happening in startups, and it kills, is that the product to be launched is a moving target. They go so long without putting something touchable out there that teams start to wilt and rot because they’re missing such a big part of their life, which is validation and recognition for what they’re making. It’s such an important driver for creative people. If you work in a vacuum for too long, you lose touch with who you’re making it for and who’s using it. Zach Klein.

Think about the fuel you’re wasting working for someone else. When you work on your own product, that you own, that you build, and that is your creation, you’ll always work harder. That’s just inherent in human nature. And you will be able to deal with the risk because it’s your thing. Matias Corea.

Find something you really love to do … if you love it, who cares who tells you no. All that matters is when you wake up in the morning, are you happy with what you’re doing? Christina Brodbeck.

I didn’t sleep very much, but it didn’t feel that way at the time because I was just so in love with my work.

When you find what you love, it doesn’t feel like work.

Christina Brodbeck.

The work of design is not to skin stuff. It’s not to put a nice dumb box around whatever is inside. It’s the whole conception. Design should deliver the whole ecosystem. Yves Behar.

Our office was at 123 South Park, ground zero of the dot-com boom and bust. EBooks was behind us, eToys was down the street, 21st Century Internet Venture Partners was right around the corner. Tour buses would go around South Park—Japanese tourists taking pictures of «The Internet.» At these Internet parties, over-stimulated MBA guys would be like, «We’re doing this virtually. We’re shipping toys to people.» And I would tell them, «I actually make the stuff. I make tangible goods that people can enjoy.» And their eyes would just completely glaze over, and like «poof!» I disappeared from the conversation. It was like, «This guy is irrelevant, who else can we talk to?» Yves Behar.

Understand technology. Even if design is your core strength, you need to truly grok technology, to understand what is possible, what is not possible. That decision–making should not be done by somebody else—you should be able to do it.Rashmi Sinha.

In my email signature is a quote from Steve Jobs: «Focus is about saying no.» Saying no to things will annoy people, but you will build a great product. So I definitely say no a lot and I think it’s an important part of building software. I have that quote in my signature to remind myself and my team of that. Rashmi Sinha.

I think the best designers, maybe not the most successful, but the ones who have the highest quality work, they care about every fucking thing in their product. And that’s what makes it high quality. Evan Sharp.

All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions. Leonardo Da Vinci.