#239 The Wright Brothers

What I learned from rereading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:40] Relentlessly Resourceful by Paul Graham [4:11] If I were running a startup, this would be the phrase I'd tape to the mirror. "Make something people want" is the destination, but "Be relentlessly resourceful" is how you get there. [5:35] Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger [6:44] No bird soars in a calm. [10:30] Neither ever chose to be anything other than himself. [11:36] Wilbur was a little bothered by what others might be thinking or saying. [11:46] What the two had in common above all was a unity of purpose and unyielding determination. [15:09] Every mind should be true to itself —should think, investigate and conclude for itself. [17:53] My Life in Advertising (Founders #170) [19:33] Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace (Founders #174) [19:39] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire (Founders #140) [23:56] I wish to avail myself of all that is already known. [30:32] Like the inspiring lectures of a great professor, the book had opened his eyes and started him thinking in ways he never had. [34:29] In no way did any of this discourage or deter Wilbur and Orville Wright, any more than the fact that they had had no college education, no formal technical training, no experience working with anyone other than themselves, no friends in high places, no financial backers, no government subsidies, and little money of their own. Or the entirely real possibility that at some point, like Otto Lilienthal, they could be killed. [36:07] When once this idea has invaded the brain it possesses it exclusively. [38:23] I’ve never found anybody that didn’t want to help me if I asked them for help. I called up Bill Hewlett when I was 12