Founders' Confidence Crisis, Direct Conversations, and Shock-Value Culture

Key Quotes

"The problem with management generally I would say is it's very kind of situational and emotional and so it's like oh here's the book to teach you how to play NFL quarterback and you could read that 20 times you go out on the field like things are extremely different if there's a 290 pound guy running at you extremely very fast I'm gonna kill you like what you feel like what you think how you process that is just different and I think management tends to be like that in that it really has to do a lot with your situation and the feeling you have at the time it happens."

Ben Horowitz argues that traditional management books fail because they present a simplistic, step-by-step approach that does not account for the complex and emotional realities of leadership. He explains that effective management is highly situational and depends on the leader's immediate feelings and the specific context of the challenge.

"And so these management books are written like it's some step by step you know like you know anybody with a basic like eighth grade education can kind of understand the principles of management they're not that complicated it's like a cookbook and you could just follow the recipe yeah and it's like oh here are the five steps for building a strategy or the three steps for like you know setting objectives it's not actually very useful at all because you know that stuff is so simple."

Ben Horowitz criticizes management literature for offering overly simplistic, cookbook-style advice that is not practical in real-world leadership scenarios. He contends that the core principles of management are not inherently complex, but the application of these principles in dynamic situations is where the true difficulty lies, making such generic guides ineffective.

"So much of like the mistakes that CEOs make are like they just don't even know how to have the conversation and so it's it's a little bit like the mindset part is correct and that there is a like a confidence part about it where you have to be able to kind of do things when you're not sure that you're right but there's techniques and there's ideas and there's things in there that you know it's just harder than it looks and the problem is the mistakes like not talking to him is going to multiply right like because now you're an isolated engineering and nobody's going to like them and you're going to have politics in the company and like and and and and and and then pretty soon people don't even want to work there and you give high attrition and then you know well why the fuck do we have high attrition and this and that and the other and then the board's all upset and this so it kind of snowballs on you if if you can't deal with these things."

Ben Horowitz highlights that a common pitfall for CEOs is the inability to conduct difficult conversations, which can lead to escalating problems. He suggests that while a confident mindset is important, practical techniques and specific communication strategies are crucial for addressing issues effectively. Horowitz explains that avoiding these conversations allows problems to multiply, creating a cascade of negative consequences for the company.

"So I think some of these guys have like much higher people understanding than you might think like the ones who truly like can't read people and understand people don't get like they don't become Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg like his mom by the way is like a psychiatrist or psychologist and like he's actually pretty insightful and and you can see it like in the deals he's negotiated the moves he's made."

Ben Horowitz counters the stereotype of tech leaders as lacking emotional intelligence, arguing that successful CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg possess a high degree of people understanding. He points to Zuckerberg's background and his insightful decision-making in negotiations as evidence that strong interpersonal skills are vital for achieving top-tier leadership.

"And so the idea you know seeing what Elon is done where it's like oh he goes into these really hard spaces and does these like like hardware hard tech literal literal rocket science right and it's sort of unafraid of that or you know and Anduril going in and doing you know weapons and defense tech and making that cool to be kind of patriotic in that way is that what it was is that what it took or was there something else to it."

Ben Horowitz discusses how entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey (founder of Anduril) are making traditionally difficult and unglamorous fields like hard tech, aerospace, and defense manufacturing seem appealing and patriotic. He suggests that their willingness to tackle these challenging areas and frame them positively has inspired others and made these industries more accessible.

"And I think that's going to be like very very very interesting and then the how well it's working on like existing stuff so people you know the people who are on the cutting edge of the movie industry are now you know they're able to do like whole movie scenes or edit or change their movie have the AI actor do the do the third cut at a level of quality that even the the actor doesn't know it was a mem doing the acting and in that kind of thing so it's I think it's going to change dramatically again and there's going to be kind of whitespace for not only new creatives but new entertainment entrepreneurs and so forth that nobody is really imagining now."

Ben Horowitz expresses excitement about the potential of AI in video creation, viewing it as a new medium rather than just an efficiency tool. He explains that AI enables entirely new storytelling possibilities and can produce content at a quality indistinguishable from human actors, creating significant opportunities for new creatives and entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry.

"And I think AI music is kind of that on steroids because it it sort of like one thing that hip hop showed was so people don't really realize this but this is something Quincy Jones pointed out to me before he passed he said you know Ben like hip hop started like exactly when they canceled all the music programs in schools like it was the same the exact same time when people couldn't learn to play instruments in schools that's when that is exactly when hip hop began and hip hop kind of freed you as a somebody who was a musical talent from actually having to learn to play an instrument."

Ben Horowitz draws a parallel between the rise of hip-hop and the advent of AI music, both democratizing creative expression. He recounts Quincy Jones' observation that hip-hop emerged as music programs were cut, allowing individuals without formal musical training to create music, a concept he believes AI music is now amplifying significantly.

"My rule for writing the kind of like the culture rules is it has to have some shock value like it has to give the other person like oh what the hell are you talking about type of reaction if it's going to be memorable I think that idea was if it's not memorable it's never going to be remembered or used."

Ben Horowitz explains his philosophy for creating memorable company culture rules, stating they must possess a degree of "shock value" to elicit a strong reaction and ensure they are remembered and applied. He believes that without this memorable quality, cultural guidelines are unlikely to be internalized or utilized effectively.