Matthew Lang

My sales strategy was simple and I thought rather brilliant. I drove all over the Pacific Northwest, to various track meets. Between races, I’d chat up the coaches, the runners, the fans and show them my wears. The response was always the same. I couldn’t write orders fast enough.

How Nike sold its first 50,000 shoes

I love reading about how successful companies started. It’s a shame that we’re moving away from this level of dedication and motivation with many startups looking to VC funding instead.

I like this.

Each piece of work is a mere pebble tossed into a flowing river. Maybe your pebble will become bedrock—sticking around for a long time and altering the water’s trajectory. Or, maybe it’ll quickly dissolve into dust when new pebbles come along and crash into it. Both of those outcomes are completely natural and worthy of celebration.

— Nobody really owns product work

Having worked on several different products, I can attest to the highs and lows of seeing your ideas implemented but ultimately replaced over time. The hard truth is that as soon as you commit your work to the product and it’s released, it becomes the target of scrutinisation by both the product team and the people that use the product.

Ultimately your work will be replaced over time, but it’s all towards the greater good of learning what’s best for the product and for those that use it.

I’ve seen a lot arguments for and against Mozilla’s paid version of Firefox. I wouldn’t be adverse to paying for a service that values my privacy and in turn helps an organisation try to keep the web open, fair and secure.

I do have some reservations about a paid version of Firefox. Privacy shouldn’t be something you need to pay for, but I am hoping that this paid version is very affordable so that it’s accessible for as many people as possible.