#419 Kelly Johnson: Skunk Works

#419 Kelly Johnson: Skunk Works

Kelly Johnson’s “14 Points” read like a SpaceX operations manual — 60 years before SpaceX was founded. Kelly Johnson created Skunk Works, which he defined as: “A concentration of a few good people solving problems far in advance—and at a fraction of the cost—of other groups by applying the simplest, most straightforward methods possible to develop and produce new projects. All it is really is the application of common sense to some pretty tough problems.” Kelly Johnson was a great engineer and system builder with genius for organizational design. His autobiography which he wrote when he was 75 years old is full of hard-earned wisdom from his 44 year career. This episode is what I learned from reading Kelly: More Than My Share of it All [https://amzn.to/4deEm74] by Kelly Johnson. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com [https://ramp.com] Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders [https://axon.ai/founders] Vanta: ⁠https://vanta.com/founders [https://vanta.com/founders]⁠

#418 Phil Knight: Founder of Nike

What I learned from rereading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike [https://amzn.to/3QMG2Mq] for the 3rd or 4th time. Made possible by: Ramp:⁠ https://ramp.com⁠ [https://%20https://ramp.com] Axon by Applovin: ⁠https://axon.ai/founders⁠ [https://axon.ai/founders] Vanta: ⁠https://vanta.com/founders [https://vanta.com/founders]

#417 Arnold Schwarzenegger

What I learned from reading Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder [https://amzn.to/4tfMp9a] by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com [%20https://ramp.com] Axon by Applovin: https://axon.ai/founders [https://axon.ai/founders] Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders [https://vanta.com/founders]

#416 The Relentless Missionary Creating AGI: Demis Hassabis

This episode is about a once-in-a-generation mind working on what may be the most important problem in history. Based on the new book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence [https://amzn.to/3OfYGLz] by Sebastian Mallaby. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com [https://ramp.com] Axon by AppLovin: https://axon.ai/founders [https://axon.ai/founders] Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders [https://vanta.com/founders]

#415 How Elon Thinks

My friend Eric Jorgenson spent years—and thousands of hours—studying Elon Musk. Eric read everything Elon has written, read everything written about Elon, and watched every interview Elon's given. He distilled all of Elon's insights into his new book. This episode is all about How Elon Thinks based on The Book of Elon: Elon Musk's Most Useful Ideas in His Own Words [https://amzn.to/40OuOJ5]. Episode sponsors: Ramp [https://ramp.com]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud ⁠⁠⁠by going to Ramp.com [https://ramp.com] to learn how they can help your business save time, save money⁠⁠, and grow revenue.⁠ Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta [https://vanta.com/founders].⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off [https://vanta.com/founders].