Josh Miller, one of the founders of the upcoming Branch, shares some of the best advice he’s received from Evan Williams and Biz Stone of Twitter and Blogger fame in this post.
Here’s an excerpt about Williams that jumped out at me:
“So you would be surprised how little Ev knows. Or to be fair, how frequently he says, “I don’t know.” Whenever I meet with him, I always come equipped with a laundry list of important questions. But he rarely has any answers for me. “Not sure,” “Maybe,” “I’m not convinced,” he says. That is his genius. Ev only has an opinion when he truly feels compelled. He is not afraid to say “I don’t know.” As a result, when he does champion a perspective it is powerful. You listen.
This has had a profound impact on me. I tend to have strong opinions more often than I should, and I am always in search of the “right” answer. In short, I am a control freak. But Ev has taught me to embrace uncertainity. To put something out in the world in order to learn the right answers, instead of trying to predict them.”
And here’s one from Stone:
“Be vigilant about framing anything as negative. For example, instead of “140 characters were not enough…”, you’d say, “Jon wanted to go beyond 140 characters…” Likewise for “drowned out by the chaos” of comments, speaking ill of email, kicking blogs when they’re down. Just find a way to say these things more positively.
Positivity accumulates and the user feels happy and sunny.”
