Sarah Lacy Quotes

As smartphones have allowed us to have our computers, emails, social media feeds, and a full surveillance system in our pockets at all times, stories of the law enforcement’s unease with that have been popping up in the press. And of course, the ones that become viral videos aren’t exactly flattering for law enforcement.

My husband and I own half a dozen iPods, a Mac desktop, and four Mac laptops. We’re clearly fans of Mr. Jobs’ work.

The biggest barrier to starting a company isn’t ideas, funding or experience. It’s excuses.

Some people have blithely dismissed growth in markets like China and India, saying Silicon Valley will always be the hub for tech: that everyone will come to us. Wake up: Because the numbers are showing money and talent is increasingly going elsewhere.

I’m not really comfortable unless there’s some kind of risk – either physical or mental.

Everything about Mark Zuckerberg is pure hacker. Hackers don’t take realities of the world for granted; they seek to break and rebuild what they don’t like. They seek to outsmart the world.

One of the great ironies of the social media era is that some of the least social people in the world created it.

Being in Silicon Valley is like playing for the Yankees. You get knocked around more than anywhere else, the glare of the media spotlight is more brutal, and the expectations are higher than they’d be in any other city.

If Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t understand something, it’s not defeat. It’s not even something he has to accept. It’s merely a challenge he needs to engineer his way out of, and that includes human emotions and relationships.

A lot of the books that have been written about Silicon Valley are really good. Michael Malone’s books are incredible. I think his ‘Infinite Loop’ is the best book that’s been written about Apple.

What’s awesome about the Internet is how it breaks up monopolistic markets where middlemen unfairly gobble up outsized fees, leaving us little choice but to keep paying them.

The best entrepreneurs know when to ignore sage advice.

Like patents – which also seek to protect the little guy – unions were started for all the right reasons. But like patents, they can be twisted into something that hurts innovation, competition, and ultimately consumers and the country as a whole.

People always tell me the next stage of my career means moving to New York, but I never will. I don’t care how that affects my career, and I think it’s stupid that it would.

I’ve been reading a lot about Silicon Valley history recently and was struck by just how core the lack of unions has been to the American tech industry’s evolution. It’s enabled the constant creative destruction that keeps Silicon Valley relevant and thriving in a rapidly changing world.

I am a huge fan of using social media to connect with people because I think there was this ‘ivory tower’ aspect of journalism where people might read a byline for years but have no idea about the person who was behind it and never get to communicate with them or ask them a question.

Benefitting from a job bubble is not only a first world problem, it’s an upper-class-educated-lucky-to-be-in-the-right-industry-at-the-right-time kind of first world problem.

Few people would doubt that Mark Zuckerberg would build a great product. But I, at least, would never have expected him to become so great at hiring, motivating, managing, and ultimately getting whatever it is his company needs from people.

I think everyone has their own style in journalism. Look, I’m a girl from the South! Sometimes I laugh. Someone can pejoratively call it giggling. But if you look at the body of my work, I ask lots of hard questions and break a lot of hard news.

One of the nice things about being a private company is operating without the intensity of public glare. It’s hard to grow a company under a microscope of constant second guessing.

The roots of Silicon Valley are full of stories of immigrants and minority groups who experienced bigotry and made it anyway. Why should women be any different?

For all the billions of dollars created here, Silicon Valley is remarkably stingy when it comes to giving.