I definitely wanted to earn my freedom. But the primary motivation wasn’t making money, but making an impact.
I’ve been doing a hybrid of investing and entrepreneurship, which I think initially I wasn’t set out to do. But I realized it fit my personality.
My interactions with Sorkin were agonisingly weird. He is by far the weirdest person I have ever met. I had dinner with him and a few hours before I got an e-mail from his assistant saying, ‘Sean, this does not need to be a long conversation. Aaron is only going to use it to win your trust.’
Your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur is not concealing your idea from others or keeping your idea a secret, it is actually convincing people that you’re not crazy and that you can pull this off.
Solving specific problems is what drives me. I am not interested in having a career. I never have been.
At every point I am besieged by people who would like me to conform to some social norm of whatever sort of social group they expect me to be a part of. I never have any identification with these social groups.
I had a desire to prove to myself that I was actually in control – that I wasnt a puppet.
I think Facebook’s biggest problem is the glut of information that Facebook’s power users are overwhelmed with.
At the end of the day, money is just a proxy for votes. That is what makes politics so vulnerable to social media.
It’s not cool. I think being a wealthy member of the establishment is the antithesis of cool. Being a countercultural revolutionary is cool. So to the extent that you’ve made a billion dollars, you’ve probably become uncool.
I focus on things that are the highest value and do them perfectly.
It would be incredibly presumptuous and self-serving of me to believe that Facebook was the end of history. The only way it could possibly be the end of history is if it becomes some sort of artificial super intelligence that takes over the world.
I lived on couches for something like six months. I had no home. I was totally broke. I would stay at a friend’s house for two weeks, then move because I didn’t want to become this permanent mooch.
I suffer from the delusion that every product of my imagination is not only possible, but always on the cusp of becoming real.
Facebook isn’t helping you make new connections, Facebook doesn’t develop new relationships, Facebook is just trying to be the most accurate model of your social graph. There’s a part of me that feels somewhat bored by all of this.
You want people using your product because it’s a part of your life, then they can’t stop using it.
Ever since Napster I’ve dreamt of building a product similar to Spotify.
You can now be a master of your own destiny. I’m not sure why you would sign up with a record label.
You actually don’t want people thinking your product is cool, because then you’re a fad.
There’s definitely some sort of dissent brewing between labels, publishing companies and artists. A lot of it has to do with older licensing schemes.
Gray hats are the ones who think they’re doing good, but they’re not. You learn that when the FBI shows up on your doorstep.