I look around my neighborhood, and I see people hailing a cab or ordering their food and then paying for it all with their phone. I’ve read about that stuff for a really long time, and now it’s starting to become commonplace.
BEN SILBERMANNI look around my neighborhood, and I see people hailing a cab or ordering their food and then paying for it all with their phone. I’ve read about that stuff for a really long time, and now it’s starting to become commonplace.
BEN SILBERMANNI kind of think of engineering like the chefs at a restaurant. Nobody’s going to deny chefs are integrally important, but there’s also so many other people who contribute to a great meal.
BEN SILBERMANNThere’s a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.
BEN SILBERMANNI’d never managed anyone before, so I don’t have a lot of experience. But I’m lucky – I have a lot of team members who have a really honest relationship with me.
BEN SILBERMANNI was obsessed with this idea that these things that you collect, they just say so much about who you are. I can’t say it came from hard-nosed business analysis… It was just something I really want to see built.
BEN SILBERMANNI want Pinterest to be human. The Internet’s still so abstract… To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world.
BEN SILBERMANNI thought Google was the coolest place. People there were so smart and they were all doing these really interesting things. I just felt really lucky to be a part of it even in a small way.
BEN SILBERMANNThe companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are doing at the time.
BEN SILBERMANNWe want the average person to use it and think that it makes the experience of using Pinterest better.
BEN SILBERMANNWhen Pinterest works well, it helps you find things that are meaningful to you. We want to build a system that helps you do that.
BEN SILBERMANNMost people generalize whatever they did, and say that was the strategy that made it work.
BEN SILBERMANNI think anyone who makes products has this simultaneous joy and, almost, shame looking at it. You look at it all day and all you can see is all these things you want to make better.
BEN SILBERMANNWhat you collect says so much about who you are.
BEN SILBERMANNJust build things and find out if they work.
BEN SILBERMANNI always just want to move along to the next step.
BEN SILBERMANNDon’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give ~ with a few exceptions ~ generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.
BEN SILBERMANN