by: mumu

最近（以及之前的一段时间）同时在读以下三本（以及其他几本）书，到现在一本都还没有读完（-\摊手/-）。感觉像是在追剧，马上准备出去玩耍，先把当前的感受存档，等回来断点续传把剧追完。

The ride of a lifetime

迪斯尼CEO Robert Iger的商业回忆录，原版副标题是《Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company》，中文版的标题是《一生的旅程：迪士尼CEO自述批量打造超级IP的经营哲学》，听说比尔盖茨还曾“罕见写了2000字的推荐”，号称“神级领导力教科书”。我很好奇神级领导力到底神在哪，不过在开始读之前看到“Lessons learned”、“经营哲学”、“比尔盖茨推荐”等标签，还是条件反射的有了偏见：这一定是一本字大行粗，鸡血满满的商业吹捧之作，并且在不久的将来就会占领（或许已经占领过了）机场书店展台的最醒目位置。某天下午当我真的开始读起来，一页接着一页，感觉好像在追都市职场剧《罗伯特升职记》，一集接着一集，根本不想停下来——果然是最会讲故事的公司的CEO，回忆录相当引人入胜。

男主回忆了自己职业生涯里标志性的事件，从作为职场萌新遭遇性骚扰到耗时十八年落成上海迪斯尼乐园，从被迪斯尼收购之后经历的文化冲击和办公室政治到促成迪士尼收购风格迥异的皮克斯，期间还穿插和乔布斯的相爱相杀的友情以及两任夫人在关键性谈判中起到的润滑作用。每一章对应一个主要事件以及从中学到的经验，印象深刻的几个点：

  • 保持乐观是取得成功的重要因素之一，并且常常被人忽略。人到底还是感性动物，一个乐观的领导者可以激发团队的更多可能，甚至会有意想不到的力挽狂澜的效果。在当前新冠疫情不明朗、全球局势动荡，经济大幅萎缩的大环境下来看，保持乐观更是显得尤其珍贵。
  • 数字不能帮你做决定。在data-driven decision横行的大环境下，这样的观点就像戳破皇帝的新装的小男孩。男主一上任便裁掉了冗杂集权的策略分析部，下放权力到各个业务部门。数字可以提供参考信息，但是做决定还是要靠人对业务的理解把控和综合判断。
  • 总裁夫人怎么可能是傻白甜！男主不时提到夫人对他的鼓励，谈判陷入僵局时，拉夫人一起来个家庭聚会，缓和下紧张的气氛继续推进谈判。傻白甜怎么能hold住场？

书是在公司图书馆借的kindle版，读到差不都百分之八十——迪士尼准备收购twitter万事俱备却在最后一刻收手的时候——借阅到期了！去续借发现前面竟然排了七十多号，惊呆。该剧真火，不知道自己啥时候才能追完。

Sprint

在《The ride of a lifetime》里面robert反复强调“不创新，毋宁死”，还提及初次访问皮克斯时被他们惊艳的作品和创新的氛围所震撼。一个组织能做出一件惊艳的产品已经不容易了，如果能够保持一直持续不断的惊艳输出，除了有对的人之外，还需要有一套对的方法。《Sprint》就是一本产品设计的方法论说明书。

产品创新到底应该怎么做？是靠个人的灵光乍现还是团队的头脑风暴？《Sprint》认为要设计出好的产品（甚至解决其他复杂的问题）是有迹可循的：有对的角色参与，足够的专注，合适的框架，及时的用户验证，以及严格的时间控制——人脑很奇妙，当有足够多的时间时很容易拖延和被打扰，反而在有限的时间里和对的小伙伴们一起集中注意力更容易激发出灵感。

方法论是否有效最终还是要靠实战来验证。《Sprint》号称源自Google十多年的内部实践经验，四年前出版问世。第一次见到她是三年前在一位超级帅的设计师的办公室里，当时具体讨论什么问题已经不记得了，但是设计师的神态却非常清晰：托着下巴，微笑前倾，专注看着你，让你觉得再弱鸡的问题都值得被认真对待。这个月偶然见到这本书，三年前的场景立马浮现在眼前，读这本书似乎是和超级帅的设计师重新建立联结了一样。

冬牧场

读李娟的《冬牧场》好像在追穿越剧：一个现代社会的汉族女子穿越到古老的哈萨克牧区，跟随牧民在严寒的天气下转场，用羊粪盖地窝子，赶小牛，放羊，背雪喝，秀花毡，缝补破衣服，解说电视内容。讲述作为亲历者的喜怒哀乐，远离商业社会和牛、羊、大地、天空朝夕相处，在寒冷无常的天气下挣扎。作为旁观者体察牧民的生活哲学，长孙过继为幼子，年幼的孩子担负繁重的劳动而不言苦，年轻人对外面世界的好奇，传统牧人对定居生活的犹豫。这看似遥远的故事也不过是发生在2010年，仿佛同一时空的平行空间，令人感觉新奇：原来有人是这样生活的。

月初读《春牧场》时候还埋下了一个新的人生愿望：遛骆驼！据说和遛狗遛马不一样，遛骆驼是不需要牵绳子的，用手挽着骆驼前屈的脖子弯儿，就像挽着男朋友那样，走来走去就好了！但是这样走来走去的时候一定要当心被骆驼的大脚踩到，骆驼脚上都是肉，踩到也不会很疼，但毕竟是大骆驼啊，单靠自己是很难拔出来的，得找个人在骆驼屁股上踢一脚，让他自己走开才行。

AI-generated translation.

Recently—actually for quite a while now—I’ve been reading the following three books (plus a few others) at the same time, and I still haven’t finished any of them. (-\shrug/-) It feels like binge-watching several dramas at once. I’m about to go out and have some fun, so I’m saving my current thoughts here first and will resume the “series” after I come back.

The Ride of a Lifetime

This is Disney CEO Robert Iger’s business memoir. The original subtitle is Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. The Chinese edition gives it the grand title The Journey of a Lifetime: Disney CEO on the Management Philosophy Behind Mass-Producing Super IPs. I even heard that Bill Gates “rarely wrote a 2,000-word recommendation” for it, and it has been marketed as a “textbook of god-level leadership.” I was curious what exactly was so god-like about that leadership, but before opening the book I already had my biases: phrases like “lessons learned,” “management philosophy,” and “recommended by Bill Gates” automatically made me think it would be a big-font, pumped-up, self-congratulatory business book destined for the most eye-catching airport bookstore display. But one afternoon, once I truly started reading, I turned page after page as if I were following an office drama called The Promotions of Robert—one episode after another, impossible to stop. Of course: the CEO of the world’s greatest storytelling company turns out to be very good at telling stories.

The protagonist looks back on the landmark events of his career: being sexually harassed as a young professional, the eighteen-year journey to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, the cultural shocks and office politics after being acquired by Disney, and later Disney’s acquisition of Pixar despite its very different culture. Along the way he threads in his love-hate friendship with Jobs and the unexpectedly important roles his wives played in key negotiations. Each chapter centers on one major event and the lesson he learned from it. A few points stayed with me:

  • Optimism is one of the most important factors in success, and it is often overlooked. Humans are emotional animals after all. An optimistic leader can unlock more possibilities in a team, and sometimes even turn the tide unexpectedly. In the current world—uncertain pandemic conditions, global instability, and sharp economic contraction—optimism feels especially precious.
  • Numbers cannot make decisions for you. In an age of data-driven decision-making, this viewpoint feels like the little boy pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. Once he took office, Iger dissolved a bloated centralized strategy-analysis department and devolved power to business units. Numbers can inform, but decisions still require human judgment, business understanding, and synthesis.
  • There is no way the CEO’s wife is some empty-headed sweetheart. He repeatedly mentions the encouragement he received from his wife. When negotiations reached deadlock, inviting the wife to a family gathering sometimes softened the atmosphere and helped move things forward. How could a “sweet simple wife” possibly hold that kind of room?

I borrowed the Kindle version from the company library. I got to about eighty percent—right when Disney was about to acquire Twitter and then pulled back at the very last minute—before my loan expired. When I tried to renew it, I saw more than seventy people already waiting in line. I was stunned. This “show” is seriously popular. No idea when I’ll get to finish it.

Sprint

In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert keeps emphasizing “innovate or die,” and he describes being amazed when he first visited Pixar—both by the work itself and by the atmosphere of innovation. It’s already hard for an organization to make one astonishing product. To keep producing astonishing products over and over again, you need not only the right people but also the right methods. Sprint is essentially a manual for product-design methodology.

So how should product innovation actually happen? Through individual flashes of genius, or through team brainstorming? Sprint argues that good products—and even solutions to other complex problems—can be designed systematically: involve the right roles, create deep focus, use the right framework, validate with users quickly, and control time strictly. The human brain is strange: when we have too much time, we procrastinate and get distracted; with limited time and the right teammates, concentration more easily produces inspiration.

Whether a methodology really works still has to be tested in practice. Sprint claims to come out of more than a decade of internal Google experience and was published four years ago. The first time I saw it was three years ago in the office of an incredibly handsome designer. I no longer remember what exact problem we were discussing, but I vividly remember his manner: chin in hand, leaning slightly forward, smiling, listening with focus—making even the weakest question feel worth serious attention. This month I ran into the book again by chance, and that scene from three years ago returned instantly. Reading it feels a little like reconnecting with that impossibly handsome designer.

Winter Pasture

Reading Li Juan’s Winter Pasture feels like watching a time-travel drama: a modern Han Chinese woman is dropped into an ancient Kazakh pastoral region, following herders during seasonal migration in freezing weather—using sheep dung to cover a sunken hut, herding calves, tending sheep, carrying snow for drinking water, making felt, mending torn clothes, and explaining television plots. As a participant she records the joys and sorrows of living far from commercial society, close day and night to cattle, sheep, earth, and sky, struggling against bitter and unpredictable weather. As an observer she reflects on the pastoral philosophy of life: the eldest grandson being adopted into the youngest son’s household, children silently carrying heavy labor, young people curious about the outside world, traditional herders hesitating over permanent settlement. This story feels remote, yet it took place only in 2010—as if in a parallel space existing beside our own present. It is a startling reminder: so this is how some people live.

When I read Spring Pasture earlier this month, it even planted a new life goal in me: walking a camel! Apparently it is not like walking a dog or a horse. With camels, you do not need a leash; you simply hook your arm around the curve of the camel’s forward-bent neck, as if you were holding your boyfriend’s arm, and just stroll along. But while strolling, you must be careful not to get stepped on by those giant camel feet. Their feet are padded with flesh, so it does not hurt too badly—but a camel is still a camel. If you do get stepped on, it is hard to pull yourself free alone. You need someone else to kick the camel lightly on the backside so it moves away on its own.