41 Stewart Butterfield Quotes for You to Enjoy

Stewart Butterfield

Canadian Businessman

Born: 1973

Good People Think Time Work You

Related authors: Craig Bruce Garrett Camp Guy Laliberte Maurice Strong N. Murray Edwards Ryan Holmes Tobias Lutke

You can take a team of absolute all-stars in terms of their native abilities, but if they are not working together, they are much less effective than a team where there is less native ability but a higher degree of teamwork and cohesion. Stewart Butterfield

You Working Together Together Degree Ability Absolute Higher Take Terms Effective Than Native Where Much Working Less Team Teamwork Cohesion

There's a lot of automation that can happen that isn't a replacement of humans but of mind-numbing behavior. Stewart Butterfield

Behavior Automation Lot Replacement Happen Humans

From the outside, Yahoo was extremely successful. It was making money; it was still bigger than Google. But when I got there, I learned what a disaster of a company looks like from the inside. There were a lot of vice presidents, and it was basically a turf battle between them. Stewart Butterfield

Battle Money Google Extremely Presidents Inside Outside Between Like Disaster Looks Learned Yahoo Got Making Still Making Money Were Lot Than Vice Bigger Turf Them Successful Company Basically

I have a couple of things I do to clear my head when I need it. The first is exercise, the kind of exercise that makes me lie on the floor afterward gasping for breath and wonder if I'm actually going to be able to breathe enough to not die. The other one is playing music. Stewart Butterfield

Music Me Lie First Breath Other Enough Kind Able Clear Head Couple Exercise Makes Wonder Die Going Afterwards Breathe Floor Actually Things Playing Need

Inside a company, you can mandate that everyone use the same technology, which means you can go a little bit, I don't know, higher fidelity than the lowest common denominator technology. Stewart Butterfield

You may be trying to drive in a particular direction that people don't necessarily understand at first. In our case, we knew the users we had in mind for this product. So in the early days, we looked at our customers, really just testers at that point, and we paid extra attention to the teams we knew should be using Slack successfully. Stewart Butterfield

You People Mind Drive First Extra Our Case Direction Point Drive-In Had Knew Attention Days Particular Looked Understand Trying May Just Customers Really Should Product Successfully Paid Users Using Teams Slack Necessarily Early Early Days

In Slack, you create channels to discuss different topics. For a small group of people, those channels are relatively easy to manage and navigate. Stewart Butterfield

You People Group Channels Relatively Those Topics Easy Small Small Group Discuss Manage Different Create Navigate Slack

There's a lot that's wrong with the way we work - bad habits that develop around control of information, people hoarding information as a means of preserving their own power. When you're using Slack, everyone can see what's going on because the default mode is public. Stewart Butterfield

Work You People Power Own Control Preserving Everyone Way Bad See Bad Habits Habits Develop Wrong Because Around Lot Mode Going Hoarding Information Public Means Using Slack Default

I tend to be a lot more honest and transparent with employees than most bosses are. But I've had people tell me - even those who love working with me - that I'm terrifying, which is hard for me to imagine. Stewart Butterfield

People think I'm smart because Flickr was successful. I'm lucky. Maybe I'm smart, too. But, I'm lucky. Stewart Butterfield

People Smart Think Too Because Maybe Successful Lucky

We'd never make Slack an email client, but it's good to support sending emails into it. There's quite a bit of formatting you can do. When I get an email from the outside world that I want to share with team, I cut and paste it into Slack. But really, I should be able to import that email as an object. Stewart Butterfield

Good You World Email Emails Bit Able Object Outside Never Outside World Share Support Import Make Client Paste Get Sending Quite Quite A Bit Want Cut Really Should Team Slack

Flickr was designed partly to market itself. There are a lot features, in place early on, that let people take their photo, upload it to Flickr and post them elsewhere, on their own Web site or their blog, which meant a lot of incoming links. Stewart Butterfield

Inside a company, you can mandate that everyone use the same technology, which means you can go a little bit, I don't know, higher-fidelity than the lowest-common-denominator technology. There are a lot of things that Slack gives you that email doesn't when you think about internal use. Stewart Butterfield

You Technology Think Everyone Email Bit Inside About Gives Higher Know Go Lot Denominator Than Same Mandate Common Common Denominator Which Fidelity Little Little Bit Means Use Lowest Internal Company Slack Things

I see all kinds of people work hard all over the world, and some of them are barely making it. I don't just mean subsistence farmers. I mean people in the developed world who work multiple jobs, and because the cost of health care and child care eats up almost all of the living they make. Stewart Butterfield

Work Health People Work Hard World Care Living Jobs Kinds See Some Eats Cost Developed Developed World Almost Almost All Over Make Health Care Because Making Up Child Child Care Subsistence Just Mean Mean People Them Barely Hard Farmers Who Multiple

For most companies, the hard thing is making the product work well enough to convince a single person at a time to switch to it. Stewart Butterfield

Work Time Single Enough Most Well Well Enough Making Single Person Person Convince Product Hard Companies Hard Thing Switch Thing

There are two big benefits from moving conversations from a mode where you're addressing individuals, or groups of individuals, to addressing a channel which is a topic, a project, a functional discipline, or whatever. Stewart Butterfield

You Benefits Discipline Big Whatever Channel Project Addressing Topic Individuals Mode Where Which Conversations Moving Groups Functional Two

I almost never go to news sites - it's overwhelming how much content is out there. But I will pay attention to what my friends are picking up and sharing. Stewart Butterfield

News Will Overwhelming Pay Pay Attention Out Never Picking Sharing Almost Attention Content How How Much Go Up Friends Sites Much

Internally, we sometimes say Slack is like a nervous system, connective tissue, or the internal network. Stewart Butterfield

Sometimes Nervous Say System Nervous System Network Like Tissue Internal Slack

I remember working with a guy named Andrew Braccia at Yahoo, and Yahoo was the company that bought Flickr. Everyone on his team was hard working and reliable, did what they said they were going to do, on top of everything, and seemed to be operating at this level of productivity and effectiveness that I found difficult to manage to. Stewart Butterfield

Remember Difficult Everyone Everything Top Reliable Andrew Seemed Guy Bought Named Operating Yahoo Said Were His Effectiveness Did Manage Going Working Hard Productivity Team Company Hard-Working Found Level

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