I think the thing that I've learned is that really great people, they actually want to work on hard problems.
Just build things and find out if they work.
When Pinterest works well, it helps you find things that are meaningful to you. We want to build a system that helps you do that.
What you collect says so much about who you are.
One of the things I've learned is to be receptive of feedback.
I want Pinterest to be human. The Internet's still so abstract... To me, boards are a very human way of looking at the world.
Don'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.
I use Pinterest for everything. Book collections, trips, hobbies. It’s all there. I planned my wedding on it. When I had a kid, I planned all his stuff on it. So it was nice to discover that I wasn’t the only one.
People say doing a startup is like a marathon. It's actually a roadtrip at night with no headlights. You think you're going to Toledo but you're actually going to Miami and you might not have enough gas so you might need to buy gas from someone who might take you out if you aren't driving well
If Google teaches you anything, it's that small ideas can be big.
There's a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.
Don't take too much advice.
The 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.
I always just want to move along to the next step.
I 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.
I 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.
I always read about these stories of entrepreneurs - it’s like they’re in the desert with no water, and they’re the ones that survive. But I’ve been really fortunate to have people on my team who are optimistic about the future and who know that if you work through hard times that there’s usually something good at the end.
