Key ideas from Brad Feld

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy taught Brad that 'the best way to fly is to throw yourself at the ground and miss' - his philosophy for creating companies
• Len Fassler's mentorship principle: 'Be willing to take risks on people, but make your judgment quickly based on whatever your format is' - Brad
• Startup Communities created the phrase 'startup community' and introduced 'give before you get' in a single paragraph that became foundational
• Give and Take by Adam Grant provided academic research showing the most and least successful people are both givers, validating Brad's philosophy
• Charlie Feld exposed 12-year-old Brad to A Programming Language (APL) at Frito-Lay's data center, sparking his lifelong passion for computers
• Brad's company motto was 'we suck less' because they were often the second or third company hired after others had failed
• Writing books helps Brad 'understand better an idea and work out the idea' rather than making money or building platform
• Harmonix 'tried very, very hard every year to go out of business and were unsuccessful' for 10 years before Guitar Hero success - Brad