Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:32:49 · Mark Pincus, Lenny Rachitsky
But that's how I'm trying to navigate this. I also tried to make it until they were 16 with no phones, no smartphones. And I got to 14, I got them flip phones. And they had internships at Niantic working on Pokemon Go. They built a first time user experience. It's really good that they were, I think, used. But they had to get smartphones for that, and they still have them. I tried to make it, and I didn't. [01:33:20] S1: Oh man, that's hilarious. [01:33:22] S0: Oh, and also, I'll tell you one more thing. For my older girls, I keep a running Google doc of life philosophies. And anything I say to them as a quote I say over and over, I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to actually write that up with stories, and I keep it in this document for them and who knows if they'll use it." But they do start to repeat some of them, so I know they read it. One is nothing's personal. Don't ever take anything personal. And if you assume nothing's personal, you're probably right 19 out of 20 times, and the 20th time you probably handled it right because of that. So that's one. And don't be a victim. The world doesn't happen to you, it's happening around you. We're defined how we react to the world, not by the events that happen to us. So I'm trying to give them these. And they're teenagers, or the older two, and I'm in it and learning. And I've got two littles that... A one-year-old and four-year-old who sleep with me every night and-
01:33:22 · Mark Pincus, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:33:22] S0: Oh, and also, I'll tell you one more thing. For my older girls, I keep a running Google doc of life philosophies. And anything I say to them as a quote I say over and over, I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to actually write that up with stories, and I keep it in this document for them and who knows if they'll use it." But they do start to repeat some of them, so I know they read it. One is nothing's personal. Don't ever take anything personal. And if you assume nothing's personal, you're probably right 19 out of 20 times, and the 20th time you probably handled it right because of that. So that's one. And don't be a victim. The world doesn't happen to you, it's happening around you. We're defined how we react to the world, not by the events that happen to us. So I'm trying to give them these. And they're teenagers, or the older two, and I'm in it and learning. And I've got two littles that... A one-year-old and four-year-old who sleep with me every night and- [01:34:40] S1: Oh, man. You're busy. I feel like it's clearly what your next book is going to be is these life philosophies. I feel like these are useful for people, for humans. For adults, I mean. [01:34:50] S0: Yeah. I wanted to write a book on parenting saying, "Everything I know about parenting, I learned from my dog Zynga." Because I had her before I had kids, and she was like a person. And I gave her clear boundaries, and freedom and love in between, and she believed that she was a person. [01:35:14] S1: Is there anything else you wanted to share before we wrap up?
01:35:14 · Lenny Rachitsky, Mark Pincus
[01:35:14] S1: Is there anything else you wanted to share before we wrap up? [01:35:20] S0: The thing that I've gotten, that's resonated most in writing in my book of life for the last 30 years. It took me a long, long time. It took me until I started Zynga at 41 to finally identify and articulate my why. And I think for all of us, it's so important to get there. And we might do for a long time before we actually can say the why. But I figured out that mine, what I talk about in the book, is I want to create an internet treasure. When people say, "Mark, how do I know that you're going to work hard on this next thing, or you're post-economic, or you're a bored, rich guy or whatever?" I'm like, "Well, I haven't done my thing yet." Like, "What does our soul need to do before we die, or at least to be in integrity with it? What do I need to be working on and know that I gave everything I had against it?" And it's to build an internet treasure, which is a service we can't remember life before or imagine life without. And I believe as product makers, that that's the greatest ambition and the greatest thing that we can offer the world. And my friend Bing Gordon says, "One day, those treasures will be in the Smithsonian." And I think he's right. And I think it is the greatest opportunity that we have as product makers in this era, is to build those digital skyscrapers that the next generation can't believe anyone ever lived without. That's my ambition, and why I'm still rubbing sticks together and... Yeah, it is.
01:37:01 · Lenny Rachitsky, Mark Pincus
[01:37:01] S1: And writing books. Speaking of that, to help people build their own internet treasure, your book is coming out very soon, I think around the time this episode comes out. Tell people where to find it. Anything else you want to share about the book? It's right here. [01:37:17] S0: Well, you have a copy. I just got a copy. [01:37:20] S1: Two copies somehow. [01:37:22] S0: Two. Because you're important. We hope you read it twice. [01:37:27] S1: Okay. [01:37:27] S0: Give it out to a friend. I would just say that Life at the Speed of Play is my... I'm trying to share my playbook and philosophies, and I'm hopeful that somebody will steal some of my ideas and take it further. And we're all in a conversation, and I love this podcast and you hosting this cocktail party. We're all trying to move the philosophies and the craft of product making ahead, and we're all learning as we go. And I hope that my book can be something referenceable, and I hope it's easy and fun to read, because I have pain reading a lot of books. [01:38:19] S1: It is actually very easy to read. It's very not that long, and it's very bite-sized, so great job with that. [01:38:26] S0: Oh, good. [01:38:28] S1: Mark, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for sharing all this wisdom with us. [01:38:32] S0: Thanks. This is fun. This is actually, I've done some podcasts about the book, and I didn't want to talk about the content of the book on most of the podcast, and on this one, I did. I'm trying to only go into places that I want to talk about, which I tried to do in the book too.
01:38:32 · Mark Pincus, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:38:32] S0: Thanks. This is fun. This is actually, I've done some podcasts about the book, and I didn't want to talk about the content of the book on most of the podcast, and on this one, I did. I'm trying to only go into places that I want to talk about, which I tried to do in the book too. [01:38:52] S1: There we go. [01:38:53] S0: So thank you for inspiring me to want to talk about product. [01:38:57] S1: My pleasure. Thanks, Mark, bye everyone. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com. See you in the next episode.