From the Desk of Eric Ries

December 2018

"It's really important for the venture capital world to start to look at diversity, not as a nice charity-based thing, but as a business imperative. By not looking at diverse founders, you are missing diverse funding opportunities.

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Those are the wise words of Kathryn Finney, founder and CEO of digitalundivided, an incubator that works as a pipeline for Black and Latinx women founders from the idea stage through funding, with additional focus on research and community. You can hear her on this subject here. There are so many reasons why we need more diversity in the world of startups, but among them, as she puts it, is the simple fact that once we have it, we'll "see solutions to problems that you didn't even know were a problem...[and] scalable, amazing companies which can give you the return you're looking for." Building those kinds of companies is a huge win for everyone involved, and everyone they serve, too.As always, below are a few conversations and discussions about my own work, and some other pieces I read with interest over last month. I'm also happy to share a few more reports on last month's Lean Startup Conference. I always value the chance to read about what people take away from the event in pieces like this one on 8 key lessons from the conference, this look at Amazon's culture of "working backwards", and this Sketch Notes summary of Day One including using Lean for social good, mastering experiment design, and innovation at scale.I hope something here catches your attention, too. I’m always glad to get recommendations, so if there are things you think I should be reading, send them to: [email protected]

[Conversations]17 Best Twitter Accounts to Follow For EntrepreneursAfter 10 Years, How Has The Lean Startup Fared?

Giant Companies Are Scooping Up Startups Before Their IPOs. What Silicon Valley Wishes Would Happen Instead.

The Long Term Stock Exchange combats short-termismLet's Grow: Keep your business nimble by thinking "The Startup Way"[Readings]

This '80s PBS Show Made It Cool To Love MathOn Square One Television's Mathnet, about which the author writes: "I think we remember children’s shows most fondly when they activate something that becomes an orienting beacon, however faint, for the rest of our lives."Controlling the Spice, Part 1: Dune on Page and ScreenA fascinating account of Dune's rise and fall from the best-selling science-fiction novel in history to epic failure on the screen.

Why Doesn't Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?

"Literature certainly reflects the preoccupations of its time, but there is evidence that it may also reshape the minds of readers in unexpected ways. Stories that vault readers outside of their own lives and into characters’ inner experiences may sharpen readers’ general abilities to imagine the minds of others. If that’s the case, the historical shift in literature from just-the-facts narration to the tracing of mental peregrinations may have had an unintended side effect: helping to train precisely the skills that people needed to function in societies that were becoming more socially complex and ambiguous."

The Oldest True Stories in the World

"Evidence gathered in recent years shows that some ancient narratives contain remarkably reliable records of real events."

The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds"Before Risk, before Dungeons & Dragons, before Magic: The Gathering, there was Diplomacy. One writer enters international competition to play the world-conquering game that redefines what it means to be a geek (and a person)."