The Lean Startup Newsletter - November 19, 2014

The Lean Startup Newsletter - November 19, 2014 by Eric Ries

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11/19/2014

Dan Hurley wrote a fascinating piece for The New York Times Magazine's Innovation Issue that asked “Why are so few blockbuster drugs invented today?” Focusing on the story of experimental “smart insulin” developed through “trial-and-error chemistry,” Hurley explored the repercussions of drug companies’ reliance on genetic research instead of a more old-fashioned “attempt and fail” model that brought us so many of the important drugs of the 20th Century. 

“Experts say that drug companies need to begin applying the new molecular engineering tools to old-fashioned methods of discovery,” writes Hurley. “The spirit that animates the trial-and-error chemists is an enthusiasm for constructing new drugs piece by molecular piece, like children playing with building blocks.”

Here are some other articles that caught my attention this week:"I almost never hear a new idea."

2014 Lean Startup Conference speaker Christina Wodtke shares her three-step system for execution for ElegantHack.com and makes the case for why a great idea is never enough. “It’s not important to protect an idea. It’s important to protect the time it takes to make it real. You need a system to keep you—and your team—aimed at your goal when the world seems determined to throw shiny objects at you.”

“Guru/ninja/rockstar"Erin Kissane, editor of @Source, asked Twitter “If you’re a woman or minority in your field, what language turns you away from job descriptions? Language that feels inviting?” The responses she received, which she’s posted on Storify, are a must-read for entrepreneurs and hiring managers. (via @cindyalvarez)Can diversity on Wall Street help fight bubbles?Neil Irwin at the New York Times shared findings from an experiment conducted by Sheen S. Levine of Columbia University and five collaborators that revealed pricing accuracy was much higher in markets with ethnic diversity.“Ethnically homogenous bunches of traders are more prone to make big-time errors, so various things that promote ethnic diversity on Wall Street can actually create gains in market efficiency,” said sociologist David Stark, one of the paper’s coauthors.

"You are not the user."TechCrunch’s Marat Ryndin wrote a short piece about the early days of Google Inbox, which was first released as “dogfood” to Gmail users—but without many of the advanced features that users had come to love. Needless to say, Google engineers had strong opinions. As Ryndin writes, “Hell hath no fury like a product team removing a feature an engineer had been using on a daily basis.” Cheers,Eric

Eric Rieshttps://twitter.com/ericrieshttp://www.startuplessonslearned.com