I'm Feeling Lucky.

I just finished reading I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 .  To distill Douglas Edwards' - aka employee 59 - part-autobiography / part-historical accounting of Google's early years, there are six points that I considered worthy of pointing out:

1. Many brilliant employees, as smart as they are, are insecure in the thought that others around them are smarter.  As such, they are willing to work to the bone to get their work done, on time, and exceeding expectations.  This is part of the culture that has been cultivated at Google.  It is also true that, if you work hard, you may also play hard.
2. The media will almost always misinterpret the personalities of people, because like most, they are unable to correctly judge others that which they only know superficially.  Likewise, many journalists are not technically savvy or otherwise inclined, and are exceedingly gullible to repeating lies or misappropriating facts with opinions.
3. "Don't be Evil" wasn't an immediate, obvious guiding principle, but it became the measure by which all things - products, changes to code - were measured by.  Often, the line was not so clear, and mistakes were made, but never intentionally.  It wasn't always obvious to Google, that rumors had to be quashed or dealt with directly - the presumption had been that, good and evil didn't need to be explained, because it was obvious.
4. A core emphasis by its founders from the start, was to move nimbly and efficiently, to be good enough to get out the door on time.  The emphasis on speed over quality would come back to bite them back sometimes, but getting a product out the door usually meant allowing real-world testing to go on, then fixing the breaks on the fly, rather than letting a product sit in stasis, tested ad infinitum.  In fact, it's okay to be wrong, just move on already...you're wasting time dwelling on your mistake.
5. Collectivism works well; it requires guidance.  Building complex systems requires a collective group of people offering their expertise and labor.  In working together, consensus is not as important as hearing out differing opinions, then coming to a decision in a relatively fast manner, and everyone working towards that goal.
6. Google's founders, as well as most of its engineers, felt that marketing - branding in particular - was unnecessary and possibly evil.  The common belief that you could turn a product around if only it were branded correctly, was understood by engineers that branding only lied to people about the flaws of a product.  Come to think of it, movie studios seem to spend millions of dollars promoting bad movies, more often than they do the really good movies.

The phrase, "I'm feeling lucky" extends beyond its original meaning, relating to a Google search - it relates the irrepressible optimism and ambition of Google's founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin).

It will surprise you to learn, exactly how precarious Google's position was, through its early years prior to its IPO, battling with tech giants whose valuation and sheer size greatly overshadowed Google.  It also makes you aware at just how easily and rapidly its markets in search and online ads could disappear by an upstart that nimbly navigated the waters while being overlooked and ignored.  

A little scattered, but otherwise, a great book.