Five Links for December 2020
Five reading links coming at ya!
The Barry Diller Playbook by Mario Gabriele
Many readers of Five Links know I'm a huge fan of Barry Diller -- he's a master capital allocator and super creator. This is a great "intro to Barry Diller" piece for those that are not familiar with the success of IAC and its spins.
Why the Survival of the Airlines Depends on Frequent Flyer Programs by Byrne Hobart
It turns out frequent flyer programs are worth more than the airlines themselves. Note: one of my highlights of 2020 is getting to know Byrne Hobart (by Zoom). Byrne's great newsletter is a must-read.
The Superguide To Building a GREAT Customer Success Function by Auren Hoffman
Everyone has a sense of what a good customer success function does. It keeps customers happy, churn low, and looks for expansion opportunities. But little has been written about what a GREAT customer success function does. That’s likely because customer success, as a function, is rarely great.
Fixing Audit Won’t Fix Fraud: An Interview with Kris Bennatti of Bedrock AI by Alex Danco
It is hard to go a month without reading something amazing from Alex Danco. Like Byrne, Alex is another super exciting writing. Alex has an obsession with fraud (not unlike Matt Levine from Bloomberg) and this is a great interview on fraud and accounting.
How to Think for Yourself by Paul Graham
Paul Graham, the cofounder of Y Combinator, is also one of our generation's greatest philosophers.
Being Short-Term Nice Is Long-Term Harmful by Auren Hoffman
Being nice in the short-term can be the meanest thing you can do to someone in the long term.
Light Bonus: First Lines of Rejected "Modern Love" Essays
NapkinGraph of the month:
See all my napkin graphs
Books:
How to Decide by Annie Duke (5/5)
HT Annie Duke
Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 by Rick Perlstein (5/5)
HT: Pat Robertson
Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal (4/5)
HT Erik Torenberg
7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer (3/5)
The Company I Keep by Leonard Lauder (3/5)
HT Laura Lauder
Once a Warrior by Jake Wood (3/5)
HT Jake Wood
The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz (1/5)
Please forward to friends (or unsubscribe if you hate this). And please send me your best things to read. - Auren
Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph and former CEO of LiveRamp.
want more things to read? Check out @AurenReads on Twitter with a list of everything I really enjoyed reading.
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