Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
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You still need humans, don't surrender to the machine. We could use the machines, but don't cognitively surrender. Because it's so easy to build, the things that stand out are the things that are really well thought through. Today in the AI world, I can just make a prompt, and all of a sudden it gets spit out. You're building on a really crusty foundation. You're getting short-term gain for very, very long-term laws. If you're going to build a real company, it can't be thrown. When your colleague's Herman Hauser that asks him how he decides what is worth building. I always start from pain. Are there new technologies to solve that pain? Bring innovation in, revolution in, then redefine the space. What's the threshold? What's the sign of K? This isn't big enough. Oh, the iPod wasn't big enough. It took three generations of the iPod before it became successful. You've got to fail a few times until you find your way. You are so into marketing that piece of building that I think a lot of builders don't think about it at all. The technology's in service of the customer. Not we're going to jam the technology down the customer's throat. A customer only sees what they see through the lens of marketing. You often come back to the value of storytelling for product builders. Too many times when we're technology-led, we talk about the what. We don't talk about the why. The why is the storytelling. When I watched Steve, he was honing the story of the iPhone every day. And so when you saw him come on stage, it was just... 'Cause he had done it a hundred thousand times. Today, my guest is Tony Fadel. Tony doesn't know this, but ever since I started this podcast, he's been near the top of my wishlist of people that I've dreamed to have on this podcast. And that's because Tony is the epitome of what most people listening to this podcast want to become. He co-created some of the most innovative and beautiful and popular products in history. The iPod, the iPhone, the Nest thermostat. He's also famous for being part of the legendary team at General Magic. He's co-authored over 300 patents. He also wrote one of the most important and valuable and inspiring books for builders called Build. Tony is currently an active investor and advisor to Deep Tech Startups with his team at The Build Collective. He was recently named the inaugural designer and residence at the MIT Morning Academy of Design. There's so much gold in this episode I could go on and on. I'm gonna leave it there. Before we get into it, don't forget to check out lenniesproductcast.com For a free year of some of the hottest and most well-crafted AI products in the world available exclusively to lennies newsletter subscribers. With that, I bring you Tony Fidel. Tony, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
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