10 Lessons I Learned from Nolan Bushnell

Written back in March 6th, 2017

1) “Fake it until you make it”

Steve Jobs had worked at Atari for Nolan Bushnell, and during the talk he was asked what advice he gave Jobs. Nolan said that he advised Jobs to never take ‘No’ for an answer. Also, most importantly, he told him if you act like you CAN do something it will work — “Pretend you are in control and people will assume you are.” While not entirely apples to apples, this quote reminded me of Amazon’s working backwards process; how I used to write a PR and FAQ before we built a product or service. We sort of faked it before we made it…

2) “Learning is about indexing more than just memorizing”

Nolan was taking about the variety of emerging technologies from VR to AI that are going to impact so many industries in the future, and the conversation transitioned to how this will impact learning. He said learning is about being effective at indexing the knowledge base versus trying to memorize it. There is so much access to knowledge and data, and we can enable more ways to do just-in-time learning, which is more effective than our current learning models. He said VR can play an important role here since it introduces a new multi-sense experience to learning; an immersive one.

3) “If you want to train your brain — be frisky and don’t get caught”

Like many young scientists, Nolan liked spectacular experiments, and he talked about this during his interview. Since Nolan would often experiment at home by placing all his computer gear in his room, his mother refused to tidy his room on the grounds that she might be electrocuted. And so Nolan talked about an experiment with a homemade liquid fueled rocket that nearly burnt down his garage. But that was the way he opted to learn, by experimenting. And so he told the audience to be frisky, but make sure you don’t get caught.

4) Video has the power to elucidate and entertain us

Nolan talked about how the gaming industry has evolved over the years, and he emphasized that the video has the power to elucidate and entertain us. When done correctly, it can enhance computational skills, improve logic skills, and enable search and cognitive skills. Nolan mentioned that today’s gaming market is full of all kinds of games, some great and others “trashy.” For him the heuristic to aspire towards is, “a good game is easy to learn, but hard to master.”

6) On hiring people…

Nolan was asked what advice he would give the group, especially those in leadership positions. Nolan had a rather unique response saying, “The most important thing is don’t hire dead people. People tend to die from the neck up long before they are buried. … To have people just putting in time will sap the life out of your business.” It’s a lesson for us all that despite the challenges and odds that we face, it’s important we bring a sense of drive and desire to challenge the status quo. To quote from an email sent to the AWS back in 2015, “We hire really smart, motivated, passionate, missionary builders, who are trying to build a business that outlasts all of us here now.” That illustrates Amazon’s culture.

7) The Dice Game

8) “The more uncomfortable things you do the more you get challenged”

This quote kind of builds on #6 and #7, but basically Nolan was telling the group to continue challenging oneself, and really pushing to the frontiers of new pursuits, which often times means going on the unbeaten path. That brings about a sense of discomfort because of the unknown. But that is where we get challenged.

9) “Be willing to fail. Don’t try to fail, but be willing to. I want to invent the future that I want to live in.”

10) “Don’t forget that thrill of being a child and discovering new experiences”

Finally, I will leave you with a powerful quote from Nolan that he said towards the end of the talk… “The true entrepreneur is a doer, not just a dreamer.”

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