Interlude - Index of

68 | Turbulent Adolescence
short wait until the next opportunity. Once people understand
this, fast growth can help foster a healthy culture. Everyone
has so much on their plate that they are willing to hand some
off. (In game theory terms, hypergrowth creates a non­zerosum
situation in which everybody can win. I recommend the
book Nonzero by Robert Wright.)
The act of doubling is not an annual milestone; it is an
incremental process. Doubling happens every single day. The
The Grass Is Always Greener
In hypergrowth you must always be on the lookout for people to hire.
I once took a friend’s daughter to a piercing studio to get her tongue
pierced. The piercing technician had a shaved head and tattoos that
ran down his arms and up his neck. His ears and eyebrows were
riddled with holes, all filled with stainless steel hardware. He noticed my
company T-shirt and said, “NetApp? You work at NetApp?” I nodded
and he said, “Can I give you my résumé? NetApp is so cool!”
Surprised, I asked, “What have you heard about NetApp that you
think we need a full-time body piercer?”
“I’m tired of this piercing thing. I mean, all of these idiot young girls
come in and they want me to pierce their tongues, pierce their nipples,
pierce their clits. I am so tired of teen nipples and tongues and—what I
love is IT.”
“IT? You mean information technology?”
“Yeah. I’m the guy that put up the Web site for this shop and I can
do Linux and Apache. My favorite operating system is Linux 2.4. I would
love to work for NetApp.”
Perhaps he interpreted my shocked expression as skepticism that
his Linux experience was sufficiently broad, because he immediately
said, “Oh oh oh, not a problem. I can do Windows too.”
I gave him my card.