www.nickhodge.com

Microsoft adds more back to the com­munity than other com­pan­ies I’ve worked for. In 500 years time, people will remem­ber Bill’s phil­an­thropy work before they think of the soft­ware com­pany, and the impact on tech­no­logy. This is in a sim­ilar way as the Medici in Florence.

Over­achiev­ers Anonymous

“Spend­ing time with the fam­ily” is a quo­ta­tion I’ve seen in every exec­ut­ive “so long, and thanks for all the fish” (alias: good­bye) email.

If you work in a large tech­no­logy com­pany, you’ve read those type of emails: they pre­cede a round of organ­isa­tional shenanigans, back-stabbing, nail bit­ing and re-reading of Machiavelli.

Read­ing a highly inform­at­ive bio­graphy of Nic­colo Machiavelli, the Renais­sance thinker and writer on Power and Polit­ics. Writ­ten by Michael White, from Perth, “Machiavelli: A Man Mis­un­der­stood” details the life-and-times of a man today renoun for the per­jor­at­ive term Machiavel­lian. Whilst his most fam­ous piece, The Prince, details the meth­ods a prince (or leader) must under­take to gain and retain power in Renais­sance Italy — it has mod­ern day implic­a­tions for all polit­cal operatives.

Note: For those in Sydney, Machiavelli’s also hap­pens to be my favour­ite busi­ness lunch­ing venue. Save up your dol­lars and head down to Clar­ence Street in the CBD for some hearty Tuscan/Italian food.