What can you learn from the guy who built the iPod?

Recode Daily

Recode

Science, Technology, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Peter Kafka talks with Tony Fadell, who helped bring the iPod and iPhone to life, and then built and sold Nest, the smart home company. His new book is “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.” Fadell talks about how developing a product begins with creating its “story,” and why he fought so hard to include a $3 screwdriver in Nest thermostat boxes. He also touches on some high-profile failures, unintended consequences, and why he doesn’t want to dance in the metaverse. Featuring: Tony Fadell (@tfadell), Tech Investor & Entrepreneur, author of "Build" Host of Recode Media: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode Support Recode Media and Recode Daily by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you can't quite get the angle, take hands-free selfies with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5,
0:05.2	stand it up, step back, and your photos are also synced to your Chromebook, ready to edit.
0:10.8	The new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Chromebook, available on Vodafone.
0:16.1	This is recode media, Peter Kafka. That's me. I hope you're well. I hope you're dodging COVID.
0:22.1	I hope COVID finally came for you that it's easy and passes quickly. Okay, keep saying that.
0:29.0	I think it's going to keep happening. Anyway, my guest is Tony Fidel. Many of you know
0:34.1	as the guy who helped build the iPod and any iPhone. Some of you also know as the guy who found
0:38.8	it nested. The smart home company sold to Google for $3 billion. Tony's got a new book out. It's
0:43.6	called Build. It's part memoir, part instruction manual. People who want to do cool things,
0:47.8	like running companies. This one's all over the place because Tony Fidel is all over the place.
0:52.3	He's got lots of opinions, so it's fun to talk to him. But I try to focus it a bit on things he
0:56.4	learned that might help you. The listener in your career, even if you're not going to build an
1:00.3	iPod or a $3 billion company, should note that I talked to Tony before Apple announced it was
1:06.6	finally going to kill off the iPod. The thing he helped build, which explains why I didn't ask
1:10.7	about that. Because I would ask about that. I'm reasonably good at this. I would ask him a really
1:15.4	obvious question. Okay. Welcome, Tony. Thank you. Thanks, Peter. It's always great talking to you,
1:20.8	and I'm glad to be here. Thanks for coming. This is a fun book. It is part instruction manual,
1:25.9	part memoir. I'm gathering. You don't need book advances or royalties to cover your mortgage.
1:32.2	So why write this book now? What are you trying to do? Well, people have been bugging me for,
1:39.7	I don't know, 15 years to write a book, write a book, write a book, write a book. And I just
1:44.2	didn't feel right about it. I didn't want to write a autobiography or some kind of tell all
1:48.4	or whatever else. And I was just like, when's the right time? And about three years ago, I woke
	...

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