Sylvain Perrier

Musings

The Conversation That Changed My Mind

If you're good at your job and comfortable in it, you might know the feeling. Someone offers you more, and your first thought is, why would I leave this?

Business

If You Can’t Replay It, You Didn’t Decide It

Clarity on priorities and on “done” is a leadership job, and it starts well before anything ships.

Musings

Put the standard in before the tool.

Without a written standard, a tool has nothing clear to enforce.

Musings

Miles Vesper and the cool fall day I feel guilty about

Fall afternoons get their own soundtrack, and lately that soundtrack has a name I can't put a face to.

Business

Quality is what you refuse to reopen.

Quality is the decision you refuse to reopen once it exists as a record.

Musings

Sad Wings of Destiny at 50

Rocka Rolla didn't land. This one did, and it did the job a second record is supposed to do. It decided who the band was.

Business

What I ask before we add capacity

No standard plus a new tool means the mess moves faster. No standard plus a new person means the same mess, at a higher cost.

Musings

Reign in Blood at 40. Music Friday.

The part that gets me forty years in: it still sounds like it came out recently. Not in a retro way. In a "this record has no era" way.

Business

A decision that is not written down is not a decision.

I stopped blaming the people in the room a long time ago. The people are fine. The process is missing one step. Write the decision down in full before anyone leaves.

Books

In My Darkest Hour

Don't bother reading In My Darkest Hour. It is not a must-read, and it is not worth the shelf space.

Musings

The Album That Showed Up Finished on Album Two — and Made the Big Three a Four

Forty years later, the bass line still walks into the room like it owns the lease.

Business

Attachment Is Not a Turnaround Plan

Put the attachment aside early. Keep the people who want the next chapter. Make reality show up in order.