Tony Fadell

iPod, iPhone, Nest, Investor & NY Times bestselling Author #BUILD

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Couldn’t be happier or more humbled. #BUILD is a @nytimes Bestseller. I learned A LOT writing #Buildbook w/the best co-writer I could’ve ever dreamt of @dina323

https://t.co/ROzd1Vga7k

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Prepare for some wind and some hail, but don't worry about getting swept away: a mission driven "asshole" might tear apart your work, but they won't attack you personally. They won't call you names or fire you for disagreeing with them. That's the difference between a mission driven "asshole" and a controlling one. Controlling assholes won't listen. They'll never admit they screwed up. Neither will political assholes. They'll ignore obvious problems and deflect reasonable feedback, either because it's not helpful politically or because their ego can't take it. They don't protect the product or the customer or the team. They protect themselves.

- #BUILD Chapter 2.3 Assholes

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Management is a learned skill, not a talent. You're not born with it. You need to learn a whole slew of new communication skills and educate yourself with websites, podcasts, books, classes, or help from mentors and other experienced managers.

- #BUILD Chapter 2.1 Just Managing

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

There isn't one model that will be best at everything. There never was. I’ve been saying this for a while now, it’s NOT one size fits all. And finally, the conversation around AI is starting to mature.

This @TechCrunch on the shift beyond the frontier model race reinforces something that's becoming increasingly clear: the future won't be won by a single foundation model.

What are you trying to build?

You don't start with the technology and look for a problem. You start with the problem and choose the technology that delivers the best experience.

https://t.co/SfvmKwD3RD

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Convenient, but not connected. I'm seeing more iPods, point-and-shoot cameras, flip phones, and CD players than I have in years.

This isn't nostalgia. It's a reaction to a world of endless notifications and unlimited choice.

When we built the iPod, the goal was simple: make listening to music effortless. The best technology disappears into the experience. It doesn't constantly interrupt it.

The next wave of innovation won't be about doing more. It will be about helping people focus on what matters most.

Great read from Nancy Walecki in @TheAtlantic

https://t.co/yzdWLwwzpZ

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

We're still in the email-checking phase of AI assistants.

There's a lot more to unlock.

The model matters less than who controls the assistant built around you, that's the lasting advantage.

You can swap the brain.
You can't swap the memory, context and trust built over time.

The AI platform war won't be won by the model alone. Whoever builds the complete assistant experience with context, memory, interaction, skills and reflection all working together will win this war.

The future belongs to the assistant that understands you best, powered by what I call a "Federation of Devices."

My latest thoughts: https://t.co/81kb6xoZOQ

Thanks to the @CNET team for the opportunity to contribute to the conversation with this guest column.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Sometimes the best measure of a product’s success isn’t launch day. It’s 20 years later. The Wii launched in 2006. Today, a group of seniors in Tulsa, the U.V. Okies, are still gathering around it, competing, laughing, and building community through Wii bowling.

The Wii worked because it didn’t ask people to become “computer users.” It brought technology into a world they already understood. Throw a bowling ball.

Great products don’t make humans adapt to machines. They make machines adapt to humans. That lesson matters even more now as we enter the next tech transition with AI.

The breakthrough won’t just come from more compute, bigger models, or better benchmarks. It will come from building experiences people actually want in their lives...technology that feels approachable, empowering, and even a little magical. The products that last are the ones that make us more human, not less.

Thanks @nytimes for a great reminder of tech and human connection working together.

https://t.co/iFuLiQWPgE

[Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan]

Tony Fadell's resume:

+ Co-created the iPhone → $2.3 trillion in sales
+ Created the iPod → saved Apple from bankruptcy
+ Founded Nest → AI in your home 11 years before ChatGPT

I asked him about everything he's learned:
🔸 Why opinion-based decisions are essential for v1 products
🔸 Why marketing matters as much as the product itself
🔸 Why taste is the biggest moat in AI
🔸 His prediction for the next breakthrough consumer device
🔸 Why "cognitive surrender" to AI is the biggest risk for builders

Listen now 👇
https://t.co/Yk2zLhtq3L

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

@lennysan This was fun @lennysan excited to hear what listeners think. We covered a lot of topics! Thanks for having me on.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

https://t.co/k1Ni0kEs5J

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Nobel Prize winning economist Kenneth Arrow wrote about "learning by doing" decades ago. He knew that productivity and expertise improve through experience.

The messy, repetitive works is often where you learn the patterns that eventually become judgment. Knowledge can be taught, but judgement is built through lived experience.

The first draft you rewrite. The customer call you listen to. The bug you fix and fix again. The factory floor you walk.

Small decisions you make every day teach you judgement. And, judgement is the thing everyone wants from senior people in the workplace. If we automate away every entry-level task without replacing the learning loop, we are removing a part of the process that creates experts.

The goal should be to use AI to accelerate learning, remove friction, and give people better tools to build expertise faster.

https://t.co/MpFZzCk1An

Thanks @Fortune & @tbove4 for sharing this story. Link in the comments.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Graduates 1) congratulations!!! 2) a reminder not to lose the ability to ask obvious questions!

When we were kids we did this naturally as we were learning to understand the world around us. We asked why things work the way they do.

Then we become adults and stop asking. We normalize bad experiences, broken systems, unnecessary complexity, and products that frustrate us every day. Many of the best companies and products come from people who never fully accepted that’s just the way it is.

The iPod came from questioning why I had to carry around all my music...it was annoying and clunky. Nest came from questioning why thermostats were so poorly designed despite being in every home. Innovation often starts with noticing things other people have stopped seeing.

Stay curious. Notice friction. Question assumptions. And don’t let expertise kill your sense of wonder.

* 📸 yep that's me. My first real world job after @UMich see at @generalmagicmov I was persistent until I got the job, thanks Dee Gardetti 🙏

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Spotted in the NYC subway. “Zero screen time.” An iPod Shuffle ad in 2026.

When we built the iPod, the goal was the technology disappeared and you could have your music wherever you were. 1,000 songs in your pocket.

Now we’re living through a moment where people are actively looking for ways to disconnect from the infinite feed, algos, and constant notifications. That doesn’t mean technology is bad. It means the best technology understands when to step back.

Not every problem needs another screen, another menu, or another layer of complexity. Constraints create freedom (read: @DavidEpstein new book Inside the Box). And often removing features creates a better product than adding them.

The future of technology shouldn’t just be more engagement. It should help us be more human.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Start reading, https://t.co/obDr9VrUj6

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

If you don’t have constraints, then make up constraints.

After @generalmagicmov many of us walked away realizing the same thing: Big visions fail when the problem space is too big.

My friend @DavidEpstein captures this beautifully in his new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better.

At General Magic, we were trying to build the future all at once. The vision was extraordinary. Too extraordinary. The technology, infrastructure, interfaces, networks, batteries, displays, and user behavior all needed to evolve simultaneously. We were building everything, but for who?

When we built the iPod, we didn’t try to reinvent everything. We focused on one clear problem: people wanted their music collections with them everywhere they went. That focus forced hard decisions: no endless feature list, no bloated interface, and no trying to please everyone. We constrained the team size. We constrained the timeline. We constrained what version one needed to be. The famous scroll wheel itself came from working within constraints. We needed a fast, intuitive way to navigate thousands of songs on a tiny screen with limited hardware resources. Constraint drove simplicity.

The same thing happened on the iPhone. We used internal “heartbeats” aka aggressive prototype deadlines to force learning cycles. The first versions were wrong. Then the second versions were wrong in different ways. But the deadlines forced us to stop, regroup, simplify, and learn before complexity spiraled out of control.

At Nest, we took it even further. Before the product was done, we built the prototype of the packaging first. Literally the box. Why? Because the box forced clarity. If someone saw this thing sitting on a shelf for five seconds, would they immediately understand: what problem it solved, why they needed it, and why it was different? The constraint of the box forced the team to prioritize what actually mattered.

That’s what David gets exactly right in this book! Constraints are not creativity killers. They are creativity filters. The best teams shrink the problem space. They create boundaries that force learning, prioritization, iteration, and clarity.

That’s the pattern. You shrink the problem until it becomes solvable. Then you move.

Great book, David. Everyone building products, companies, or creative work should read this one.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Spotlighting 75 product changes. And, each of these came from real customer problems. That's discipline! Listening, building, and improving. This is what turns a product into a true partner for small businesses.

Fix friction. Earn trust. Compound over time.

Always thinking about the customer Gusto, great job! 👏 #GustoShowcase

[Josh Reeves @joshuareeves]

Today is a Gusto Showcase! It’s one of my favorite moments, when we share a summary of how we’re making Gusto better for our 500,000+ small business customers.

At @GustoHQ, we obsess over helping small businesses, and every challenge they face is an opportunity for us to help. Gusto has never been just a tool or technology. We strive to be a partner for small businesses, taking hats off their head, doing work on their behalf, so they can progress in building their business.

With 500,000+ customers, we know we’re still early in the journey. There are millions of small businesses we are eager to serve.

The future of business is small. And that’s big. #GustoShowcase

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Congratulations Tim Cook on one of the most consequential leadership runs in tech.

This year marks 50 years of Apple, and Tim has led Apple through a defining stretch of that history.

Now with John Ternus stepping into the CEO role, the next chapter @Apple begins.

People don’t choose products. They choose experiences they can trust. Apple has always been built on that trust with users, with teams, and in products. This transition is continuing that trust.

Nothing but respect. Looking forward to the next 50 years of Apple. Thank you Tim and best to you John. I will always be cheering Apple on. And, I will always push Apple to be better! Because I love Apple. We all do.

[Tony Fadell @tfadell]

Builders build. Then they ship. Then they solve what breaks.

Launch isn’t the finish line. It’s where reality starts. Great products aren’t defined at launch...they’re defined by how they perform in the real world.

With the #iPod it took us a few generations to truly get it right. We built and shipped the first version of the iPod in 9 months- greenlit in March 2001, announced that October and began shipping in November. Then we fixed, iterated, and produced a product that lasted many years, and ultimately paved the way for the #iPhone. Many of us still love our iPods!

That’s what happens when you stay with the product.

Trust comes from what happens after release and from doing the hard parts: scaling, supporting, improving.

Focus on what’s real: working product, real customers, real outcomes.

That’s the difference between hype and something that lasts.