
Hit Refresh
by Satya Nadella · first published 2017
24mentions
10recommended by
23HN commenters
2017–2026first – last mentioned
43% recommend52% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Insider account of Microsoft's turnaround under CEO Satya Nadella, covering its past problems and the culture and product changes he pushed. Thoughtful and humble in tone, it suits anyone into leadership or tech.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Having read Nadella's book Hit Refresh as soon as it went on sale, Microsoft performance since then doesn't look surprising at all. Having listed what's wrong (with their product focus, company culture etc), and where they plan to head, its'…
on “Microsoft, currently the most valuable company, is having a Nadellaissance” ↗…Business Strategy Hamilton Helmer > Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change Ellen Pao > Bellevue David Oshinsky > The Woman Who Smashed Codes Jason Fagone > Stealing Fire Steven Kotler > Hit Refresh Satya Nadella > Thank You for Being Late Thomas Friedman > Supernormal Meg Jay > The Inevitable Kevin Kelly > Economics for the Common Good Jean Tirole > It’s What I Do Lynsey Addario > Gotham:…
on “Annual survey of book recommendations” ↗…knowledge Microsoft pays well - maybe not like Facebook, but on the other hand employees have a life and can focus on family, whichbin return reflects the Nadella version of Microsoft. I recommend reading "Hit refresh" from Nadella. Fascinating book that teaches a lot about being humble and grateful.
on “What Microsoft’s revival can teach other tech companies” ↗No & yes. Microsoft just got back on its original course, building software that's usable by as many people as possible. I highly recommend Satya Nadella's new book Hit Refresh. He states Microsoft wants to build software for all platforms & reminds people that Microsoft has been building software for the Mac since 1982. Somewhere along the line they got off course & tried to…
on “Microsoft Machine Learning Server Docker Image” ↗Only a quarter through Satya Nadella's 'Hit Refresh' and it's already giving me food for thought.
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗A good start would be Hit Refresh [1] written by Satya Nadella. In this book he explain the issues he found in the company long before he was a CEO (basically, by the time he became the CEO, he knew what was not right). [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Hit-Refresh-Rediscover-Microsofts-Eve...
on “Ask HN: Books/podcasts/blogs discussing Microsoft's culture change post Nadella?” ↗- Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better - Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future
on “Best book/paper you read in 2018?” ↗I focused on reading books about politics & technology. These are my favorites - Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito (4.5/5) - Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella (4.5/5) - Becoming by Michelle Obama (4.9/5)
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗Satya Nadella’s ‘Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone’
on “Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?” ↗ICYDK, Nadella wrote a book on this and more: "Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone". Really good read.
on “We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google” ↗I haven't read it but apparently he published an autobiographical book last year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30835567-hit-refresh https://medium.com/@xaviergeerinck/my-key-take-aways-from-re...
on “Microsoft Joins the Open Invention Network” ↗…vision like me). True, a lot of computer and mobile games are not accessible to us, but some are. All of these tools are also inaccessible to people with mobility impairments. For example, in his book _Hit Refresh_, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella writes about how some high school students helped his oldest son, who has severe cerebral palsy, more easily enjoy a wide range of music, by developing a Windows app that…
on “Returning to analog and putting digital in its place” ↗I'm listening to the audiobook version of Nadella's Hit Refresh these days. It does sound like he had thought through the open source strategy from very early on. There he says something to the effect that Microsoft had so many things in-house that were better than…
on “GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button” ↗1. Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech 2. The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World 3. Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone 4. The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 5. This Idea Is Brilliant: Lost, Overlooked, and…
on “Best Tech Books of 2017” ↗…dominance, decline, and then pivot into new relevance. IBM II. I don’t know that there’s much about their culture or current business that’s particularly admirable. I recently read Satya Nadella's book, Hit Refresh, where he talks at length about the culture change he is driving at Microsoft. I gathered that his intentions are good, but the book felt like a hotch-potch of ideas without any clear direction. I'd assume…
on “One take on working in some of the major tech companies” ↗