true innovators value art up front and compete against incumbents through the art of business—the stuff that doesn’t intuitively scale.

To create what will be, you must remove yourself from the constant concern for what already is.

genuine relationships with and between our members was our competitive advantage against other technology companies like Squarespace and Wix that sought to commoditize websites and online portfolios.

Be wary of the path of least resistance. It may look compelling in the short term but often proves less differentiating and defensible in the long term. Shortcuts tend to be less gratifying over time. The long game is the most difficult one to play and the most bountiful one to win.

Optimizing the product you’re making is ultimately about making it more human friendly and accommodating to natural human tendencies.

Ambiguity kills great ideas, and great leaders kill ambiguity.

Ollie Johnstone and Frank Thomas, two of Walt Disney’s chief animators, once said of Walt Disney himself that “there were actually three different Walts: the dreamer, the realist, and the spoiler. You never knew which one was coming into your meeting.”

Beware of creativity that compromises familiarity.

Statistics and reports based on data can also be destructive when it comes to creativity. They’re liable to create a hard stop in an argument and shut down our will to reason. Instead of having healthy debates to reconcile different opinions and instincts, data-driven facts tend to cut the conversation and subsequent exploration of the full terrain