Building 0-1

How to de-risk building a social network The components that have the most engineering scope tend to be wholly reusable—such as the friendfinder & invite system. The fastest way to arrive at an app that resonates is to run rapid experiments by only changing the interaction model

The future is self-employed New businesses formed in the US 🚀 2019: 3.5 million 2020: 4.4 million 2021: 5.4 million 2022: 5.1 million Only about 1/3rd of the applications filed in 2021 are for businesses deemed likely to hire employees Majority are self employed Source:… Show more

The fact that there is a newthing has come to feel like a certainty, even as we cannot fully perceive it. This will spark a search for underlying structures, analogs, and ways of being that feel natural to this newthing.

Does the newthing exist in this context or some other one?

Is it a newthing that’s meant to run all the time or is it more seasonal... See more

A central thesis is that all products are asking things of their customers: to do things in a certain way, to think of themselves in a certain way — and usually that means changing what one does or how one does it; it often means changing how one thinks of oneself.

We are unlikely to be able to sell “a group chat system” very well: there are just not enough people shopping for group chat system (and, as pointed out elsewhere, our current fax machine works fine).

That’s why what we’re selling is organizational transformation

We are an exceptional software development team. But, we now also need be an excellent customer development team. That’s why, in the first section of this doc, I said “build a customer base” rather than “gain market share”: the nature of the task is different, and we will work together to understand, anticipate and better serve the people who trust... See more

hypothesis: 1. work feels bad (unmotivating, boring, hard) when we lack of focus 2. focus is upstream of energy, flow, fulfillment, progress, feedback loops what's upstream of focus? attention (presence) paired w/ agency (when our abilities and beliefs match our context) Show more

A genuine interest in something is a very powerful motivator — for some people, the most powerful motivator of all. [3] Which is why it's what Jessica and I look for in founders.