founder's mentality

Fantastic advice, for software builders:

Headline driven development

Here is a simple process for shipping software projects that works. First, decompose the project into a stream1 of headlines. Then pick an aggressive date to ship the first headline and work like hell to meet that date. Have everyone work only on one headline at a time– the upcomi

find the shortest distance between thinking and creating, between thinking and a feedback loop.

pick the person who wants it most, not the most experienced

build things you want for yourself vs. just thinking about traditional ‘factory’ VC

Billy Oppenheimer on small steps to get to big leaps:

One of Hugh Howey’s other hobbies is sailing. Once he had the luxury of writing full-time, he sailed around the world. “You can’t get to where you want to be in one day,” he says, “just like you don’t sail around the world in a day. You just look at the horizon and say, ‘I can sail that far.

never badmouth your competition. it makes you look insecure.

nostalgia kills companies

(h/t emma chozik)

Hardest part about startups is maintaining that childlike excitement that first got you started

What people need most is confidence, not advice

(reminds me ot Tyler Cowen’s high value of raising people’s aspirations)