Greatness
exploring the foundations of quality and the currents that fight against mediocrity
sari and
Greatness
One way to aim high is to try to make something that people will care about in a hundred years. Not because their opinions matter more than your contemporaries', but because something that still seems good in a hundred years is more likely to be genuinely good.
Paul Graham • How to Do Great Work
An underrated way to succeed at anything is simply to be ten times better.
Everyone wants to have a unique idea or be a monopoly but you can just be ten times better instead. In a lot of areas, no one is really trying. The world is coated with a film of inertia.
Simon Sarristwitter.comHow Rick Rubin and Kanye West make groundbreaking creative work.
theageofideas.com
My philosophy re startup speed has completely changed over the last few years.
I grew up at Uber, professionally, which held speed as the absolute, ultimate goal.
Now, I still value speed, but hold quality as the binding constraint.
Flo Crivellotwitter.comagree w/this point. speed gets less important the more competitive your market is. when the market is already full of crap you really need to rise above the rest
Compulsion. I think about that word a lot. I believe that all of us, carelessly walking about planet earth, are intrinsically compelled to do something . It’s in our nature, in the shape of our soul. To excel, to truly be the best, I think it’s crucial to spend time thinking about what that is. Because if you do something other than that, you’re... See more
Dan Shipper • How David Perell Uses ChatGPT as a Creative Partner
the path to excellence is aligning what you do with who you are. Lean in, or better still, dive in, headfirst. The first step is to look inward and think deeply about who you are and what you’re made to do.
From Christopher Alexander foreword to Richard Gabriel's "Patterns Of Software":
In my life as an architect, I find that the single thing which inhibits young professionals, new students most severely, is their acceptance of standards that are too low. If I ask a student whether her design is as good as Chartres, she... See more
When you make something, when you improve something, when you deliver something, when you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer, or better, and when you do it all crisply and efficiently, smartly, the way everything should be done but so seldom is—you’re participating more fully in the... See more