Ideas I want to write about

“We should not forget that maybe not everybody only wants a camel cashmere turtleneck,” Olivier Rousteing remarked. Beyond the cyclical nature of fashion, Rousteing’s observation captured a mash-up of trends that has been solidifying into a durable aesthetic.

one of the best sales advice we got back in YC was the "ikea effect":

if you are in the middle of a demo, never just open your laptop and show a generic feature dump. before you show anything, ask this:

"if you were in my shoes, what would this platform need to show you to prove it can solve your problem?"

the prospect will give you a checklist of 2-3... See more

What brands have realized is, you can create a “halo effect” around this that drives revenue for your brand. People line up to buy the limited edition stuff, and if they don’t get it, they still buy something less exclusive because they have already decided that your brand is cool and desirable and they want to advocate.

To opt out, though, is to be excluded.

art is the curing of callousness

Their genius? Converting intellectual positions into market arbitrage while wielding (and often owning) digital megaphones to reshape the very reality their investments bet against.

That sounds fine, wonderful — real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever — make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your “weird humor.” You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world.

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a16z is positioning itself to manufacture the conditions under which outcomes occur —through media, markets, talent pipelines, political alignment, and institutional influence.

“When you read your notebooks, you remeet ideas. You reintroduce them to who you are now.” That’s from writer Max Porter’s interview in the book The Work of Art . (As you may know, I’m a huge believer in the importance of revisiting notebooks.)