thoughts

even if you make something truly great, it will still take many years before society catches up and figures it out

When I hear people say things like “our goal is to be at 5mm ARR by 2024” I always get a little sad and uncomfortable. I don’t have quantifiable goals like that. And if I do, any number I choose feels arbitrary. My goals are usually more qualitative - to create simple, delightful products that are meaningful for the people they serve, to create dig

Better tools are not the bottleneck to creating great work. A person focusing on one thing the antiquated way - pen and paper or whatever - will beat the tool optimizers any day. A new piece of technology isn’t going to magically hone your craft. The work to hone your craft feels hard because it’s supposed to be hard.

I believe “what effect do you want to have on people” is one of the most important questions we should ask when we are making something. Life isn't just a series of problems to be solved but experiences to be had.

Things I'm thinking about

you can always try to be more cheerful and charming to everyone around you

when everything is hyper-optimized, go raw

from Martina Navratilova

"Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people."

crazy about ideas. serious about people.

(inspired by Tony’s Chocolonely)

Technology changes fast, people change slow

I also received positive feedback from my clients, who said that their time with me was the most impactful part of their week! This hit my north star metric: insights per minute.

Elena Verna • Why I Quit Full-Time Roles

wow, this just made me realize “insights per minute” is the metric I want to optimize for - both personally, and for Sublime. what I’ve realized about myself is that the thing I really love to do, that I hope I get to do until I die is help people by unlocking an insight, a new way of seeing, an idea that accelerates some part of what they’re doing, a thought or a person they hadn’t discovered before.