On building of All Trades

by Britt Gage · updated 2mo ago

Hindsight is 2020

I don’t mean “hindsight is 20/20.” I’m talking about the year 2020.

See, early in 2023, I wrote an article about starting and growing a business in 2023, and in that article I referenced this very same seismic shift in startup dynamics — a shift that, no surprise, began all the way back with the pandemic in 2020.

That’s the tricky t... See more
from Starting a Business Looks Drastically Different in 2024 by Joe Procopio
Britt Gage added 2mo ago
How startups changed since 2020:
-Consumer fell out of love with technology
-Business & Venture OverIndexed on AI
-Money went from Tight to Scared

What’s happening now:
-self founded, funded & reliant
-Profitable out of the gate
-solving problems and building with slower burn rate
-Innovating strategically alongside technical innovation

How do generalists help? Taking a broad approach gets you further faster
It’s not that people don’t want to work. It’s that their jobs feel, for whatever reason, unsustainable: unsustainable for their mental and physical health, but also unsustainable for their family, and their longterm survival. Many people actually really like the work that they do, if they were, indeed, allocating the bulk of their time to doing tha... See more
from The Expanding Job by Anne Helen Petersen
Britt Gage added 3mo ago
I'm really inspired by also how they were really quiet for a really long time at the beginning. They were not trying to become the next new success story on the pages of every paper. They were much more just like, "We're just going to prove through the quality of our output over time that we are doing something interesting, and weird, and different... See more
from Camille Ricketts: Former Head of Marketing at Notion
Britt Gage added 3mo ago
Normal behavior is forgotten. Only weird behavior survives.

Nobody tells stories of when you did the expected — they only tell stories when you did the unexpected.

Normal behavior costs nothing in the short term — but it disappears into the abyss.

Unconventional behavior costs a social price in the short term — but the actions live on as story assets ... See more
from Superhuman
Britt Gage added 3mo ago
Creators who last focus on the process, on the joy of creation, and on the impact they make along the way. Success is not measured solely by financial metrics or external validation, it’s measured by the lives they touch, the problems they solve, and the legacy they leave behind.
from Be Prepared to Lose Everything.
Britt Gage added 3mo ago
A century-long vision allows you to build something that mostly ignores short-lived fluctuations in public perception or personal feelings. With a vision of that duration, you can think outside of yourself. If you couple that with a hum-drum process of Google Sheets and brain-trust meetings, you can build something meaningful.

There is something bea... See more
from The Art of Scaling Taste by Evan Armstrong
Britt Gage added 4mo ago
When a company actually wants the opinions of those who work there, there are far more effective ways to have a productive conversation around the insights and desires that we each bring to the organization. Asynchronous and structured, these interactions are vital sources of connection and wisdom.
from The obligations of the Town Hall
Britt Gage added 4mo ago
“I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”
from 3-2-1: On the importance of beauty, fixing silent complaints, and a simple rule to make life easier
Britt Gage added 4mo ago
I am ambitious. But in almost every other respect,

I am the opposite of the archetypal Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

I am allergic to bullshit, risk averse, introspective, have no interest in “going big or going home”
from Superhuman
Britt Gage added 4mo ago

from Starting a Business Looks Drastically Different in 2024 by Joe Procopio

from The Expanding Job by Anne Helen Petersen

from Camille Ricketts: Former Head of Marketing at Notion

from Superhuman

from Be Prepared to Lose Everything.

from The Art of Scaling Taste by Evan Armstrong

from The obligations of the Town Hall

from 3-2-1: On the importance of beauty, fixing silent complaints, and a simple rule to make life easier

from Superhuman