On building of All Trades

My entire philosophy of how I organize myself as a working painter can be summed up by something George Carlin said: “Just keep movin’ straight ahead. Every now and then you find yourself in a different place.”

You hear a lot in art school about how painters must continue to “grow” and “evolve”—but I think those are such bullshit words. There is... See more

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.

Projects rarely unfold in a linear fashion; they require frequent course correction. Most trainees should spend more time on a project’s decision tree than they currently do. Once you get into a project, you will have learned from your initial experiments, new papers will have been published, and technology will have advanced. As a result, at any... See more

Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest...The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest.

intentions are just as powerful as goals, if not more so. While a goal is a specific target, a clear destination on the horizon, an intention serves as a guiding light, softly illuminating our path as we move through time and space. Goals can sometimes make us feel like we're wearing blinders, zeroed in on a singular endpoint, which can lead to... See more

I didn’t even announce the opening of the store until we opened—I declined the few press requests I received and didn’t really talk about it publicly. I can’t totally explain it, but I felt (feel?) protective of this little store like it was a person. It had to actually become something before I could say what it was. I wanted to let it cultivate... See more

Everyone wants to have a unique idea but the alternative is to just to be ten times better. The market is full of crap. An underrated way to succeed at anything is simply to be better. Anyone can build a "quick and dirty" tool to chat with your PDF. Few people can build incredibly polished products. And those that do need time, effort, and... See more

the power of imagination and optimism is an amazing and essential part of innovation. But over the years, we’ve become so enamored with the unicorn valuation as the goal, that we started valuing the wrong things and overlooking the fundamental physics of business.