the start of an idea

It also aligned the computer with something that is often inspiring to many people and artists: nature. If I can find the sublime in microchips and SD cards in the same way that I find the sublime in mountains and waterfalls, I begin to look at my computer not as a tool but as a landscape. And when I look at it as a landscape it feels good because... See more

How do you get from starting small to doing something great? By making successive versions. Great things are almost always made in successive versions. You start with something small and evolve it, and the final version is both cleverer and more ambitious than anything you could have planned.

Evolution is powerful. It gives us the chance to revise, edit and do what works while removing what doesn’t.

Once we realize that there is almost no chance we’ll get it right the first time, we can embrace the opportunity to sign up for better instead of perfect.

Get it wrong the first time.

Then make it better.

"In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts."

"The way to figure out what to work on is by working."

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"I think for most people who want to do great work, the right strategy is not to plan too much. At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future. I call this approach 'staying upwind.' This is how most people who've done great work seem to have done... See more

“There’s the old anecdote we were all taught in Psych 101,” Martin said, “which is that physical environment matters. I think a separate device matters here: sometimes you’re reading, and you’re in a slow section, and you have that random thought, like, what was that thing I wanted to buy on Amazon? And you’re there without thinking about it.” A... See more