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How Amazon created the Kindle

When I started writing a newsletter in 2019, I remember thinking there were too many newsletters. That was before Substack had made a meaningful dent on the Internet and only a handful of writers were seriously using it. The coolest things do not yet exist. You are not late.

had to read this several times to grok it but applied to a real-life example.

It’s hard to design the perfect onboarding. but it’s easy to check: “Did the user reach ‘Aha!’ in 3 steps instead of 7?” or “Did 80% of users complete the flow?”

So the industry (and people) naturally get pulled into automated loops. this is why mid-training is powerful and dangerous. it can manufacture the appearance of discernment while dodging deeper unmeasurable criteria.

“They have learned to produce the appearance of discernment without ever developing the faculty itself.”