Emilie Kormienko

Thanks to the pioneering research of psychologist Christina Maslach and several collaborators, we know that burnout is a three-component syndrome that arises in response to chronic stressors on the job. Let’s examine each symptom—exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy—in turn.

According to responders (mostly PMs), PMs have more influence than other functions at over 80% of companies.

“The art of paying attention, the great art,” says the philosopher Alain (1868–1951), “supposes the art of not paying attention, which is the royal art.”

Your time is better spent championing good ideas than tearing down bad ones. Don't waste time explaining why bad ideas are bad. You are simply fanning the flame of ignorance and stupidity.

I tried to embrace “learning in public” as much as I could. In addition to writing blog posts and tweeting, I created a bunch of other artifacts, like conference talks (developer conferences are a thing, which was new for me!), interviews, a podcast series, and lists published as GitHub repositories.

First, we pivoted, redefining our business. We “fired” all our unprofitable customers and sharpened the product specifically for power users. We borrowed against our receivables to keep growing without dilution. Little by little, the bet paid off, and we scaled our revenue 10x, from $70k/mo to $700k/mo.

Web3 primitives allow for a franchise to adjust its brand depending on demand, making each franchisee less fungible and more niche to best serve specific sub-pockets of consumers.