Successful platforms do not just discover what consumers want — they produce the consumers and the forms of consumer desire that they need.

most companies see their potential customers as weak, naive, and prone to addiction.

what would the world look like if companies spoke to our highest values rather than looking to make a quick profit off our base instincts...

“Any damn fool can put on a deal,

but it takes genius, faith, and perseverance

to create a brand.”

- David Ogilvy

The startup is a song, not a fixed story. New movements arise, old ones fade, new harmonies join. A manifesto is great way to coalesce the current movement but it must be a living document.

"The metacrisis" is attractive because it suggests you can save the world by thinking about it extremely abstractly.

Demons must be named to be defeated, just as our deepest and most vile urges or emotions must be acknowledged to be integrated

I couldn’t quit smoking until I convinced myself that smoking was for losers.

Wasn’t enough to “want” to quit. I had to actively disdain it in an over the top way.

After the identity-belief changed, the rest was (relatively) easy.

Aaron Francis

Once you decide to change your life, actually changing is easy.

Unfortunately, deciding to change is incredibly difficult.

When you make something for someone else, you get glimpses. When you make something for you, you get goosebumps.