Sublime

when i had a venture-backed startup it was so hard to balance the desires of customers, investors, and myself. now (with no investors) i just make stuff i enjoy, people similar to me help pay for it, i ask what else they want, i do 50% that + 50% stuff i want and it all works out

the biggest misconception i had entering the adult world was that "more money means more intelligence is going into it", often it's actually the opposite! most ventures tend to have a fixed amount of 'sensemaking' and as the money grows the 'sense per dollar' trends to zero

Big thoughts from Tom. My personal takeaway is that understanding what humans want (ie, good taste) and being able to build with the latest tools will be the most important things.

Building a great product is a bit like marriage: if you commit your life to making it excellent over long periods of time, and earnestly care about understanding the other person (users), you’ll be surprised at what you can build.