Which one do you think matters more? - idea - execution - timing

there were signs

Just woke up to a text from a CEO whose name you would all know. "This is the best episode all year." Jim Murphy on The Knowledge Project. Out now wherever you listen to the podcast.

"Anytime you have a disproportionately strong reaction to something, you have to train yourself to lean in." Chris Sacca on @ADoricko and a taste for good weird:

what a career trajectory! seeing this for the first time where one goes from staff engineer to ceo. beautiful.

Consensus view: Humans will serve as managers and editors, directing teams of AI agents. I'm more intrigued by the reverse. Who's building software that tells humans what to do?

The reason “vibe coding” continues to grow and be successful is that the alternative to vibe coding is not “elite engineering”. It’s: the project wasn’t born, the idea didn’t get communicated, the app didn’t ship. Elite engineering is very scarce and will continue to be in extremely high demand. (We’re hiring elite engineers!) The gap between what top engineers and agents can do still exists. Not just that.. when those people use AI, they also gain superpowers.

Creativity is the antidote to scarcity.

Side A: Splitting equally is the sign of a weak CEO Side B: Splitting unequally means you don't value your cofounders Which side are you on, no nuance allowed.

This man dropped out of a no-name college in India to be a software engineer and by 33, worked his way up to being CEO of a $100M+ company in New York. Here's the never-before-shared incredibly inspirational story of Ershad Kunnakkadan: > be middle class kid in random state school in Kerala, India > get really into computers > senior hands you Ubuntu 8.04 CD, whole new world > starts contributing to SMC (a malayalam computing group) > gets into blogging cause SMC seniors are into it > go to no-name small private college in Kerala > spend more time in terminals than classrooms > shell scripting contests, Linux admin, security, virus cleaning, bots, paper presentations > doesnt see a point to college exams > drops out after 2nd year, promises family "I will earn a degree somehow" > lands internship at small software co > grows into being an architect > found security bugs in Github and Prezi > reads "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" and the "The Google Story", dreamt of being in the US one day > does Google Summer of Code > earns a degree remotely from Bharathiar University > gets remote job at BigBinary > moves back to Kochi to be near family > involved in local free software circles and workshops, events, meetups > building a quiet dense body of work over loud personal brand > gets introduced to Gumroad as a consultant first > joins Gumroad as a senior engineer > gets married > moves to Abu Dhabi to be closer to wife's family > does the boring crucial stuff - scalability, security, payouts, infra > grows to being a staff software engineer at Gumroad > support millions of users and $1B+ in creator earnings > just focusses on self-improvement > never once thinks about promotion > moves to New York City on an O-1 visa > Gumroad looking for a new CEO > board looks around and its clear who is best fit for the job > become CEO of a $100M+ gmv business I just love the story of Ershad. No brands, no pedigree, no MBA, no loudness. When I asked him the quality that got him here, he said "reliability". A truly kind, quiet and generous person. Who loves computers. Dropping out when you're rich is trendy in America, but to see someone Indian drop out and work their way up into the top role is pure inspiration. Don't worry if you don't have all the accolades and ornaments you see in people who achieve your dreams. Be a good person, and be reliable.

we're hiring a Product Manager to lead the roadmap for the @beehiiv Ad Network (will report directly into me) fully remote competitive salary meaningful equity 401(k) match insurance monthly wellness day unlimited book budget tons of autonomy

Here's 10 books that'll change your life. Ikigai Deep Work Atomic Habits The Power of Now Think Like a Monk The 4-Hour Workweek Thinking, Fast and Slow The Millionaire Fast Lane Man’s Search for Meaning How to Win Friends and Influence People What book did I miss?

I had enough!

Think less, create more, and thank me later

Marc Andreessen: “The person who writes down the thing has tremendous power.” “There are so few people who will just write down the thing.” Source: @pmarca on How I Write with @david_perell

if the Gemini web app had the same level of UI quality as ChatGPT has, the world would switch overnight UI/UX designers at OpenAI are just next level.

if you want to study greatness check these companies out

• 50 former founders work at Cursor • 35 former founders work at Notion What other companies do this?

This was my @ycombinator application video from 2011 with @mattjackrob and @hirokitakeuchi We were all in suits because we'd just come back from a meeting with RBS to agree a banking deal that would power @gocardless for the next 10 years.

Now that we have AI, writing doesn't signal proof of work like it used to. There's long been a genre of book that's really just a glorified business card. The authors would hand out these books, and people politely accepted them, and nobody expected a single page to be read. In exchange, those authors received steep speaking and consulting fees. I can't tell you how many writers have told me how their fees skyrocketed after they published their book. Most of them were hired simply because they published a book, and not necessarily because that book was any good. This game still exists, but everybody's a little more skeptical of it now because it's so much easier to hack the system.