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Reddit’s business model is weird: $800M revenue - wow! > 80% GPM - efficient! 55% revenue spent on engineering salaries - why? what features? -17% profit - WTF??? Something seems wildly off.

How do I 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 that it’s 100x easier to make software than to understand customers, get their attention, and sell to them? Because I know 100 engineers who can build software for every 1 founder who got 100 people to buy something.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀? I’ll start; let’s make a longer list: The SaaS Playbook Million Dollar Weekend Buy Back Your Time The Minimalist Entrepreneur Life Profitability

You know what would be great for America? Rebuilding it in 6 months. Hard, but good for moral. And cost $50M and not $2B. Prove we can still make things. We won’t, of course, but I wandered to say it out loud.

I still call it Twitter. I still think there are nine planets. I still like taking 𝘩𝘰𝘵 showers. Who wants to make a club? 😂

“Launching” is over-rated. Most of the time it's a flop; a huge waste of time, and hurts morale. Even in the best case, you still have to earn customers systematically for the next 3 years. Just work on THAT.

I don’t have FOMO, I have fear of committing to something I won’t want to still be committed to six months from now.

Pick advice that matches your goals. Lots of people recommend Peter Thiel's Zero to One. That’s wonderful if you're aiming to build the next Facebook. But if your focus is on creating a self-funded company prioritizing happiness and profits, that advice is incorrect.

I bootstrapped WP Engine for the first two years, raising (very modest) funds only after gaining substantial traction with around 1000 paying customers. Most companies shouldn’t raise money, but if you do, this approach positions you for favorable terms.

When you feel like all the good ideas are taken, remember that humans have felt that way for 250 years, and have always been wrong.

10 years ago, “hustle culture” was too rampant, ignoring real burn-out. Today, in our post-COVID hangover, many people won’t tolerate the slightest discomfort, and stagnate as a result. We need more obsession and sacrifice than is “comfortable,” without the pain olympics.

If your product is 30% better, it’s not worth the effort, risk, time, retooling, to switch from an existing solution. Has to be 2x better at least. Shoot for 5x, so it’s a no brainer. Almost impossible… But then you win, and it was worth the effort.

Product is supposed to know what to build. Engineering is supposed to build. Sales is supposed to close. Marketing is supposed to attract. Support is supposed to solve with a smile. Who’s supposed to understand the customer, deeply? Everyone? OK, so do they? Fix it.

Yeah, I know, go outside and touch grass. I agree with that, it's just that… Sometimes you need a good, solid, 12-hour coding session to get an enormous amount done.

What's the counter-argument to the claim that USD is spiraling out of control?

I still call it Twitter. I still think there are nine planets. I still like taking 𝘩𝘰𝘵 showers. Who wants to make a club? 😂

When you work 50 hrs/week on something you love, and something you own, or something that contributes to a higher purpose that you’re passionate about, do you burn out? Or is burn-out as much about how you 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 about the work, as the 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺 of the work?

Reddit’s business model is weird: $800M revenue - wow! > 80% GPM - efficient! 55% revenue spent on engineering salaries - why? what features? -17% profit - WTF??? Something seems wildly off.

What are examples of products which are: 1. Inexpensive (maybe but not necessarily freemium) 2. Minimal design / not known for "great design" 3. Have an ecosystem of plugins/addons/integrations Leveraging extensibility rather than cohesive design. Like WordPress.

For every N engineers who have a side project they're trying to turn into a business, just 1 will reach $10k MRR within the first 12 months. What do you think N is? Order of magnitude, I assume it’s at least 100, maybe 1000?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀? I’ll start; let’s make a longer list: The SaaS Playbook Million Dollar Weekend Buy Back Your Time The Minimalist Entrepreneur Life Profitability

You know what would be great for America? Rebuilding it in 6 months. Hard, but good for moral. And cost $50M and not $2B. Prove we can still make things. We won’t, of course, but I wandered to say it out loud.

The problem with the phrase “strong opinions weakly held” is that if they’re weakly held, they not strong. Maybe it should be: > Clear opinions weakly held. Or: > Opinions held with a strength proportional to evidence. Or what should it be?

Could AI learn how to communicate with animals?

INTJ is the personality type that can’t wait to tell you what their personality type is, and how 𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘦 it is.

Tempted to say “yes” to all 10 daily “let’s hop on a call” spam solicitations just to see what it would be like. What do they even say? Could there be a drinking game? (Or would you die?)

Product is supposed to know what to build. Engineering is supposed to build. Sales is supposed to close. Marketing is supposed to attract. Support is supposed to solve with a smile. Who’s supposed to understand the customer, deeply? Everyone? OK, so do they? Fix it.

How do I 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 that it’s 100x easier to make software than to understand customers, get their attention, and sell to them? Because I know 100 engineers who can build software for every 1 founder who got 100 people to buy something.

Once AIs can solve CAPTCHAs, no matter how obscure they get, how will we determine whether a user is a human, without biometrics?