Postcard 28: Coding with Cakebread
Hi Team,
I've been writing so much code the last few weeks that my brain can only think about code.
I mean literally like 14 hours+ a day for seven days a week straight. Now I know this isn't "healthy," but sometimes, especially when you are doing a startup and have a bunch of equity and are REALLY inspired, you have to do what you have to do. Inspiration won't be there forever.
You see, the truth is I am also deathly afraid of this:
"The Lindy Effect for startups: The longer you go without shipping product, the more likely you will never ship product.." - @naval
Through a ton of experience (failures and successes), I've also internalized that the faster we can ship a product, the higher the likelihood that we can turn it into the right product fast. The other good thing is that it's almost ready because we've been working so hard and putting in so many hours. We are close now.
A few great essays from this week:
Stephen has a dry sense of humor, and his life stories are outrageous, but it's all a guise for some deeply important lessons.
One thing from his latest essay that struck me was:
I see inspiration as the ultimate gift and treat it as something precious that may never come again. I'll do anything to put myself in inspiration’s path, which sometimes feels like sitting at a bus stop waiting for a bus that may or may not be in service.
In this issue, he has a crazy story about just how far he is willing to go to chase inspiration, even dumping his girlfriend/lover to go after something he was inspired to do.
It's why I am doing all this coding now because I am inspired. Who knows how long it will last, but you can bet I wont waste a minute while it's here.
Paul Graham has a great essay this week on how being smart and intelligent are overrated to accomplish big things.
One thing that struck me, that I've internalized this year, is this:
One of the most surprising ingredients in having new ideas is writing ability. There's a class of new ideas that are best discovered by writing essays and books. And that "by" is deliberate: you don't think of the ideas first, and then merely write them down. There is a kind of thinking that one does by writing, and if you're clumsy at writing, or don't enjoy doing it, that will get in your way if you try to do this kind of thinking.
I have realized this year that for me personally to think at the highest level possible; I need to write. As Paul confirms, a whole class of ideas will only come to you by penning them down. You can only make sense of an incredibly complex world by forcing yourself to write it.
Writing is thinking.
Another great idea I ran into this week:
This little mini essay by David Perell on Twitter about how the lust of prestige can blind you to great opportunities that might seem boring to most is 100% worth a read. Chasing prestige is like chasing status, and status games are zero-sum. Zero-sum games never grow the pie, only increase it for some at the expense of shrinking it for others. Luckily the money game is not zero-sum; but the status game is.
"The two kinds of people - those who want money, and those who want status." @naval
So chase wealth and grow the pie for everyone, not status.
One Meme I ran into this week reminding us what we've got to do.
Thanks for reading and as always, my inbox is open; feel free to reply to this email if I can help in any way.
Have a great weekend,
Louie
P.S. a big thanks to my friend Danny on Twitter for helping me name this issue.