Things I Believe

Strong opinions, loosely held.

Think in structures

• MECE
• Think for yourself. Don’t copy “best practices”

Your best idea might be wrong

• Have strong opinions, loosely held. Change your mind with evidence

First agree on what matters

• Don’t argue details when the real disagreement is about the framework underneath. If you can’t align on the framework, exit

Writing is thinking

• Write like you talk. Clear writing is clear thinking, and writing without an opinion is noise
• Ethos, pathos, logos. Structure everything
• Most people want a takeaway. Curious people want a new lens

Be authentic

• I absolutely despise non-authentic people
• Non-authentic people try to please everyone. It wastes time and produces bad decisions
• Excitement is contagious, and so is the lack of it
• If your gut says something is wrong, stop. Proceed anyway and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy

Observe, don’t ask

• If you want to know something, don’t ask for feedback. Observe behavior instead
• Watch what people do, not what they say

You own the outcome, not the task

• If it doesn’t move the needle, don’t do it. If everything does, pick the ones that move it the most

Speed compounds

• Speed compounds. The reason to go fast is to learn faster, not to get more done. Going fast without feedback is stupid
• Thinking needs time. Shipping needs speed. Most decisions are two-way doors, move fast on those
• Shipped means the target audience is actively using it, not that you released it

Products should have opinions

• Don’t aim for “this is good.” Aim for “I want it now, when do I get it?”
• There should be only one way to do it
• Use good products yourself. Product taste comes from what you use, not what you study
• If people use it wrong, it is wrong, not the people

Boring is awesome

• Technology should be boring, because the problems are not
• Clean interfaces and APIs are hard and require strong opinions to be good
• Choose your fights. Spend your innovation tokens wisely

Hire for growth, not credentials

• Hard work beats talent. But hard work requires curiosity, and curiosity can’t be taught
• Hire for where someone is going, not where they are
• Two hiring answers: hell yes or no
• The best credential is something you built that others actually use

The job of leadership

• The person closest to the problem should make the decision
• Protect employees from bullshit. Bullshit is everything that pulls people away from the problem they need to solve
• Never build tracks you haven’t run on yourself. If you can’t evaluate the output, you can’t delegate it
• Build the framework together, then hand it off. Once someone has lived the problems and gets the philosophy, they own it

LLMs are amplifiers, but don’t have agency

• LLMs amplify what you already have: opinions, structure, frameworks. Without those, you probably will not get much value from LLMs
• Code generation got easier. Planning, testing, and thinking were always the hard part. Now they’re the only part
• You need opinions and beliefs before you can delegate. True for LLMs and humans alike
• Loops, not one-shots