Oscillating Between Focus & Exploration
+ Sound bites from inside the techo chamber
Hi y’all!
Happy Valentine’s Day. 💛
I’m trying a two-part post this week.
Part One is a longer form mental model I wanted to get onto paper. It’s my own thoughts from years of observing myself. And still being refined.
Part Two is a round-up of what happened in tech and crypto this past week. It was a busy week and I wanted to share what I found most noteworthy.
Work on what matters
Just say no
Simplicity
Editing
Choosing “the right things” to focus on
Exploring broadly
Oscillating between focus and exploration
Work on what matters
I revisited an old favorite this week. A piece from StaffEng called Work on what matters. I highly recommend you save it to read at some point this week. It opens with this quote:
I've taken to using the word "energized" over "impactful." "Impactful" feels company-centric, and while that's important, "energized" is more inwards-looking. Finding energizing work is what has kept me at Stripe for so long, pursuing impactful work. - Michelle Bu
It’s been important for me to proactively find projects that challenge me. These give me fulfillment in the work-setting. They ensure I enjoy the work I do each day, instead of feeling drained by work. I work in B2B SaaS. It’s nothing sexy. But working on, and overcoming, hard challenges is what continues to give me energy.
Just say no
I was tinkering with an idea last year, and got an intro to Hiten. I’ve respected what he’s done as a founder and investor.
I wrote out the most oomph-per-word email I could come up with, edited it down further, and got it down to under 100 words. The simple ask: meet up to discuss my idea. I assumed, worse case, I would get 30 minutes of his time on a Zoom call. His response?
Let's start by email. Please feel free to share your process and current ideas. I'll give you feedback.
Immediately, I saw why this person has accomplished so much. A couple lessons in this tiny interaction.
Lesson #1
He said “no” to meeting up with a stranger to discuss “just an idea”. In hindsight, I don’t blame him. But this showed his ability to focus and own his time.
The other benefit of his response was that it forced me to expand on my idea into pre-meditated words. It forced me to be thoughtful and efficient with his time.
I responded with my longer-form concept. Perfectly designed. About 500 words. His reply changed my trajectory. I’ll explain. But first, his response:
Lesson #2
Don’t look for validation from people you respect. Find customers, and see if you can solve their problems. That’s all that matters. AKA: “let the market decide.”
I often think about the advice from a podcast (The Jordan Harbinger Show: How to Ask for Advice) that discussed different categories of advice we seek; h/t Tom for showing me this episode. Three reasons we ask for advice:
Validation
Permission
Feedback
I was not actually looking for feedback from Hiten. And if I was, he was the wrong person to ask. He wasn’t a target customer. So his opinion (no offense if you’re reading this, Hiten) didn’t matter at all.
Now, if I was looking for validation or permission, sure. But that’s for another day.
Simplicity
Essentialism is one of the top five most influential books I’ve read in the last year.
In case you don’t read it, you should at least peep the GoodReads Summary. Also, the Table of Contents does a great job outlining the thinking around the topics discussed throughout the book, and more-so, the argument he makes. Here’s a page from the book.
Editing
It’s always been helpful for me to look to artists (like my wife!) for inspiration around my work style, even though many days I sit in front of a computer screen for 10+ hours straight.
I’ve learned a lot from Casey Neistat, OG “YouTuber,” over the years. Passion. Following curiosities. Shipping consistently (see: daily vlogs). Focusing on the process, not the outcome. Not blaming your equipment. And generally, how to Make it Count—whatever “it” might be for you.
Here’s the latest lesson I learned from Casey: how to edit something to its rawest form.
At the risk of being cliche, I can’t help but think about the age old adage:
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.
Choosing “the right things” to focus on
Jack Dorsey describes his role of CEO as being their chief editor of the company.
By editorial I mean there are a few thousand things we could be doing. There are only one or two that are important. And all of these ideas… and inputs from engineers, support people, designers are going to constantly flood what we should be doing… as editor I am constantly taking these inputs and deciding the one, or intersection of a few, that make sense for what we are doing.
Exploring broadly
After being in a focused phase for a while, I find myself needing an exploration phase.
I recently learned about The Design Squiggle.
Exploring broadly often feels like chaos to me. But after going through this phase a few times, I know what's on the other side...
Broad exploration leads to new learnings.
And new learnings put into practice in a focused manner, leads to compounding growth.
This growth is personal “product-market-fit.” It's a momentum you can't stop. Everything feels easy.
Exploration phase vs. focus phase
For me, the most important component to all of this, has been the conscious awareness of which phase I’m currently in (or should be in):
Exploration Phase is saying “yes” a lot. Yes to random “networking” chats, yes to reading for hours a day, yes to chasing little curiosities or projects.
Focus Phase is saying “no” a lot. As they say, “find a niche, get rich.” No to random intros. No to new projects. No to distractions. Laser focus leads to compounding growth.
Below is a tweet thread of what this oscillating journey between Explore and Focus may look like. Thanks to Kyle for introducing me to The Design Squiggle, and being a thought-partner on this concept.
Since graduating college, I’ve had four “seasons” of working full-time (focus) and three “seasons” of exploration. Sometimes the exploration seasons were not paid (drove a car through Central America for a couple months, flew around the world with three friends and visited 13 countries), but other times I consulted and explored with a bit more of a flexible schedule. Basically I grind for 3-4 years with laser focus, then take 3-6 months to explore, then work for another 3-4 years, and so on. I recommend it, if you’re able to pull it off.
Every time I’m in “explore” phase, I feel like I’m being unproductive. But in hindsight, I am so so glad that I took the time to lean into an exploratory season, and get a fresh perspective.
Tech Round-up
⛏ Agora: the company powering Clubhouse; h/t to Sergio for the share
🎈 The shell companies taking over Wall Street aka SPAC-mania! 17 min podcast, WSJ x Gimlet; h/t to Johann for the share
👻 The NY Times highly anticipated—and even more highly debated—piece about Slate Star Codex’s Scott Alexander: Silicon Valley’s Safe Space; h/t to Aaron for the share
🧐 Scott Alexander’s rebuttal: Statement on NY Times article [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
💵 MrBeast gave away $10K on the Good Time Clubhouse Show: a show run by a16z, and in just the last month has hosted Elon, Zuck, Vlad, and plan to host a Kanye<>Elon chat soon
🐈 A lawyer using Zoom had to let a judge know that he wasn’t a cat after inadvertently activating a face filter
📉 M1-adjusted stock markets are the lowest they've been since 2012
Crypto Round-up
❄️ The first publicly traded bitcoin ETF went live in N. America (Canada)
🚗 Elon Musk invested $1.5B in bitcoin to put on Tesla’s balance sheet
🌴 The first Bitcoin municipal in the United States (Miami) was announced [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
🌃 Andrew Yang tweeted that as mayor of NYC he would “invest in making the city a hub for BTC and other cryptocurrencies”
♻️ Counter-argument to: bitcoin mining being bad for the environment
🚀 CME launches ETH futures; ETH hits all-time-high, at $1800
🌙 Oh, and Bitcoin also hit an all-time-high, at $49K
How did you feel about this week’s post?
(100% anonymous)
A thought I’ve been pondering (inspired by Naval)
If you are going to be jealous of someone, you must be willing to swap your *entire* life for theirs.
You can’t cherry-pick the aspect of their life you want.
You must give up *everything* you have and know.
That’s it for this week, folks!
Thanks for spending some of your long weekend with me in this little corner of the internet! Nothin but love for everyone who read until the end. As always, feel free to reply back with any interesting things you’re reading. Or with feedback. Or just to say hello!
Hopefully I’ll see y’all again Friday,
Brendan J Short
Written while listening to my boy, Nathaniel Rateliff’s performance, from SNL.