Jul 7, 2024

Free cheese can only be found in mouse traps.

Link

Jul 3, 2024

The brilliance of Spotify was convincing thousands of people around the world to spend $120 or more annually on music and other services, when before they barely spent 10% of that.

Perhaps the true brilliance was making their service something that is socially accepted as a norm, something that “everyone” does.

What else would you spend that $120 on?

Link

Jun 29, 2024

C’est pire qu’un crime, c’est une faute.

Link

Jun 26, 2024

Using the latest function from OS Sequoia, you can open the journal app from your Mac using iPhone Mirroring and finally be able to write your journals on a real keyboard.

Link

Jun 21, 2024

The relationship between effort and impact is one of those things like Santa Claus. They tell you it exists, they tell you to believe in it, and then they leave it in your hands to discover that it is completely false.

Link

Jun 18, 2024

AI should be chatting with humans, not the other way around.

Link

Jun 18, 2024

Many countries are incorporating labels on food packaging to make people aware of their health impact. Therefore, at least theoretically, they are advocating for the health of consumers. Now, since health is not only about nutrition, I wonder if we will soon see similar labels on social media and various parts of the internet to protect users’ mental health. Note: I am not saying this is a good idea necessarily, just a thought experiment. Labels on food packaging

Link

Jun 16, 2024

The YouTube algorithm is 100 times better when you browse as a guest than with your own profile. Maybe seeing more of what you like is not exactly what one wants. I wonder how that would apply to daily life.

Link

Jun 15, 2024

How old were you when you discovered there was something called automatic gratuity? I just did.

Automatic Gratuity Image Source

Link

Jun 15, 2024

Don’t be the falling tree (at least not in an empty forest).

Distribution > First to market

but…

(distribution + first to market) > distribution

If you can be first to market in a distribution method, then you probably get the best of both scenarios.

Think Figma.

  • Building for everyone in the design process and not just designers (big distribution) is also the foundation of Figma’s core loop.
  • Architecting Figma to be truly browser-first (first to market is not only innovating on core ideas, first to market when applied to distribution methods of existing ideas can be very powerful), instead of just having storage be in the cloud.
  • Their head start in new technologies like WebGL and CRDTs that made this browser-first approach possible.
  • Focusing on a product purpose-built for those designing vector-based digital products.

So, yes, even though the reasons why Figma succeeded are not just about being brower-first, I believe their ability to ship their product using an innovative distribution method (at the time) was key to their success.

Link

Jun 13, 2024

Today I was thinking about risk. The first question I have is: is there positive risk and negative risk? I am pretty sure that if I read a little bit about risk, I will find out that risk is risk, and its measurement is the probability of an event going one way or the other.

But then the first thing I read when I open the Wikipedia article is: “In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening.”

So, I guess that answers my question. Risk is negative.

Now, here is the reason I am writing this: Can positive risk be created?

Today I’ve been thinking about the concept of positive risk – the opposite of negative risk or risk alone (as we tend to consider risk).

What would positive risk look like? Can positive risk reduce the impact of negative risk? Can one increase the chances of getting positive risk? When I think of positive risk, I think of those actions or events whose outcome can either be neutral or positive.

If there is nothing to lose, then there is potential positive risk involved.

There are many ways to create potential positive risk, and most of them involve doing the opposite of what generates risk, or negative risk.

I will be thinking about this for a while. Right now, my head is mixing the concepts of risk and motion. I believe there is a connection between the two. While I am at it, here is a beautiful story about risk from Paul Graham.

Link

Jun 12, 2024

Elon has X, I have Y.

Link