This is my one-hundred-seventy-sixth weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Founders’ mindsets are changing – More early-stage founders are thinking about customer revenue as a source of funding. This forces them to build something customers will pay for—not something they can pitch to VCs. Regardless of what happens in the fundraising environment, this is a good mental shift for founders.  
• Exposure gap – Some people haven’t been exposed to certain concepts or ways of thinking, which puts them at a disadvantage. To reach the same destination as people who’ve benefited from wide exposure, they must travel further. It isn’t fair, but it’s the way the world is. Acknowledging the gap and working hard to close it is often the best approach to minimizing its long-term impact on one’s trajectory in life.
• I don’t feel like it – This week was a reminder that the things I don’t “feel like” doing are exactly the things I “should” be doing.

Week one hundred seventy-six was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

This is my one-hundred-seventy-fifth weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Compounding goes both ways – I shared a post yesterday about the power of compounding. I’ve been thinking about this more. That piece is an example of the positive power of compounding. But compounding doesn’t discriminate—it works both ways, positively and negatively. I’m considering how to illustrate the negative impact with an example.
• Market drivers – Interest rates drive public markets, which impact private markets (e.g., venture capital). I’m learning about perspectives on lesser-known factors that could also drive markets in the long term.
• Too good to be true – I read an article that reminded me that when something seems too good to be true, it likely is. It may take time to understand why this is the case (when more facts are revealed, for instance). But you can usually tell early on that something doesn’t add up.

Week one hundred seventy-five was a week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

One of the things that annoys my family and friends is that I’m vague when it comes to details. If they ask me questions about granular details, I usually don’t have an answer. If they ask a high-level question, I likely can answer. For example, what was the keynote speaker’s main point? I can answer. What personal examples did the keynote speaker use to support the main point? I may not remember (unless I took notes).

Over time I’ve realized that I’m not wired to remember granular details or live in granularity. It takes lots of energy and sometimes frustrates me to try to remember and process granularity. Having lots of conversations about granular things can also feel challenging. I have done these things in the past, can do them now, and will likely do them in the future. But it’s not my preference. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with granularity. Many people enjoy it. It’s just not a good fit personally.

In the past, I’ve compensated for this shortcoming by taking detailed notes. More recently, I’ve learned to embrace my wiring and focus my energy on really understanding the big picture. My notes are less detailed, and I don’t view my tendencies as a negative anymore. I’ve realized that I naturally seek to understand the big picture, to understand high-level concepts. The big picture and high-level concepts are where wisdom usually resides. As a curious person who enjoys learning, that wisdom is exciting; it’s what I seek. As I’ve shared with my friends, I enjoy seeing the forest, not each individual tree.

This is my one-hundred-seventy-fourth weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Sounding boards – It’s helpful to have smart, credible people to get candid feedback from and share ideas with. Sometimes they can accelerate good thought processes or highlight flawed thinking.
• Knowledge costs – Knowledge is never free. There’s always a cost. Everyone pays tuition (time, energy, or money). If you want knowledge, get comfortable with the idea of paying tuition and identify the form of payment that suits you.

Week one hundred seventy-four was a week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

I’m a pretty even-keeled person. A friend recently asked how I’m able to stay so calm in most situations. Part of it is my personality and upbringing. But also, I’ve learned to quickly filter out things others may choose to worry about—specifically, things outside my control.

When I encounter something that could be worrisome, I ask myself, “Is this within my control?” If the answer is no, I simply don’t worry about it. It doesn’t make sense to waste my mental real estate or time on something I have zero control over. I can’t influence the outcome, so I shouldn’t worry about it. That doesn’t mean that I’m not aware of it or that I ignore it. I take note of the situation, but I don’t go further than that.

Not worrying about things I can’t control is a helpful mental trick that’s allowed me to allocate more mental bandwidth to what matters most: things I can control.

This is my one-hundred-seventy-third weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Bubbles – This week was a reminder that I enjoy being around people with experiences and perspectives different from mine. Living in a bubble isn’t for me.
• Growth mindset – There’s a common theme among investors and entrepreneurs who achieve extraordinary success: they focus on effort, not outcomes, and apply consistent effort toward learning. They all have a growth mindset.

Week one hundred seventy-three was a relaxed week. Looking forward to next week!

One of my personal characteristics that I’m mindful of is my capacity for empathy. Seeing something from the perspective of someone else or understanding how a situation makes them feel doesn’t come naturally to me. Over time, I learned that understanding the perspectives and feelings of others is a superpower. It makes navigating the world much easier, especially for founders (it’s hard to solve a problem unless you understand the feelings and perspectives of those living the problem).

Over the years, I’ve improved significantly in this area. I’ve tried various things, but what’s had the most impact is simple: spending time with people different from me and trying to understand their perspectives and how they developed them. Doing this (in a genuine and authentic way) has enlarged the lens that I view the world through. That’s made it easier to see things from multiple vantage points. I still may not agree with their perspective, but I can see things through their lens and understand how they feel.

I’m still not an overly empathetic person. But intentionally spending time with others with different perspectives has enhanced my capacity for empathy. It’s something I want to continue doing as long as I can.

I’ve been posting daily since 2020. After three years, it’s still something I enjoy and get a lot out of. When I first started, lots of low-hanging fruit was available—I had many experiences as a founder that I could reflect on and identify insights from. I wasn’t used to sharing my thoughts publicly, though, so it took energy to crystallize my thoughts and craft a post that people could understand.

Now that I’ve been doing this for a few years, I can write a post with minimal effort. I’ve built muscle memory around writing and gaining clarity of thought.

I focus my effort now on identifying interesting things and insights to share. I’ve become more intentional about acquiring knowledge related to concepts I want to understand and attempting to develop unique insights about them.

The result of all this is that writing daily posts is still challenging, but in a different way. I began by being more intentional about developing the habit of sharing my crystallized thoughts. I’m now more intentional about understanding a concept and identifying insights related to it. Focusing on concepts is more difficult. I’ve had to adjust my habits to support the change, but I’m happy with the adjustments. I’m excited to be learning about interesting and difficult concepts. I’m even more excited by the challenge of coming up with unique insights.

This is my one-hundred-seventy-second weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Decision feedback – I’m curious to try out the new technique for improving decision-making that I wrote about recently. I’m going to start asking a few people I think highly of if they’ll provide feedback.
• Jump start – Sometimes it’s good to have a change of scenery for thinking. For some reason it jump-starts my creativity and my ability to recognize insights.
• Frustration – Earlier this week, I was frustrated about a few things that were out of my control. Exercising and talking through my frustrations with others was helpful.

Week one hundred seventy-two was a frustrating week. Looking forward to next week!

This is my one-hundred-seventy-first weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Adjust solutions, not people – Trying to bend customers so they can use what you’ve built doesn’t end well. The best solutions are built and scaled when you’ve listened to what customers want and adjusted the solution to meet their needs and solve their pain point. Adjust the solution to people, not people to the solution.
• Holiday – It was great to spend time with family and friends. I was able to get some good reading in, too.  

Week one hundred seventy-one was a short week. Looking forward to next week!