It’s been an eventful year! I started and shut down http://popper.ai , lost 2 grandparents, almost lost my dad to Covid, continued running http://Loki.ai , went through @join_ef, read more books, and reconnected with some amazing people

Here are my learnings: [1/n]

In running startups, product-market-fit is not enough. A high enthusiasm half-life is as important (related post by @ejames_c: https://commoncog.com/blog/enthusiasm-half-life/). We had great PMF at http://Popper.ai , but couldn’t retain enthusiasm for the project [2/n]

Relatedly: beware of working with large legacy companies as your first customers. You’ll have to do a lot of work to integrate with legacy systems and cultures, and will take away valuable time that could otherwise be used in building products [3/n]

Always have money for rainy days, if you can. I’ve been lucky enough to have some revenue come in from http://Loki.ai  over the years. Because I had kept my expenses low and saved a lot, I had enough money to help with my dad’s Covid treatment [4/n]

When you find good people, invest deeply in them (time, effort, mindspace). Deep connections that you can count on > many shallow connections you are only tangentially linked to [5/n]

Don’t try to do everything by yourself when working on new projects. You can only do 4-5 hours of focused, high quality work every day. Do what you love doing and are amazing at. Delegate or automate everything else [6/n]

There are things that are scary and those that are dangerous. Not having money coming in for a few months is scary. Being stuck doing something you hate is dangerous. The dangerous-but-not-scary things are those that get you [7/n]

Decision quality and decision velocity are both important. Don’t compromise one at the expense of another [8/n]

The map is not the territory. Remember that there are a lot of things you don’t know, and plan accordingly [9/n]

Fixed costs are great if you have enough volume. This applies to business models, time spent acquiring new skills, and time spent in nurturing relationships. When you get to a point where the marginal cost of doing something new approaches zero, you can do magical things [10/n]

Invest deeply. Most people, when given a great opportunity, will only nibble at it. When the odds are heavily in your favor and an opportunity presents itself, invest your time/money/energy accordingly [11/n]

“When you mix raisins and turds, you still have turds”— Charlie Munger. Stop using your good habits as an excuse for bad habits [12/n]

“Be a learning machine and read as widely as you can. Incremental compounding of your understanding of the world is a huge advantage” - Charlie Munger (I think) [13/n]

“It’s not enough to invent. You must be able to build a vision that a large number of people share, and that gets them to work in a concerted way” - Jeff Bezos (I think) [14/n]

“Have the discipline of writing a detailed plan and understand the key factors that influence an issue. Even though the plan won’t survive the real world, this exercise will help you understand a situation better” - Jeff Bezos [15/n]

“There are a million ways to get wealthy, but only one to stay wealthy - some combination of frugality and paranoia” - Morgan Housel [16/n]