Essays
All articles
Thoughts on software, productivity, and the slow work of figuring out how to live well.
Mental Models: Your Decision-Making Superpower
Mental models exist to help us understand how the world works. There are thousands of mental models from many different disciplines. Mastering the most important will make you a powerful thinker.
My Favourite Photo & Video Products
All of my favourite photo and video products in one post, with details about each one, and how I use them.
My First 3 Months at Unito
Reflections on my first 3 months at Unito, a Montreal-based tech startup—lessons on joining a growing company, product development, and startup culture.
Techstars NYC Week 3 - Mentor Madness & Customer Acquisition
Mentor Madness is an interesting time – you repeatedly get questioned, given opinions, and you usually end the week feeling as if you have no idea what you’re doing.
Techstars NYC Week 6 - Persistence & Early Customers
If Week 5 was the hangover, Week 6 was the reboot. Most companies started to really hit their stride, and see the results of all the hard work in the first half of the program.
What is Confirmation Bias?
Confirmation bias affects us all, every day. Do you know where it occurs in your own life? Do you know how to reduce the effects? This post will teach you to identify and counter confirmation bias throughout your life.
Making the Most of College
This fall, my two brothers are both applying to college (used interchangeably with university throughout). Both are in different situations, and separated by three years; they’re likely going to have very different experiences. But the fact that both are going to be heading off to university for at least the next four years prompted me to reflect on my time at university, and what I’d do differently if I had to do it again.
My Founder Institute Experience
Thinking about joining the Founder Institute in your city? This post goes into detail about my experience, and whether I would recommend it.
Techstars Boston Week 6 - Hangover
Lessons from Week 6 at Techstars Boston, with some great Founder Stories, learning about behavioural interviewing and exploring cofounder conflict.
Techstars Boston Week 9 - Product
After dipping briefly following Mentor Madness (at least in feel), the pace here has started to noticeably increase again. That mostly means founders and teams have less time for distractions, and are putting in even longer hours than usual. New product is being shipped, and more time is being dedicated to fundraising and sales, in preparation for Demo Day. As such, the focus this week was mostly on product development, and putting more pressure on growth.
The Growth Process (for Startups)
Expanding upon the growth framework I introduced in the last post, I describe in detail how I think about growth, and the steps I go through when working on growth experiments.
Time Not Money
I’ve lost my childhood desire to own and drive a supercar daily. It’s a result of a gradual change in my own thinking, which can be summarized as: time not money.