Weekly Mix #261 - Things Don't Work The First Time, Turning Pro, Bad News vs. Good Trends & Cabin Views

Things Don't Work The First Time, Turning Pro, Bad News vs. Good Trends & Cabin Views

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Happy Tuesday!

I've been thinking a lot about what makes startups successful lately.

There are three things that have stood out, which I'm going to touch on through the next few newsletters.

All apply to both startups and life in general.

The first: the unrealistic expectation that things will work the first time.

In startups, this comes up in a variety of areas: building new product lines, new features, new marketing campaigns and channels, new internal processes, etc.

Things almost never work the first time.

But we never seem to plan for that, and continue to make the mistake of assuming that if it doesn't work immediately, it probably won't.

Why is that important?

In a startup context, it means a lot of initial efforts are wasted when we don't do the work of the second or third or fourth iteration. If it's considered worth pursuing in the first place, it should be worth the subsequent iterations.

It also changes how we plan. If we know that a few iterations are going to be needed, it means we have to focus on fewer things, and prioritize differently. We can't try 10 things, we can only try 3.

And from a motivation perspective, it changes our expectations. We don't get as discouraged when things don't work the first time. We put in extra effort to figure out the cause, knowing we'll get another try.

The same applies to our lives in general: we shouldn't expect everything to work the first time.

We should expect to have to tweak, and improve, and take what works, and retry what doesn't.

We should choose carefully what we choose to pursue.

And we shouldn't get discouraged when it doesn't work the first time around.

Have a great week!

Graham

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Links

📚 Book Notes: Turning Pro - Steven Pressfield - I published my notes for Steven Pressfield's motivating read on what separates professionals from amateurs. Like The War of Art, this book is a great read for anyone taking on a new project, trying to turn their passion into their career, or who wants to take a hobby to the next level. I'm attempting to apply the ideas to my writing.

📖 Why the world isn't as bad as you think - Brian Klaas - Like The Rational Optimist, this book points out that though there are many disturbing events in the world—and trends too—many of the long-term trends, like poverty and average lifespan, are very positive.

The news bias towards negative, real-time events is why I avoid it; I'd rather read books or study history that helps me understand modern trends, than be bombarded with news headlines.

"The news is mostly an aggregation of every bad event that happened in the last twenty four hours, anywhere on Earth."

🏠 Snøhetta's The Bolder - Dwell - One of the most stunning cabin locations and views I've ever seen. Difficult to imagine living or staying here, these cabins showcase the importance of elevation and location. They also make big corner windows a centrepiece, and show just how much that can influence the feeling of space inside the cabins themselves.

Image from Dwell

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