Weekly Wisdom #291 - What it takes to truly focus, as told by Jony Ives, Apple's former head designer

What Focus Means, Small Identities, Unicorn Founders, Modern Masterpieces & Always Looking For A New Thing

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Happy Sunday!

There’s a common Steve Jobs quote that reinforces the importance of saying no when thinking about focus:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

I prefer this version, retold by Jony Ives, the longtime lead designer at Apple:

"Steve was the most remarkably focused person I've ever met in my life," said Jony Ive, Apple's design chief and the man Steve Jobs once described as his "spiritual partner." In an interview for Vanity Fair a few years ago, Ive explained why achieving focus isn't as easy as it appears on the surface.

Ive says his boss would regularly ask him: 'How many things have you said no to?'

"Well, I said no to this. And no to that," Ives would tell Jobs. "But," Ives continues, "he knew that I wasn't vaguely interested in doing those things anyway."

"What focus means is saying no to something that you [think]--with every bone in your body--is a phenomenal idea," he concludes. "And you wake up thinking about it. But you say no to it because you're focusing on something else."

That last bit—”saying no to something that you think with every bone in your body is a phenomenal idea”—is the most important.

Because in my experience, that’s exactly what it’s like: it’s painful, very difficult, and as a result, almost nobody does it.

But I believe it’s the single most important skill one can have, whether it's for designing and building a specific product, building a company, or deciding what to do with your life.

In the business context, if you have the luck and skill to find some kind of product/market fit, some small bit of clear interest, then every single thing you do needs to be oriented around that one thing.

Peter Thiel says something similar in his book about building startups, Zero to One: “The most important things are singular: One market will probably be better than all others…One distribution strategy usually dominates all others, too.”

If you are lucky enough to find one of those things, the challenge thereafter is not losing focus of that one thing.

And consistently saying no to other things: that will be painful.

Have a great week!

Graham​

Links

📖 Keep Your Identity Small - Paul Graham - This is likely my most frequently recommended & shared blog post these days, but for good reason.

In a world where it feels like you need to shout to make your point of view heard, it's always a good reminder that this has consequences for both the people listening, and the people doing the shouting.

📖 What does it take to become a unicorn founder? Insights from 200 startup journeys - Alex Lazarow - This post breaks down the characteristics of the founders of unicorns—companies with a valuation more than a billion dollars.

There are some counter-intuitive findings, like the fact that few attended elite universities or worked at tech giants, and others that make more sense, like most had previous startup experience.

The characteristics of unicorn founders

🏠 1736 N Wood St, Chicago - Jason Fried, cofounder of Basecamp, listed his home in Chicago, and it is stunning.

A huge home at 8000 square feet, I nonetheless appreciate how they've managed to create what seems like a peaceful, quiet spot in the middle of the city. The liberal use of glass and traditional materials is nice too.

The Chicago home of Jason Fried, cofounder of Basecamp

Tweet of the Week

​This week's Tweet is a longer-form essay about how many of us (myself included) are obsessed with finding something new, when the real solution is probably just sticking with the original for a long time.

"What if you just stuck with that earlier decision: the job, the partner, the city, the hobby. Where would you be right now?"

Nat Eliason-->

@nateliason

Some thoughts on how many of us are obsessed with trying new things, optimizing, looking for ways to improve, and how it hurts us in the long run.

I started lifting weights in high school.

After a few flirtations with different programs, I landed on Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1729266966592892969

5:32 PM • Nov 27, 2023

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