In 2005, I cofounded Y Combinator, the first "accelerator." Today there are hundreds of them all over the world, but in 2005 what we were doing was so unusual that most people in Silicon Valley...
When hiring a team, we tend to favor the geniuses who hatch innovative ideas, but overlook the butterflies, the crucial ones who share and implement them. Here’s why it’s important to be both smart AND social. *** In business, it’s never enough to have a great idea. For any innovation to be successful, it has […]
How Craigslist's Founder Realized He Sucked as a Manager
In 1995, Craig Newmark started sending an email to a few friends. That missive led to one of the most important--and profitable--internet companies of all time. An exclusive, in-depth conversation with the founder of Craigslist.
"A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom" by Charlie Munger | James Clear
Background This speech was originally given by Charlie Munger at USC Business School in 1994. The full title of the talk is “”A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business”. Speech Transcript I'm going to play a minor trick on you today because the subject of my talk is […]
The ladders of wealth creation: a step-by-step roadmap to building wealth
In college I first heard Jason Fried from Basecamp talk about how making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time. That resonated with me immediately. I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time an
Plus Minus Next is a simple journaling method. At the top of each column, write + for what worked, – for what didn’t, and → for what you plan to do next.
How to Turn Pro, From the Warrior Artist, Steven Pressfield
I don't remember when I first read The War of Art, but I know it changed my life. Of all of the books I have read since then, there are few I have returned to more often. Why? Because Steven Pressfield teaches you how to be an artist—a professional one. [...]
By: Stephen Hanselman [1] If You Want a Smooth Flow of Life, Live According to Nature At the core of Stoic teaching is the founder Zeno’s idea that a smooth flow of life (euroia biou) comes from “living in agreement with nature.” It was the second leader of the Stoics, Zeno’s student Cleanthes, who added the last part, “with nature” (te phusei; or […]
This is a story about when big innovations happen. Not how, but when. And to some extent, why. Hopefully you find it counterintuitive at first before it quickly seems obvious. That’s how most important ideas work. And hopefully you’ll see why 2020, for all the hell its brought, could be the new beginnings of something promising. Cars and airplanes are two of the biggest innovations of modern times. But there’s an interesting thing about their early years. Few looked at early cars and said, “Oh, there’s a thing I can commute to work in.” Few saw a plane and said, “Ah-ha, I can use that to ge...
Seeking the Productive Life: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure—Stephen Wolfram Writings
Some of Stephen Wolfram’s “productivity hacks” to make his days and projects more productive. Daily life, desk environment, outside the office, presentation setup, filesystem organization, Wolfram Notebook systems, databases, personal analytics.