The limits of the ‘rational’ founder

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong preference for explicit, formal logic over vague intuition or tradition. The mantra is fairly simple. If you can't explain something clearly and logically, you don't truly understand it. It you don't understand it, you can't make accurate predictions about the real world using it. And … Continue reading The limits of the ‘rational’ founder

How to write company policies

Imagine a world where companies had no employees, but instead utilized only ideal programmable robots. If you wanted these robots to, say, interact with each other in an optimal way, you would write formal policies - also known as code. That code would have to outline every single possible situation the robots might find themselves … Continue reading How to write company policies

Uncommon Advice for Aspiring Founders

There’s loads of advice out there for aspiring founders, with much of it repeated ad nauseum. Don’t get distracted. Ship early and often. Read the Hard Thing About Hard Things. You know, the standard stuff. The problem is that reading this advice rarely causes it to truly sink in. There’s a big difference between knowing … Continue reading Uncommon Advice for Aspiring Founders

Politics, Culture, and Compassion

With the turbulent U.S. election coming up, there's been a lot of discussion around the ways that companies should, or shouldn't involve themselves in various aspects of politics. Some companies have come out declaring that they want to steer clear of politics entirely, largely to backlash, as abstaining is generally understood to be a vote … Continue reading Politics, Culture, and Compassion

Early Advice 1: Solutions in Need of Problems

The single most common piece of advice I’ve heard about startups is to make sure that you’re solving a real, meaningful problem for someone. It’s easy to think of something cool but useless; much more valuable to think of something mundane but genuinely impactful. This is good advice. But the problem is, it’s really hard … Continue reading Early Advice 1: Solutions in Need of Problems