Weird Super Bowl. Many didn't believe the Chiefs belonged on the big stage this year - myself included. The officiating of the AFC championship game could have led to an entirely different competition. Bills vs Eagles would have probably been way more competitive.

Current workflow: - Discuss features with Cursor - Cursor creates a PRD - Cursor builds - Cursor tells me how to test each change - I test until one fails, Cursor fixes - Continue until PRD is complete

10 predictions for 2025, sorted by relative chaos.

Can one use Replit to... build Replit?

@dvassallo Welcome, brother.

Boilerplates and built-for-founder tools are tempting, but lazy. Get your hands dirty and solve a real problem.

One of the best books I read last year was the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I didn't take a single note while reading it. Instead, I let it meet me in the moment. Through Steve's story I got to know the man. Feel his insecurities. Experience his victories. Allow myself to be inspired without searching for lessons and quotes. What I know about Steve Jobs is this: He was a man with urgency. Even before his cancer diagnosis he knew he only had a limited amount of time. I can't justify how he treated some people, but the curse/blessing of his limited time is likely what led to the tremendous impact he had on humanity. His art inspired me to live as intentionally as I can, taking as few moments as possible for granted so I can live up to the character and talent I've been given with the time I have.

Currently feeling that Tuesday night guilt that I'm just hanging out and not working on the business.

Ever heard of self-schooling? I enrolled in a microeconomics class at Kevin University. Tuition is paid with discipline once per week for 1-2 hours after work.

If we had met three years ago I would have been approaching my last month of full time employment. You might have told me that a safe, steady job working for a good employer is smart. I would have agreed. These things are good for most people. But my spirit longed for the untamed waters of entrepreneurship. At the time I was teasing big ideas and dreaming of pyramids yet unbuilt. My final day of work You might have told me that building a software company would be harder than I think. I would have agreed. But hard isn't a reason not to do something. If I had remained in place I would have quickly plateaued. In fact, I think I already had at that point. It's not that I get bored, bu that I run out of new challenges to face. You might have told me I can always go back to the same work if I need to. I would have agreed. But the passing years would educate me on how large the world is and how many opportunities exist. Returning to the same place of employment might be the path of least resistance, but it would have come with an enormous opportunity costs. You might have advised me that it might not work out. I would have agreed. And I would have accepted any setback on the way to running a multi-billion dollar software company because these things take time... especially on your own dime. My journey over the last three years has been all of the things: challenging, rewarding, distracting, hyper-focused, etc. But the most important result of the work isn't the business, but the man I've become through it all.

The non-dev-Cursor crowd is in for a rude awakening when they reach the natural limits of building and are confronted with the unforgiving realities of pipelines, version control, running a business, handling secure data, creating microservice architecture, customer service... 😉

Someone told me at a networking event that I'm too quiet. I told them I'm just tactically available. Besides, I learn a lot more when I'm listening.

@gregisenberg It's fun to watch AI become layer 6.5 in the OSI model.

@RobertGreene Here's proof: Nobody questions you when you look like you know where you're going. It's as true in life as it is for walking through a restaurant's kitchen.

@Suhail I always tell people to read the Terms of Service themselves before buying into any groupthink.

@chrishlad My generation (millennials) usually folds on our principles when this happens to keep the peace and avoid confrontation. Good leaders put values first and communicate effectively. Good on you, Steve Jobs.

Last week Tetherform released a new tool: Analyze. It's in beta, but it's already changing the way organizations think about surveys. Here's how it works: In the old days, organizations would send out a survey to their members, attendees, or employees. After collecting enough responses, they'd export it to a spreadsheet and start looking through it. This usually takes a long time and is highly error prone. Some teams are lucky enough to have access to PowerBI or Tableau (both expensive), so they send the data there for reporting and analysis. But most people are stuck negotiating with ChatGPT to figure out what the responses actually mean. Or worse, organizing their guesswork in a spreadsheet. But what Tetherform's Analyze tool does is truly remarkable: Teams only have to upload the same spreadsheet of data and let Tetherform do the rest. Behind the scenes, Tetherform: - Categorizes the survey - Looks over the data multiple times - Generates a full analytical report with findings and recommendations And it only takes a couple minutes. Super clutch because your customers/members/employees often try to communicate important needs and concerns that are easy to miss with traditional methods. Tetherform picks up on the nuances and trends in the data to help organizations respond confidently to anything they learn. I'm proud of the work we're doing with the product and look forward to hearing stories from teams building Tetherform Analyze into their workflow.

A few weeks ago I finished reading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Naval Ravikant isn't your normal rags-to-riches story. He didn't strike oil or build a digital empire overnight. His success came from practicing a few important principles for a long time. Here are 8 lessons on wealth and life from Naval Ravikant I learned reading his book: 1. Judgment is better than hard work Judgment allows you to work smarter, not harder. Unfortunately, you can't do this without experience. And the only way to earn experience is to work extremely hard until you've earned the right to work smarter. 2. Shape your identity with good habits Habits are one area of our identity that’s possible to change. Some habits are intentional, others born of our maturation or childhood. But all can be unwound and reprogrammed. 3. Decision making is a skill you can (and should) improve Picking the direction to sail is more important than sailing fast. Improve your ability to make good decisions by studying mental models and paying attention to the outcomes of your choices. 4. Default to No The world is full of choices. If you have any doubt about what an answer should be, let your answer be "no". Don't let reluctance push you into a lesser choice. The pool of other options is statistically monstrous. 5. Learn the basics It’s beneficial to know the basics and derive ideas from them instead of trying to memorize the advanced ideas directly. This is the foundation of first principles thinking and good problem solving. 6. You owe it to yourself to work on yourself Don’t let yourself off the hook by assuming there’s a substitute version of you somewhere. There isn’t. You are the best in the world at being you and you are responsible for making sure that person does their best. 7. Inspiration is perishable Feeling inspired is a temporary moment, highly unpredictable. When it strikes, take full advantage of it because you don't know when it'll return. Corollary: Discipline is a habit you can control and should exercise frequently. --- I post lessons from books I read every once in a while. Follow if that's the kind of thing you're interested in!

Want a free business idea? Last year I wasted an entire week on a fun side project called Comment Pilgrim. The project allowed users to paste a YouTube link and get content ideas from the comments section. A strategy hailed by the great Gary Vee. It was my first time using the ChatGPT API for an application. After querying the video's contents, Comment Pilgrim sent the information to the LLM for some results. Research tools like this can be really helpful because LLMs are better at finding patterns and sorting large data than most people (faster too). So why was it such a failure? I thought of a few reasons: 1. No marketing. Big launch with no known demand. 2. Pricing model didn't make sense. Plans were monthly credits. 3. Gave up too quickly on it! If I wasn't busy running a software company and a few other side projects (that actually make money), I could have given Comment Pilgrim the love that it deserved. It would have made for a killer Chrome extension. I shut it's lifeless server down a few weeks ago, not having looked at it for months. But it wasn't an entire waste: I learned some valuable lessons about token-based APIs like ChatGPT that have directly impacted software at Tetheros. If I get bored this year, maybe I'll revive the Pilgrim's corpse and do it right. After all, who doesn't need more content ideas?

Technological optimism is a choice.