this is true, I am a curious chaos

search function is a highly underestimated feature

My favourite part of a book is the book dedication. While the book drives the main content, there’s that hidden layer of intimacy that goes behind the scene - those who stood by and trusted when it was just blank-pages, when ideas were raw and unshaped, patient while the job gets done, and there to celebrate when it's a wrap. There's so much story to tell from a book, but it's that personal journey that happens behind the scenes that I find to be incredibly sweet and telling.

Meet Miles Cooper (named by my nephews after some spiderman guy or some superheroes). This one belongs to my sister and he is so adorable. Only 2 months and he is already 7kg, and sooo cute!

❤️

Sometimes we get caught up focusing on a single tech, only to later realize that many others have matured in parallel. I think a skill that is rare and important is the ability to mix and match these innovations in hardware, software, AI and other fields in order to advance our original work. But that would also mean we would have to relearn on a system level while understanding each tech independently to integrate effectively. It's definitely not an easy feat which is why its rare, but I think interdisciplinary thinking often drives transformative innovations, and to achieve this, curiosity, agility, creativity and resilience is key

The AI space is growing exponentially - like inception, tech building building tech, or a prelude to AGI

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Amjad Masad (@amasad) on X

AI is incredible at writing code. But that's not enough to create software. You need to set up a dev environment, install packages, configure DB, ...

One of the greatest feelings is doing something kind for someone who will never know it was you. Spread a bit of kindness today, you never know who needs it. A little bit of goodness in life goes a long way ❤️

The recent release of the "founder mode" concept by Paul Graham has stirred quite a debate esp from the ‘manager mode’ groups. It’s true that at scale-up, your standard VC advice would be to “hire good people and let them do the job” - most VCs believe that it is your WD 40 fix for scale-ups. But it’s also true that if left unchecked, the calibration and alignment between team members might drift, which affects the mission of the business. There are some examples of how “founder mode” operates. In Steve Jobs' "Top 100" retreat, regardless of where they are in the company hierarchy, the top 100 performers were invited to a retreat with Jobs. And because it's a special thing, it fostered a startup-like hustle for employees to be among the top achievers. Elon Musk’s approach to founder mode involves trimming and sharpening the team. He also gives them a sense of ownership with responsibility - to see what he sees - and reshape as quickly as needed. Jack’s trend I believe is more agile as he switches between founder mode and manager mode, as and when needed. His philosophy from what I read, emphasizes not just finding great people, but those who are passionate about the mission and capable of working well together (non-toxic) in reaching the goals. My personal view is that there is no cookie cutter fix or a one-size-fits-all solution between "manager mode" and "founder mode." Early-stage entrepreneurs building products will eventually shift to building businesses. Some will embrace this shift, others won’t. Some will be great in both roles, others may struggle. At a scale up business, the dynamic changes and the momentum is different - which explains why Zuckerberg shifted from “move fast and break things” to a more measured approach - focus on speed but with caution. At the same time, at the scale-up stage, companies want to preserve startup culture, so large corporations often advocate for "corporate startups," which are hybrids of traditional startups and corporate R&D. They have the rebellious spirit and agility of traditional startups but are funded by a parent company. Many has worked tremendously well such as Block’s Spiral, which developed LDK independently (without direction from parent company) and later benefited the company’s core business, Cash App. Some didn’t work as well, like Google’s EV car initiative. I've worked as both a corporate engineering manager and a startup entrepreneur, and they both have very diff strategy, speed, focus and goals. Scale-up is like a combo but a million times harder as it comes with immense responsibility in growing the business and expanding the team efficiently, and managing shareholders, all while being innovative and strategic in business-building, just as you would be in building the product. One part that fascinated me about the essay is the 3 phases the founders go through. - At first you listen to the VC (because you are clueless at initial stages) . - Then you go against them (because their advice is not working for you, something doesnt feel right) - and finally, the VCs end up listening to you (because your strategy is successfully scaling up your business). By the time you reach stage 3, you are likely wiser with all the experiences. But most founders will struggle to get past stage 1 and 2 for various reasons. I’ve enjoyed all of Paul Graham’s essays. He explains both high-level concepts and low-level no-brainers with clarity (I need both). And rather timeless too, some essays from 18 years ago are still so relevant today. This one has induced a big debate which is great because the VC rigid world needs a bit of a shake up now and then. Check it out -

Founder Mode