Talk to people

Be open

# Be interested
In my experience, if you want to [[Build a diverse network]], make good friends and [[Talk to people]], asking a lot of questions and learning about the other person is key. Being interested makes one interesting. 

This was confirmed by research at Harvard ([source](https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions)), which shows that asking lots of questions in a conversation “unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding”. According to the research, open-ended follow-up questions are the gold standard: the show that you are listening to the other person and give them enough wiggle room to share as much as they feel comfortable.

I have also noticed many times that [[Be open]] is core to building bonds quickly.




Work in public

Build a diverse network

Seek discomfort

Be interested

# Be open
I have noticed that the more open I am in conversation the more the other people open up too. This leads to a strong bond developing much more quickly, and as a side benefit makes it easier to [[Be interested]].

This was confirmed by research at Harvard ([source](https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions)), which states that “transparency is an essential part of forging meaningful connections.” Opening up is so effective that researchers now leverage it to quickly build relationships between study participants by giving them question sheets with sensitive questions to ask each other.

Being open can be uncomfortable, which is another reason to [[Seek discomfort]]. [[Work in public]] is kind of a scaled version of this applied to my entire work life.




Have an aptitude for serendipity

Get more parts on the table

Invest in force multipliers

Sell your story

Personal brand as moat

# Build a diverse network

The more people I know, and the more diverse their perspectives are, the more parts I can theoretically access. ([[Get more parts on the table]]) This requires me to [[Be open]] to new perspectives and to [[Seek discomfort]].

The more I talk to my big diverse network ([[Talk to people]]) and [[Work in public]], the higher the chance that one of them serendipitously connects my ideas to something I had not considered before. ([[Have an aptitude for serendipity]])

It also makes it easier to [[Iterate as fast as possible]]. I can solicit good feedback quicker, which lets me speed up some of my iteration loops.

> _”This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someone in the crowd. It’s not that the network itself is smart; it’s that the individuals get smarter because they’re connected to the network.” — Where good ideas come from_




Invent by combining things in new ways

Sketching exercises

# Get more parts on the table

> _“The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table." — Where good ideas come from_

The more "parts you have on the table", the easier it is to [[Invent by combining things in new ways]] and explore the [[Adjacent possible]]. The more connections you make, the more good ideas you can have. The more good ideas you have, the more you [[Have an aptitude for serendipity]] and the more you [[Always be shipping]]!

[[Build a diverse network]] and [[Work in public]] are two ways to increase the amount of parts I have on the table. The bigger and more diverse my friend group and the more I [[Talk to people]], the higher the chance somebody has that unique part on their table that connects my ideas to their thoughts. A good way of knowing if you’re on the right track is to [[Seek discomfort]].




Always be shipping

Solve your own problems

# Have an aptitude for serendipity

My career is almost entirely based on serendipitous connections. While they are random chance, of course, the one thing I take credit for is having (what I like to call) an “aptitude for serendipity”. I try to create as many opportunities for luck to strike me as possible.

Some ways I try to influence serendipity are:

* [[Iterate as fast as possible]] and [[Get more parts on the table]] so I have a higher chance of inventing something novel. ([[Invent by combining things in new ways]])
* [[Always be shipping]] so serendipity has as many chances as possible to strike one of them.
* [[Work in public]], [[Talk to people]] and [[Build a diverse network]] so more people have a chance of stumbling upon my ideas and connecting them with their own thoughts.

Personally, publishing open source projects has been a great way to do this. There is no downside, assuming you [[Solve your own problems]], and the upside could be career-defining. My career was defined by react-boilerplate being posted and upvoted to the HackerNews frontpage!




Iterate as fast as possible

My morning routine

Thinking practice

Have a great morning routine

Invest in the best tools

About these notes

My mental models

# Invest in force multipliers


Force multipliers are anything that increase your effectiveness by (ideally many) multiples. Adding new or improving your force multipliers is a great way to move faster towards your goal.

These are some force multipliers I am thinking about at the moment:

* [[Get more parts on the table]]
	* [[Build a diverse network]] and [[Talk to people]]
	* [[Work in public]]
	* [[Seek discomfort]]
* [[Have an aptitude for serendipity]]
* [[Iterate as fast as possible]]
* [[Invest in the best tools]]
* [[Have a great morning routine]]
* [[Thinking practice]]




# Lower your inhibitions

[[🌱]]

Anecdotally, alcohol makes it easier for me to [[Talk to people]], particularly ones I have not met before. (not getting drunk! Some beer or wine with dinner) I think alcohol is a social lubricant because it lowers peoples inhibitions [citation needed]. 

I wonder if there is a way to “permanently” slightly lower my inhibitions without having to rely on a drug and the right setting so that I am always more approachable and friendly.




# Personal brand as moat

[[🌱]]
https://commoncog.com/blog/personal-brand-as-moat-personal-brand-as-soft-landing/

Cedric argues, based on Warren Buffet’s ideas, that a brand is valuable if it leads to sustained pricing power. In plain English, if it can’t raise its prices compared to its competitors, the brand isn’t worth anything.

A great example that immediately jumped to mind is Apple, the world’s most valuable brand. They are known for being expensive, and yet people buy them anyway.

---

This is an interesting insight into what the term “personal brand” stands for:

> “A personal brand is [..] a set of expectations around your skills, your behaviour, your values and your worldview.”

That immediately makes me think that I have not built the best personal brand. I wish I was known for quality work, but honestly my work has always been more MVP-ey than quality…

> “It’s important to remember that *consistency* is the key component of a strong brand, not excellence. “

Cedric uses the example of McDonalds, but I think that’s an incorrect argument. Sure, McDonalds is consistent and that makes it great. However, it has also spent many thousands of man-years optimising their food to taste the best to the largest amount of people. Saying it’s “a subpar experience” when it’s exactly the experience people are looking for seems incorrect to me.

I don’t think you can build a personal brand on a consistently bad experience. I am not sure if it’s better to raise the bar of your worst work to be great, or the bar of your best work to be world-class excellent—I tend to the latter but I’m not convinced.

---

Cedric points out that many VCs nowadays have strangely misaligned incentives. They build a personal brand through their investment activity, which they use to raise a fund or two, pocket the management fees and then use their personal brand to find a soft landing in another position.

I don’t think any VC necessarily has harmful intentions from the get-go. However, becoming a VC nowadays is a pretty good deal: in the worst-case scenario you make some money off the fees, build a personal brand because you [[Build a diverse network]] and [[Talk to people]] all the time and then transition that into a lucrative job elsewhere. That’s a pretty solid worst-case scenario, particularly when the best-case is to be rich out of your mind.

---

I think his point on careers being 40 years long and the peak being when you’re 50 to 60 years old is interesting. That certainly makes me think that I should prioritise getting my Twitter followers off of Twitter and onto a mailing list—not because I like writing mailing lists but because e-mail will likely always be a thing. Twitter? Maybe not…

On the other hand, I am not sure if this is true now. If I personally still _have_ to work when I’m 50-60 I did something wrong. I have infinite leverage at my disposal to find something to generate enough wealth so that I don’t have to work anymore.

That doesn’t mean I won’t work anymore when I’m 50-60, it just means I shouldn’t be in a position where I don’t have a choice.

---

I definitely think I have done a bad job of building a reputation and need to focus on that. I can easily think of some of the people I worked with at some jobs that are excellent and that I would hire in a heartbeat, and only a small fraction of them have a big audience.

I am probably the opposite: while I’m not bad, I’m not _great_. It’s not like every programmer who’s ever worked with me is like “This Max guy is the best programmer I’ve ever worked with.” I know that I _can_ be that. I can work fast and smart at the same time, which is how I can get away with working two hours a day and fucking around the rest. But imagine if I worked ten or even just six hours a day…

I should focus on being great in order to build that reputation, which does indeed seem like a more lasting advantage (career moat) than followers on Twitter.




# Seek discomfort

If I am uncomfortable, by definition that means I am doing something new, something outside of my comfort zone. The chance for [[Get more parts on the table]] when doing something new is infinitely higher than when doing something I always do. 

In an ideal world this would be habitual: discomfort should be the default and (ironically) too much comfort would make me uncomfortable.

Some ways I try to do this are [[Be open]], [[Talk to people]] and [[Work in public]].




Non-technical regrets at Spectrum

# Sell your story

[[🌱]]

Buying art is a lot about connection to the artist—when somebody comes over and asks about your painting choices, you want to be able to tell the artists story.

People connect because of shared experiences and stories. Thus, a part of what an artist sells is their own story.

This applies to any creative person, and is a big part of the reason why indiehackers are so interesting to follow. (which of course makes them more likely to succeed because they [[Build a diverse network]], [[Talk to people]], [[Work in public]] etc)

Thus, an important things you can do to further your creative careers is to tell your story.




Lower your inhibitions

# Talk to people

Having lots of friends and a diverse audience ([[Build a diverse network]]) is great to [[Get more parts on the table]], but completely useless if I don't talk to them. By bouncing my thoughts off of them, they might be able to connect some of them to something I had not considered before.

The scaled version of this is [[Work in public]]. That makes it possible for my audience to serendipitously stumble upon my thoughts without me having to do an active action. ([[Have an aptitude for serendipity]])

To build meaningful connections, it is important [[Be interested]] and [[Be open]].




# Work in public

By sharing as much as possible publicly and being transparent ([[Be open]]), I invite serendipity to help me. ([[Have an aptitude for serendipity]]) Since I [[Build a diverse network]], whenever I [[Talk to people]] the chance is high that one of them connects my ideas to something I had not considered before.

This is a big force multiplier and a core part of how I want to work. ([[Invest in force multipliers]])




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