boosting builders: current philosophy

shifting from “how to use this tool” to “thinking in systems and exponentials” is a common topic in my conversations with people across the industry.

yes, leading through this change is incredibly challenging, complex, and critical.

here’s my current philosophy. it’s a point in time look. i’m positive that if i look back from some future point at this post, i’ll be laughably wrong in some ways. neat, let’s send it anyways.

mantra

boosting builders, not nagging naysayers.

• anyone can be a builder. all are welcome. it’s a mindset.
• builders have different styles and fluencies.
• each builder is on a different stage of the journey.
• builders empower, advance, and champion other builders.
• time and energy are limited. boost builders above all else.

mindsets

• FITFO (“figure it the fuck out”-ness)
  • expect uncertainty and ambiguity and continue to move forward
  • willingness to update priors and start anew
• build to learn
• no vibe thinking, aka sniffing farts and calling it cologne
• go bigger. think in exponentials. :gestures-widely-and-points-up-in-sky “see that way out there, that’s where we’re going”

principles

impact > busyness. just because it feels possible to build everything, it doesn’t mean we should build everything possible. impact is what matters.

depth > breadth. deeply knowing one tool or workflow beats shallow awareness of many. focus on durable learning.

focus on durable learning. understand the problem a tool, workflow, or approach solves. understand how it solves it and the context for why this problem is worth solving. models, harnesses, agents, etc will keep solving new problems. move up a level of abstraction to focus on what’s durable, not the specifics of today.

asymmetric upside. plant many seeds. in a rapidly changing environment, we don’t know the shape of what’s valuable in 1, 3, 6, 12 months, so sow as many seeds (experiments, bets) as possible. have the intellectual honesty and discipline to stop spending energy on seeds that don’t take root. embrace quit criteria and gates for moving forward. revisit old seeds as conditions change to see if they’ll now take off.

no perfect prompt. overly-optimizing for today’s perfect prompt is a waste of time. clear thinking and desired outcomes up front -> then rapid-fire prompts to keep momentum.

patterns

build, friction, fix. build. notice friction while building. fix the system later. cyclical. fractal.

mental experimentation budgets. recognize current capacity. increase it. reduce marginal cost. speed up recharge.