Think Week No. 2 — May 8, 2023
Timeless ideas and insights for creators.
Highlights
Not perfect, just better
I'm not aiming for perfect, just better. That thought rang around my head as I stood in the shower this morning.
It encapsulated so much of my mindset, the philosophy of how I look to approach every area of my life; the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical.
Ultimately, perfectionism is a trap.
The Nirvana fallacy: when perfectionism leads to unrealistic solutions
Also called the “perfect solution fallacy”, the Nirvana fallacy is based on faulty reasoning, where an argument assumes that a solution should be rejected because some part of the problem still exists after the solution is applied.
Many people falling prey to the Nirvana fallacy presume that a perfect solution does exist. In those cases, the Nirvana fallacy is a combination of wishful thinking and black-and-white thinking.
Be Yourself, Not a Niche
I often get some form of the question: "Should I build an audience around a certain niche? Or just talk about whatever I want?"
My advice is not to choose a niche.
Noteworthy
The Magic of Zero-Expectation Creative Work. (link)
You have 4000 weeks. (link)
Stuff I still don’t get about AI. (link)
Invisible projects don't get done. (link)
How to Think Better: The Skill You’ve Never Been Taught. (link)
Prioritizing What Matters Most in The Attention Economy. (link)
The Grand Unified Theory of Product Ideation. (link)
Atomic Thoughts
Being rich is a silly goal. (link)
What we create is downstream from what we consume. (link)
5 short rules for a better life. (link)
Creativity can’t be tamed. (link)
Google is in trouble. (link)
Et cetera
The new GPT-4 Code Interpreter is 🔥. (link)
45% of seed-stage startups from 2017 haven't raised another round. (link)
DAOs Could Get Official Standing Under Proposed California Law. (link)
The web’s most important decision. (link)
Jeff Bezos on The Jay Leno Show back in 1999. (link)
Fin
Identities expire, and sometimes that’s ok.
I was a musician but haven’t played the piano in over ten years
I was a gamer but my last console was the first Xbox
I was a sound editor but the last big project I worked on was season 7 of Curb Your Enthusiasm
Identities expire unless you do something about it, but it’s fine if you don’t.
Expired identities have opened up new interests and opportunities for me.
I am a software engineer
I am a writer
I am a creator
I do need to get back on the keys though!
See you next week.
— Daniel
P.S. We’re using humans instead of biased AI