Make Yourself an API
Those that find an advantage press on it hard and scale to serve huge audiences — those that don't, fight for nonspecific scraps. Since this trend isn't reversing any time soon, I'd like to offer a frame for thinking about how to maintain autonomy, while capturing the upside on offer.
As a software developer, I’ve built many APIs over the years and interacted with dozens. The best ones have clear documentation and rules of engagement.
They also have a clear reason for existing.
Why does your newsletter exist?
Why should I subscribe?
What do I get?
The answers to these questions should be clear.
How To Do Hard Things
Much of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) is about helping us change how our thoughts and feelings influence our behavior. At a high-level, ACT (pronounced "act" not "A-C-T") looks at how our thoughts influence our behavior, and offers tools for debugging when our minds get us stuck.
We all could use tools and techniques to help us deal with the valleys in our lives. Seasons of stress, anxiety, uncertainty, fear, doubt.
The ACT Framework has helped Casey approach entrepreneurship in a way that is “life-giving” and not “soul-sucking”.
ACT teaches us how to stay oriented toward what we care about even in the face of negative thoughts and feelings—because those are a normal part of life.
One of the primary reasons we lose sight of what’s important in life is that we spend too much time focusing on how to avoid thoughts and feelings that are difficult.
How to Think Better: The Skill You've Never Been Taught
No skill is more valuable and harder to come by than the ability to critically think through problems. If you can think through things better than others, you’ll have fewer problems and more free time. If you can’t, you’re going to spend a lot of time fixing your mistakes.
Good decisions make the future easier, bad ones make it harder.
Bad decisions accumulate one by one and can’t be seen until they’re costly to undo.
Bad decisions are so devastating because they rob your future of time. The best decisions put you on the path towards owning more of this valuable asset. For example, spending time now to figure out a strategy for generating passive income that will help you rip the bond between time and money.
Good thinking is expensive. Bad thinking costs a fortune. Rather than accept that good thinking requires time, most people try to bargain with reality. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. If you want to think better, schedule time to write out your thoughts. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.
Remember, good thinking is expensive because time is our most valuable asset. However, it’s a price you should be willing to pay.
The alternative could cost you everything.
Writing is the best tool we have to improve our thinking.
When I speak about something I’m learning for the first time, if I haven’t written about it yet, it’s much more difficult for me to explain. My brain struggles to find the words to describe what I “thought” I knew.
Atomic Thoughts
“Random information allows you to grow. An algorithm wants to keep you where you are.”
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“I'm tired of our tech overlords trying to force-feed me my future.”
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“Acquire skills that are both rare but also reinforce things that you're already exceptional at.”
Notes
Fin
Finish what you start.
For the next month, whatever project, article, essay, you start to work on, don’t stop until you share it with the world. Resist the urge to pick up something else that captures your attention. Whatever that new shiny thing is, just bookmark it for later.
Thanks for your time. See you tomorrow.
— DKH