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As side projects go, this one feels special because its about supporting the local arts community.
And now the cat is out of the bag: MaybeItsFate just got referenced in Thesis Driven (the best investor newsletter in the PropCo space). Thank you Brad Hargreaves for digging in.
Reminds me of notes I wrote on a piece of paper when I got serious about starting maybeitsfate.com in 2023, way before I truly appreciated the velocity of AI innovation
Well explained @lessin
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
I think it is deeply concerning that the group of people building the technology that is supposed to reshape humanity don't actually care about what it means to be human.
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
I've read 8,000 Y Combinator applications.
You would think the reviewers are thinking through a standard set of questions.
Is it a good idea?
Is it a large market?
Is it an experienced team?
Do they have traction?
During my time as a reviewer, we went back and tested which questions actually predicted success. The process was look at the best performing companies and then ask whether the application question would disqualify any of the biggest outcomes. If so, eliminate that question.
Is it a good idea? Well, Airbnb was a bad idea. Air bed and breakfast. Nobody thought it would work.
Is it a large market? Airbnb, Coinbase, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia all started in tiny markets.
Experienced team? John and Patrick Collison had no experience in fintech when they built Stripe. Brian Chesky had never built a company. Brian Armstrong was just a product manager.
Do they have traction? We learned to invest in slope, not Y intercept. The initial traction doesn't tell you anything about the angle of ascent.
Sooooooooooooo...none of these standard questions worked.
The best question that predicted success was determination. Who is the most determined?
Even if they're not the smartest. Even if the market hasn't developed yet. Even if their initial product is wrong.
It outpeformed by a mile. And didn't disqualify the winners. AND was evaluatable.
It was so predictive that YC took that one question and found five different ways to ask it.
This essay is about so much more than the movie and the best thing I’ve read in awhile about this moment we’re in collectively.
defector.com/one-battle-afte…
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
Remember, kids, there are only three AI futures: Universal love, everyone dies or +0.3% RGDP growth for 10 years.
Maybe It’s Fate turned 1 year old since the doors opened, and 3 years since ideas formed into the original white paper.
Proud to note the co-op is thriving and the model of a for-profit community-owned creative community space is working!
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
A video essay sharing nine creative lessons from my life and career
1. To me or to the mean
2. You are your audience
3. Small is more meaningful than big
4. Practices and cathedrals
5. Worldbuilding is creative resilience
6. Self-acceptance and the inner ring
7. Breaks spark breakthroughs
8. In groups we become stronger
9. Stars and constellations
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
To a certain extent I feel bad for people like Blake. There are so many Jews here like Brad Lander, more of us than you'll find anywhere else on earth, and we lead good, safe, peaceful lives. We're celebrating right now. We don't spend our days in bunkers. xitter.cf/blakeflayton/status/19…
I get the excitement for being freed from the chains of email, but dunking on a personal “congrats” note to avoid a sincere reply makes me want go hand write a letter.
I did not write a word of this email and it's exactly what I would have written. Thank you Cora.
Onboarding new users at cora.computer/
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
—David Sivers
Curious @benkohlmann and @2112Power about your support for the GOP with news of the GOP abandoning the CHIPS Act? Still all in?
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
3️⃣ The Death of DAOs
The failings of DAOs and how to improve collective decision-making from @connormcmk
coda.io/@connor/the-death-of…
There aren't many headlines that have me respond with an out loud "f'ck yeah" but this one did. And oh yeah, f'ck you Adobe and your dark patterns @scottbelsky
theverge.com/2024/6/17/24180…
Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
The thing people don’t understand when kvetching about how NYC isn’t ready for congestion pricing because our system is worse than London is that the London system only became this good because of congestion pricing
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Charley Miller ✌️ retweeted
“It actually turned out to be really good that we were so unpopular in the very beginning because I had the opportunity to meet every one of our early customers. I actually think it made us a better company."
Airbnb founder Brian Chesky on “living your product” and why slow growth can be invaluable
“When you’re starting a company, it never goes at the pace you want… You start it and you imagine everything’s going to be linear… and you think everyone’s going to care. And no one cares. Our first hundred users, I was related to. Or Joe [Gebbia] was related to.”
However, as Brian explains, this slow growth in the beginning made Airbnb a better company:
“It actually turned out to be really good that we were so unpopular in the very beginning because I had the opportunity to meet every one of our early customers. I actually think it made us a better company. If we took off in the early days, I would have never known all of them.”
LinkedIn cofounder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman adds that Brian’s obsessive focus on the customer was one of the core reasons he invested in Airbnb.
Brian recounts how he actually lived on Airbnb in San Francisco for almost a year—staying at a different house every 3-5 nights:
“I learned all the issues about our website… Your customers aren’t going to email you the things that are truly important. You almost have to be with them and get that really subtle signal. It’s all about living your product. If you work at Facebook, it’s pretty easy to use your product every day. If you are using a site that allows you to go somewhere else in the world, you’ve got to be creative.”
Video Source: @cwclub