We (humans) read hundreds of articles on company building, angel investing, and self-management and curate the best ones into a weekly summary—helping founders and operators stay on the top of their game.
Better thinking
Internet brain is real (2 minute read)
Research shows average attention spans have dropped to 47 seconds due to “Internet Brain” - our phones work like slot machines with intermittent rewards that fracture focus. Willpower won’t work, you need to physically separate yourself. Putting phones in other rooms entirely, charging them outside bedrooms, and taking regular digital sabbaths to protect your most human capacity.
Tiny experiments (5 minute read)
A guide to making life changes without the overwhelm of major overhauls. Tiny experiments use the format “I will [action] for [duration]” to test small possibilities. The approach turns change into play rather than pressure, and makes change feel less disruptive. Five simple methods outlined here help you spot experiment ideas hiding in your daily routines and fixed beliefs.
Computers of the future (11 minute read)
A look at why computers generate heat and the overlooked solution of reversible computing. Today’s chips waste massive energy by erasing information during calculations. Reversible computing preserves data throughout processing and could theoretically eliminate energy waste. This forgotten approach might solve AI’s exploding power demands.
Operational tactics
Qual vs quant customer discovery (1 minute read)
Looking at the data can help you make decisions now. Speaking with lots of customers (and we mean a lot) refines your intuition and builds your gut instincts. It just takes a lot longer.
How to identify your ICP (17 minute read)
Successful founders from Okta, Vanta, and Clay reveal how they found their ideal customers after initially trying to serve everyone. The counterintuitive breakthrough was getting uncomfortably specific about their target market - so narrow that friends thought they were crazy. Your first ICP hypothesis will inevitably be wrong, but starting narrow allows for faster iteration than serving everyone poorly.
How to provide feedback on documents (2 minute read)
Most people need to read this one. At Carta, teams avoided sharing documents widely because processing feedback was too time-consuming. That’s a state of failure, people just need to get better at giving feedback in docs. Here’s a framework. Optimise for helping the author (not your goals), skim first for structure, then go back and add comments with specific details about what, why, and importance level. If the doc is way off, grab time.
Refer and we’ll send you our favorite books as a “thank you” for spreading the word.
Angel investing
Clarity of thought (12 minute read)
An investor who’s met with nearly 3,000 founders over 11 years shares what separates the best from the rest. Top founders aren’t necessarily fortune tellers, they simply explain their vision with incredible precision around problems that don’t even exist yet. They have clarity of thought, and they can articulate it well. That clarity becomes their superpower for attracting everyone they need.
Convincing investors (1 minute read)
Perhaps the best distillation of raising capital I’ve seen in a while. Most investors believe/don’t believe in a category before you’ve even met them. You can’t convince them to believe when they don’t, so don’t try. You just need to find the existing believers and convince them that you’re the right team.
Marc Andreessen on going broad vs deep (2 minute watch)
Interesting argument - AI can go deep, so you should go broad. Be reasonably good at 6-8 domains, and utilise AI to inflect depth when needed. The best founders, he argues, will be able to context switch and deploy reasonable knowledge across multiple domains, and then successfully use AI when they need to go deeper.
Managing your career
From software engineer to AI engineer (60 minute listen)
From Coda to OpenAI. How Janvi Kalra taught herself AI engineering, impressed tech leaders, and built a career at the forefront of AI — plus actionable advice for landing your own role.
The trap of simple updates (8 minute read)
A guide on writing workplace updates. Most people focus on operational details instead of what their audience cares about. They also use incomplete thoughts and vague language that creates confusion. Good updates tell stories about impact and future implications using precise, complete sentences. Being able to write short (but impactful) updates on your work greatly impacts your career trajectory.
15 productivity tips for engineers (11 minute read)
Been a while since I’ve seen some good o’le productivity hacks. Busy does not equal productive. Protect your time, bring intentionality to it. These 15 tips aren’t exclusive to engineers at all.