Let Go and Haul: are you a reader, a listener or a writer?
Week 2, 2018 – Brooklyn
Journey: where we’re at
build build build, hire hire hire, build build build.
That is basically our life everyday, all day, nonstop. I’m really ready to hand off design work to someone else now!!! It’s way too much to support that too. While my decision to push out that hire was very meaningful to our burn, I wish I’d started that search just a bit sooner now. Aieeee! tl;dr interviewing a lot of product designers right now.
Our current open roles are: product designer, iOS engineer, music business intern (spring semester)
I’m feeling very grateful for my network of friends and our collective network of friends at TRASH. The beginning of 2019 has already sparked some serendipitous professional relationships via my friend network, and I’m feeling very happy and proud of the fact I have that in NYC now. I really had to work at it the first three years, and now I feel very supported by all the wonderful people I know here.
On that note, I’m going to be in SF Thu 1/24 and Fri 1/25 (to give a talk at the Internet Archive), and possibly LA Sat 1/26. I’m finalizing my meeting schedule this week, so if you’ve been wanting to chat or make an introduction hit reply :)
Journal: what I learned
I was winding down from the week with my friend Summer on Friday night and was telling her about my painful week-long tension headache. WEEK LONG people. WORST. She suggested I put this story in my email. Is this Content? idk, but she thought it was funny so here’s some of the unglamorous side of being a founder: Like many, I grind my teeth at night when I’m stressed. During our last fundraising round (spring) I completely chewed through my nightguard. Yep. I tried to get another one made, but unfortunately the one I have (the only one that works) is some kind of exotic shit in the US and my dentist (this was back when I still had dental) told me it would be like $650 to get a new one. WHAT. Meanwhile this thing is like £80 at my dentist in London. Hoping maybe they could mail me a new one I gave them a call over the summer, but unfortunately they purge the molds every year (damn). At that point I was like it’s probably the same price (or cheaper) to just go to London for the weekend and get a new mouthguard? And I would be in London? However, at the time international travel was out of the question. Now that I’m green, I’m seriously weighing up the merits of this vaguely delirious plan as I have zero free time and in the meantime trying to meditate on a calm mouth lol. It’s been kind of a super annoying thing on and off since the summer. Like I said, not sure if this is content.
In more serious content, I found myself flipping through one of my favorite little volumes yesterday eve, Drucker’s ‘Managing Oneself’ and being reminded of his classic wisdom on:
Knowing how you perform: are you a reader or a listener?
Knowing how you learn: are you a reader, a listener, or a writer?
I was in a meeting earlier this week where I insisted to the people I was with that I write down a spec on what we were talking about because I wouldn’t be able to remember it. It was in this moment I realized how badly I need to write things down to remember, but I also need to write down things to learn. I’m a copious note-taker and list maker. I can’t do creative work without a pen in my hand to think with. Lots of times, I don’t even look at the notes again but if I write it goes into my memory. If I just listen there’s a chance I’ll forget. When it comes to learning, I’m 100% a writer. When it comes to how I perform, I’m a pretty decent reader, but I’m a much better listener – my best mode of performance is speaking. In fact, usually my best ideas happen in conversation. For this reason, I love workshopping product invention with others, I like alone time for pure execution, and I need to write down things to learn them. If I’ve ever lent you a book, you know it’s marked up to hell in the margins.
Drucker tells a great story about how Lyndon Johnson didn’t know he performed as a listener not a reader – and how he suffered in his career because of it. The book if half-pages of some of the best advice on simply existing at as a human and at work.
Jams: what I’m into
This extremely cool video about using AI to suggest the next phrase of choreography for dancers! It’s rare I see applications of AI that are creative and not like aieeee wait also are we sure we want this in the world oh whatever I guess this is happening anyway… This is a nice example of practical machine assisted creativity, and not far off from what we’re attempting in video conceptually.
This new Kehlani f. Ty Dolla $ign that has kind of an annoyingly satisfying hook. Those repeating ascending minor thirds after “oh some nights like this…” would be so obvious in another song but somehow in this one I’m here for it.