I’m a builder of things—mostly tech things. Building is what I do.

Building encapsulates the entirety of the process. Having the idea, intuiting and testing the thesis, determining the economics, arranging the workflows, designing the user experience, developing and shipping the product, explaining it an audience, listening to the audience, having the next idea… and repeating the steps for that next idea.

When you build something, you take on the responsibility of getting the building of that thing right. Being “right” is elusive. Mostly, we’re not right, and if we are, it’s temporary. But the process of seeking being “right” is what drives us. It’s what drives me.

Building for yourself is a great strategy—you know the problem and the pain points well. The question then becomes “how many people think like me, see the world like me and experience this problem like me? How else might they choose to solve the same problem?

Building for someone else is harder. You have to almost become that person mentally. Do their job, think how they think, see the world the way they see the world. The great ones can do this. I am sometimes great, but only sometimes.

Done is never done. Perfect never is. Progress actually is. Seek progress, not perfection.

Taste, judgement, and taking that extra bit of time to care about the user more than the guy at the next company does is what separates a good product from a great one. But as before, progress, not perfection.

An oft-told anecdote that is 100% true: an “ok” product with great distribution will defeat a superior product with bad distribution.

Building something that matters is largely a game of perception. It “matters” if enough people talk about it, if enough customers buy it, and if that thing not existing causes a segment of people pain.

The best design is not when there is nothing left to add, it’s when there’s nothing left to take away. Attributed to Steve Jobs, Dieter Rams, and others.

Great products often come from taking an existing process and cutting out 90% of the steps it currently takes to do that process. This is the 10x improvement. Even a 3x improvement is often enough to start a business, but to build a monopoly, you need 10-100x, and great distribtion too.

Building for simplicity is hard. By knowing the problem well, you know the process. By knowing the process, you become an expert. By being an expert, you lose sight of how a non-expert sees the world. An expert that knows the process wants to explain the process for a non expert, just as it was explained to him. A non-expert wants there to not be a process at all, and just get to the result. The expert explains how the mouse trap works. The non-expert only cares that there are no mice.