I think one of the most useful questions a founder can ask is:
What would convince me that I’m wrong?
It’s easy to design experiments that validate your assumptions.
It’s much harder, and often more valuable, to design ones that might invalidate them.
What would convince me that I’m wrong?
It’s easy to design experiments that validate your assumptions.
It’s much harder, and often more valuable, to design ones that might invalidate them.
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Founders are often told to hustle, move fast, and do the work.
But what exactly is the work when you don’t yet know what will succeed?
I think risk is one of the most underappreciated aspects of starting something new, particularly as a solo founder.
Consider how differently a founder and an employee experience the world.
An employee typically has a schedule, reasonably well-defined problems, colleagues to lean on, and a paycheck that reliably arrives at the end of the month.
An early-stage founder might have none of those things.
And that kind of uncertainty does interesting things to human psychology.
At times, it can make you curious, adventurous, and unusually open to experimentation. At others, the very same uncertainty can produce existential dread about the work that lies ahead.
These aren’t contradictory responses. They’re two sides of the same experience.
I’ve come to think that one of the first risks a founder needs to learn to manage is their own psychology.
Uncertainty doesn’t just affect how you feel about your work. It can change how you think about the work itself.
You might pursue an idea because you’re excited about its possibilities, overlooking evidence that it isn’t working.
Or you might abandon a promising idea because the uncertainty becomes uncomfortable, rather than because the evidence tells you to.
Neither curiosity nor fear is a substitute for judgment.
There’s plenty of conventional advice about maintaining good habits: exercise, eat well, get some sunlight, maintain a social life, and sleep regularly.
All good advice.
But these habits help maintain your capacity to deal with uncertainty. They don’t eliminate the uncertainty itself.
And perhaps that’s an important distinction.
A founder needs to learn not only how to tolerate uncertainty, but also how to reason about it without allowing their emotional responses to dictate their decisions.
Some risks can be eliminated. Others can be reduced through experimentation. Some simply have to be accepted.
Learning to distinguish between them is difficult enough without confusing your own discomfort with evidence that something is wrong.
Perhaps that’s one of the harder parts of entrepreneurship: preserving the curiosity that brought you into it while developing the discipline to reason clearly about uncertainty.
How do you remain adventurous without becoming reckless? How do you acknowledge risk without allowing it to consume your attention?
These are questions I’ve spent some time thinking about, and I intend to explore them further in subsequent posts, sharing observations and ideas as I go.
But what exactly is the work when you don’t yet know what will succeed?
I think risk is one of the most underappreciated aspects of starting something new, particularly as a solo founder.
Consider how differently a founder and an employee experience the world.
An employee typically has a schedule, reasonably well-defined problems, colleagues to lean on, and a paycheck that reliably arrives at the end of the month.
An early-stage founder might have none of those things.
And that kind of uncertainty does interesting things to human psychology.
At times, it can make you curious, adventurous, and unusually open to experimentation. At others, the very same uncertainty can produce existential dread about the work that lies ahead.
These aren’t contradictory responses. They’re two sides of the same experience.
I’ve come to think that one of the first risks a founder needs to learn to manage is their own psychology.
Uncertainty doesn’t just affect how you feel about your work. It can change how you think about the work itself.
You might pursue an idea because you’re excited about its possibilities, overlooking evidence that it isn’t working.
Or you might abandon a promising idea because the uncertainty becomes uncomfortable, rather than because the evidence tells you to.
Neither curiosity nor fear is a substitute for judgment.
There’s plenty of conventional advice about maintaining good habits: exercise, eat well, get some sunlight, maintain a social life, and sleep regularly.
All good advice.
But these habits help maintain your capacity to deal with uncertainty. They don’t eliminate the uncertainty itself.
And perhaps that’s an important distinction.
A founder needs to learn not only how to tolerate uncertainty, but also how to reason about it without allowing their emotional responses to dictate their decisions.
Some risks can be eliminated. Others can be reduced through experimentation. Some simply have to be accepted.
Learning to distinguish between them is difficult enough without confusing your own discomfort with evidence that something is wrong.
Perhaps that’s one of the harder parts of entrepreneurship: preserving the curiosity that brought you into it while developing the discipline to reason clearly about uncertainty.
How do you remain adventurous without becoming reckless? How do you acknowledge risk without allowing it to consume your attention?
These are questions I’ve spent some time thinking about, and I intend to explore them further in subsequent posts, sharing observations and ideas as I go.
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The recent PHP vulnerabilities made me reflect on the state of some open source projects that power the internet
Open source gives everyone the opportunity to scrutinize the code
But I’ve seen projects so poorly written and tested that scrutiny alone is nowhere near sufficient
Open source gives everyone the opportunity to scrutinize the code
But I’ve seen projects so poorly written and tested that scrutiny alone is nowhere near sufficient
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I’ve seen a few folks argue that specs and E2E tests are all you need in the age of AI. They call it spec-driven development
I’m finding fast unit tests incredibly valuable
Getting feedback in a few seconds that your latest change works is hard to beat
I’m finding fast unit tests incredibly valuable
Getting feedback in a few seconds that your latest change works is hard to beat
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I think a lot of founders underestimate how much they can build before they need to hire anyone
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Something I enjoy about building independently is being able to follow my curiosity
I can spend an entire day exploring a problem that wasn’t on my agenda when I woke up
I can spend an entire day exploring a problem that wasn’t on my agenda when I woke up
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The more software I build, the more I appreciate code that’s easy to throw away
Being able to replace an implementation without disturbing the rest of the system is enormously valuable
Being able to replace an implementation without disturbing the rest of the system is enormously valuable
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A lot of folks think of AI as a replacement for software engineers
I think it’s a multiplier for the really good ones
I think it’s a multiplier for the really good ones
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I find that AI makes experimentation considerably cheaper
Ideas that I would have previously put aside because they weren’t worth the implementation effort are now things I can try in an afternoon
Ideas that I would have previously put aside because they weren’t worth the implementation effort are now things I can try in an afternoon
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One of the things I like the most about building solo is the raw efficiency
I can get a lot done in a day without the usual distractions
I can get a lot done in a day without the usual distractions
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A few years ago I would have thought a 100k loc product was a stretch for a solo founder
Now I do not
Now I do not
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I have seen a few folks diss PHP after the latest RCE vulnerabilities. Why is PHP hated so much?
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I am finding the GitHub mobile app very useful for reviewing patches on the go. Could definitely use a bigger screen though
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I remember saying I am yet to see an impressive AI patch. I have seen a couple very good ones today. I love being proven wrong in that regard
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I am pretty impressed with latest AI patches I am seeing
Adding very detailed docs and reusing existing chat sessions instead of starting new ones seem to do the trick for me
Not even sure I am using the most advanced models and don’t feel tempted to experiment more
Adding very detailed docs and reusing existing chat sessions instead of starting new ones seem to do the trick for me
Not even sure I am using the most advanced models and don’t feel tempted to experiment more
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GitHub stats show that I gave AI 57 comments and reviewed 10 patches and 28 versions. That is a lot of work lol
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