Blog
Don't Part-Time Your Dreams
It's too hard to work at a big company and build a startup on nights and weekends. I built a lot of projects part-time. My brother would help me. After our day jobs ended, we worked on the things that mattered most to us—trying desperately to get traction with
Put the world in zugzwang
In 2008 I worked in a restaurant as a waiter. I had been in the restaurant business since at least 14 years old. By the age of 23, in 2008, I worked at Enzos Restaurant, one of the best authentic Italian restaurants in The Bronx at the time. I was
The meaning of your life?
I wasn't paying much attention to the existential question, chances are, neither are you. But half a year of creating forced me to stop wasting my attention and instead focus it on what's truly important to me. It turns out watching lots of Netflix, playing video games, scrolling away meaninglessly
How to get the Results
If I could tell you one thing that I learned this year, it would be to start. But that wouldn't be enough because I'd also need to tell you to keep going after you start. But you can't worry about that second part if you haven't even started yet, so
How to Stop Pretending
I am not a very good public speaker, but I get better each time I am forced to do it. "Man, Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself." -Miles DavisThe stuttering, shaky voice, the constant "um's," that's not me. If you and
Chess and Stress
Something funny seems to happen to me when I'm stressed; I suck at Chess. My Chess rating for Blitz games drops when I am stressed. Blitz games are Chess games with fast time control. I usually hover between a 1500 to 1600 rating when I am on fire and confident
I took a tumble today.
I took a tumble racing on the beach and I learned something valuable about myself. I'm on vacation, and my younger brother and cousins decided to set up a challenge to see who can run 100 meters fastest. I can't back down from a challenge, even if the challengers are
Leadership Debt
When you ask people to go above and beyond, and they do it, you go into debt. I am talking about those circumstances when you ask people to work hard, really hard. Those happen at Startups, and occasionally they happen at big companies too—those do-or-die moments when everything is
When does good work start to suck?
Good work sucks when things become a constant drill, a constant firefight. It can happen in any knowledge work, even in a role you used to love. Good work almost always goes bad for these reasons: Not enough people.Not enough resources.And because of the silent good work killer,
The number one mistake leaders make.
The biggest mistake a leader can make is to not fight enough for their people. In all of the largest companies, promotion time is a time of in-fighting. It is contentious at Amazon, Facebook, and every highly competitive place. A promotion cycle is when managers literally shout at each other
