these questions are interesting because they can also be prototyped:
- re: solo cabin - find 3-5 friends and spend 1 weekend, 1 week, or whatever time you have away with the intention of learning + building something (#3)
- re: social media - cal newports 30 day cleanse does wonders for washing away mimetic pushes
- re: building - jump in to a local hackathon or communities like buildspace to kickstart that
After major external experiences (hackathon, ari-global climate tech cohort) or internal experience (accomplishing a goal you'd had on your list for 2-3 months), I'd recommend spending at two days or 8-10 hours reflecting on the experience you had. Understand what you enjoyed the most, what didn't you enjoy, what surprised you about yourself or the experience, etc.
I began deeper reflection, like the method I'm proposing, in 2021, during my Innovate year of TKS. They helped me realize what parts of the project I enjoyed the most, how important specific problems were to me, and over time led to me working on projects that had the "perfect" characteristics because I'd spent months figuring out what these characteristics were, by reflecting.
great perspective. reflection 🔑 for finding what resonates with you. do you have one of your post mortem reflections from a hack you could share here think would be relevant for people just starting off?
“Finding your purpose is like finding your best friend” 🔑
Important here, I think, is not being desperate. If you’re desperate, more people will “fit your bff standard” -- enjoy the ride. Keep the bar high. If you’re desperate, you will accept something rather than something great.
from sigil, building @ airchat - "I find curiosity without the sense of needing to create something grand does better for myself. I dont think anyone can answer do you want to solve this problem for the next 10 years?"
^ good point. agreed, that question is not meant to answer on the spot. it's a guide for purpose to answer over time (2-3 years of exploring)
for this person, they want to build something of their own, and have a bias towards a startup. so that's general advice for building a startup, because it should be a problem space or technical space you want to commit to, as it takes 10 years for most startups to be successful
A few more qs:
- What would my ideal solo cabin for 1 month in the woods look like?
- If social media didn’t exist what would I pursue?
- What do I want to build?
these questions are interesting because they can also be prototyped:
- re: solo cabin - find 3-5 friends and spend 1 weekend, 1 week, or whatever time you have away with the intention of learning + building something (#3)
- re: social media - cal newports 30 day cleanse does wonders for washing away mimetic pushes
- re: building - jump in to a local hackathon or communities like buildspace to kickstart that
PG has an essay called "The Island Test"[1] which provides some insight into Izzy's first question.
[1] - http://www.paulgraham.com/island.html
After major external experiences (hackathon, ari-global climate tech cohort) or internal experience (accomplishing a goal you'd had on your list for 2-3 months), I'd recommend spending at two days or 8-10 hours reflecting on the experience you had. Understand what you enjoyed the most, what didn't you enjoy, what surprised you about yourself or the experience, etc.
I began deeper reflection, like the method I'm proposing, in 2021, during my Innovate year of TKS. They helped me realize what parts of the project I enjoyed the most, how important specific problems were to me, and over time led to me working on projects that had the "perfect" characteristics because I'd spent months figuring out what these characteristics were, by reflecting.
great perspective. reflection 🔑 for finding what resonates with you. do you have one of your post mortem reflections from a hack you could share here think would be relevant for people just starting off?
First hack reflection (2021): https://zaynpatel.medium.com/reflecting-on-my-second-hackathon-in-5-months-the-importance-of-building-self-understanding-14c7091f142f
First tks challenge reflection (2021): https://zaynpatel.medium.com/reflecting-on-the-biggest-project-ive-ever-worked-on-consulting-for-the-united-nations-af082778a111
First developer culture reflection (2023): https://zaynpatel.medium.com/how-osstp-built-an-effective-developer-team-6b9b4318ad63
thanks for sharing these!
“Finding your purpose is like finding your best friend” 🔑
Important here, I think, is not being desperate. If you’re desperate, more people will “fit your bff standard” -- enjoy the ride. Keep the bar high. If you’re desperate, you will accept something rather than something great.
from sigil, building @ airchat - "I find curiosity without the sense of needing to create something grand does better for myself. I dont think anyone can answer do you want to solve this problem for the next 10 years?"
^ good point. agreed, that question is not meant to answer on the spot. it's a guide for purpose to answer over time (2-3 years of exploring)
for this person, they want to build something of their own, and have a bias towards a startup. so that's general advice for building a startup, because it should be a problem space or technical space you want to commit to, as it takes 10 years for most startups to be successful