Author: Reality Laughs

“So then, what are we really questing for? And here is the answer: It is the fullfillment of what is potential in ourselves, our true selves. It is not an ego trip. You are not your ego. You experience your ego. You are not your thoughts. You experience your thoughts. You are not your feelings. You experience your feelings. And you are not your body. You behold your body. This recognition awakens a heritage within us that exists before all these mythologies, religions and belief systems came into being and into our traditions. It’s an awakening of our own pre-ego, pre-Hindu, pre-Jewish, pre-Buddhist, pre-Muslim, pre-Christian hearts.”

– Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss

Paul Portesi

9 am.

Bingo.

Wish me luck.

Ed.: it worked. Time to do it some more.

“God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver.”

1. Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from “the legal department” or “the safety department.” You need to know the name of the real person who made that requirement. Then you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. Then make the requirements less dumb. 
2. Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn’t delete enough.
3. Simplify and optimize. This should come after step two. common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist.
4. Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I later realized should have been deleted. 
5. Automate. That comes last. The big mistake in Nevada and at Fremont was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out.

Anywhere can be the starting point. Start from wherever you are.

You have plenty of time. What you lack is conviction, creativity, or courage. Conviction: to choose what’s important Creativity: to see more efficient paths Courage: to reject all distractions

“The cave you fear to enter contains the treasure you seek.”

Joseph Campbell

Fear points to the gate in the wall that prevents your journey.

Sent out email. 3,700-ish. midnight Sunday night.

• One failed sale. (Credit card setup failure).
• One “time zone” — would attend but bad time.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t send a weekend mail. I thought it would be good for action first thing Monday morning. No. White collar inboxes are a shitshow on Monday morning.
• I’m confident that the credit card thing works. (Tested it). But maybe let someone else run the platform instead of using my own Stripe account.
• Send a follow-up email in a few days. Try more.

From a comment on HN:, talking about applying to YC:

YC approval process is pretty much this:

– Do I even understand your idea.

– Have you talked to customers.

– Am I impressed in your use of time.

– Do I believe that your team is capable of delivering.

– Is it a good idea.

Most people can’t get past the first two but obsess over the last two.

What is my idea? Exactly? Not handwavy. (I better go write that on the secret site right now).

I have talked to a few customers.

I am not impressed by my own use of time. Buckle up and hit the throttle.

Can I deliver? Yes at small scale. At large scale I don’t know. (See my comment about time).

Is it a good idea? Yes because it builds human capability which can be applied in uncountable ways.

The comment immediately below it summarizes the YC selection philosophy:

This is the process. They want people with high agency, a bias to action, and who make progress in the face of uncertainty.

Or at least some random person’s effort at mind-reading and inference from observation.

Expecting money, ego stroking, passion, All from one activity.