Wielding writing for high-quality thinking, the importance of urgency, developing domain expertise
by Matthew Roberts, Founder & Investor of Nodes Ventures and Author of Nodes. | Originally published on Nodes.
Guest post by Matthew Roberts, Founder & Investor of Nodes Ventures and Author of Nodes. | Originally published on Nodes.
Better thinking
How to Be (Reasonably) Hard on Yourself (5 minute read)
Achieving perfection in creative work is a constant struggle between self-criticism and satisfaction. The mantra "It's Good, It Can be Better, Eventually it Will Be Good Enough" helps navigate this by acknowledging progress while aspiring for improvement, underscoring the importance of self-critical balance, and recognizing that perfection is an infinite pursuit. Through continuous effort and learning, work evolves—embracing this journey enriches both the creator and their creations.
How to Think in Writing (13 minute read)
Writing is a powerful tool for high-quality thinking that can be wielded to critically examine your current understanding of a topic. By grabbing hold of the amorphous ideas floating in your mind and making them rigid and sharp in writing forces intellectual rigor - a rigor that can’t exist as long as ideas remain untested, unactualized, and unarticulated. The writing process is challenging, daunting, and borderline embarrassing, because it will reveal your ignorance and make you possibly feel vulnerable at times. But by subjecting yourself to the process in as clear and precise a format as Henrik’s, advancements towards a fuller understanding of a topic are possible. Choosing otherwise can result in few, if any, fully formed ideas about anything nontrivial.
The Red Queen Effect (7 minute read)
In a competitive environment, you have to work harder just to stay in the same relative position. This is particularly true when new innovation sparks a drastic change in the environment–you either adopt it to remain competitive, or don’t, and fall behind. This is the Red Queen Effect. Businesses all over face an immediate choice, to meaningfully adopt AI, or gradually fall behind to the competition.
Operational tactics
Speed Above All Else (3 minute read)
At an invite-only event, startup founder Tanay Tandon shares insights from meeting iconic CEO Frank Slootman, emphasizing "Speed Above All Else" as a core value derived from Slootman's leadership. Tandon debunks the myth that speed sacrifices quality, illustrating with examples from Google Maps, the iPod, and the Empire State Building. Slootman's principles on velocity, urgency, high standards, and the importance of results over comfort further inspire a culture of rapid, rigorous, and focused execution in startups.
Where to get started with GenAI (10 minute read)
This is an essential guide that walks you through GenAI from the ground up. Learn key terminologies, the ins and outs of accessing and utilizing model APIs, and the process of building and refining AI-driven applications. Designed especially for startups, this guide is your companion for getting your bearings on all things GenAI.
The secret isn't in pushing harder, but in attracting self-propelled talent. As companies expand, urgency naturally diminishes. Combat this by prioritizing self-motivated hires - lifelong learners, consistent achievers, and early-stage risk-takers. These individuals not only maintain their pace but elevate the entire team's urgency. You can't instill drive, but you can create an environment where it flourishes.
Angel investing
VC Lessons from Mario Gabriele (3 minute read)
9 lessons learned from Mario, the founder of The Generalist newsletter and Generalist Capital, a $15m early-stage fund, that he learned over the course of the last four years investing in startups.
The Last $250K (2 minute read)
When companies are down to their last $250K in the bank, a pronounced change in behavior and execution becomes visibly apparent. The limited financial runway spurs a level of activity and focus, behaviors exhibited by top performing companies well before they face the existential dread of becoming insolvent in a few quarters. The change forces teams to focus on only what matters most, and things that matter most usually present themselves as obvious during do-or-die times. In the limelight of limited runway, ineffective side projects get shelved and inessential metrics are also thrown out. The last $250K induces a sense of urgency and way of focusing energy on activities that actually move the needle.
The Venture Capital Funnel: A Marathon of Ambition (4 minute read)
, a fellow Nodes member, writes about how successful venture capital investing hinges on reviewing vast numbers of potential investments. Historical figures like Arthur Rock viewed over 9,000 opportunities, while modern firms like A16Z see thousands annually. High-performing VCs assess twice as many opportunities as their peers, emphasizing the crucial role of broad exposure to success. Particularly early-on in your investing journey, you need to see a lot in order to build a sense of “what good looks like”.
Managing your career
Focus on your Strengths (1 minute read)
Double down on what you’re good at, rather than spending all of your energy trying to get better at the things that don’t come naturally to you.
Developing Domain Expertise: Get your Hands Dirty. (6 minute read)
Great leadership requires domain expertise. And great leadership only exists when individuals can combine the abstract mist of grand strategy with the refined nuance of how things truly work. Some useful mechanisms to develop domain expertise include directly using the product, shadowing customer support, reviewing product analytics regularly, and even employing a textbook or course driven approach.
The Gifts of 40 (5 minute read)
Julie Zhuo, former VP of Product Design at Facebook, co-founder of Sundial, and author of ‘The Making of a Manager’, shares cogent learnings she wishes she’d learned earlier from her vault of unintuitive life lessons. This vault doesn’t require a passcode so what’re you waiting for?
Miscellaneous reads
Put Up or Shut Up (15 minute read) | Ed Zitron’s Where’s Your Ed At
The tech industry is experiencing unprecedented cognitive dissonance as companies overhype AI capabilities and make empty promises, while the media fails to critically examine these claims. This hype cycle is enabling AI companies to accumulate power and wealth without delivering tangible results, while ignoring real issues like environmental damage and data theft.
The End of Investors’ GenAI Honeymoon (4 minute read) | Big Technology
Trillion-dollar gamble: Inside the growing doubts about generative AI's return on investment.
How to Hire a CEO (5 minute read) | Khosla Ventures
Successful startup CEOs are often those who can disrupt industries rather than veterans with entrenched methods. The ideal candidate should excel at team building, fundraising, and effective communication across diverse stakeholder groups, while maintaining the agility to pivot strategies as needed.
A Camera, Not an Engine (20 minute read) | Ribbonfarm Studio
AI should be viewed as a camera peering into computational reality, rather than an engine generating artificial intelligence, revealing that intelligence is a latent property of data. This perspective shift suggests a fundamental connection between information, matter, and spacetime, potentially bridging objective and subjective realities and redefining our understanding of intelligence itself.
Big Risks: Catastrophic Risk in Investing and Business (18 minute read) | Musings on Markets
The impact of catastrophic events on business valuations extends far beyond simple insurance considerations, demanding a more sophisticated approach to risk assessment. Aswath Damodaran’s article delves into the psychological factors influencing market reactions and proposes frameworks for valuing businesses under the shadow of potential catastrophes.
Data Industry Primer (16 minute read) | Generative Value
Unraveling the modern data ecosystem: Where do Snowflake, Databricks, and tech giants really fit?
