Necessary and sufficient

Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, recently recounted on his blog, the story of his investment in Coinbase.

“I like to tell the story of when I met Brian Armstrong, the founder of our portfolio company Coinbase in the summer of 2012. Paul Graham had asked…

One thing at a time

Seth Godin often talks about the idea of serving one customer at a time. The one customer that is in front of us right now, because they don’t care about the hundred customers that came before them or the ones that will come after. Whether they like your product or your service is solely…

The Pro-Con List

One of the most common ways to approach making a difficult decision is to make up a list of pros and cons that outline what are the good things that can come out of making a decision and what are some adverse consequences.

Time famine

Time famine, a term that first emerged in the scientific literature around 1999, refers to the universal feeling of having too much to do but not enough time to deal with those demands.

When our finances are stretched to the limit, we wouldn’t be willing to spend even a small…

Podcasts

My mix of content consumption used to be short articles (~30%), long articles (~15%), and podcasts (~5%), and books (~50%).

Over the last year or so, it has changed a good deal. It now looks something like short articles (~15%), long articles (~5%), podcasts (~40%), books (~40%).

Introducing: The Chishiki Podcast

For the past few years, I’ve been taking on long-term projects that typically last a year to…

Confabulation

Have you ever seen a painting, a building, a person, etc and thought, “I think that looks great!” or “I don’t like this at all”?

We often form opinions on the things we see and encounter, without ever understanding why that is. And then make up arguments for why we feel the way…

Questions

When we are stuck, unable to make a decision, going over all the facts again, all the pros and cons, doesn’t change anything. That would be like performing the same task again and expecting a different result.

The minimalist question

“Will I miss it if I don’t have it?”

That’s the minimalist question. You only buy something if the answer to that question is yes.

Of course, you can answer yes with a straight-face even when you ask yourself that question about a…