"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived.

This is to have succeeded.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

back to school again. spent a good amount of time in the morning attempting the arc prize challenge, then proceeded to get overwhelmed by how hard it is to implement a good solution, i always try to optimize for a better one, instead of just shipping out something that works. i always need my first draft to be the best, my mvp to be more than just a barebones naive solution, it has to be good enough. this is blocking me from producing results. i need to build a mindset of results over everything. progress over perfection.

since the practicum list was released, i know what to focus on now. i appreciate having a target to aim at, it helps narrow down the nauseatingly large space of possible projects, rabbit holes, and courses to dive into, it makes opportunity cost easier and simpler to bear, having a clear goal and a deadline helps me plan and achieve. it gives me the energy and excitement to work on things. it helps me tell myself, put these other stuff away for now, heres what you need to focus on for now, just these. now just manage your time and energy, dont mess this up.

AIify at broadway show had good hummus. i like talking to international founders, they have the same excitement and you get to bond over being far away from home, and the love of building what youre excited about. some of the demos were boring, agents for meeting transcription, slack, jira will soon be built in features, RCA for logs isn't relevant for me, premai is surprisingly good, trying to figure out who their competitors are.

i spend most nights just clearing up the 10-50 tabs that i open up everyday because i have way too much input, and too little time to read, and as these pile up in my browser like dust in a house or like cache in a memory, it not only slows down my arc browser, it also clouds my brain.

i have so many project ideas now, and too little time to build, which to focus on, which to save for later.

inspired by Nat Friedman

you can do more than you think. work on things that excite you, it makes it easier to do big things than small things. that energy is a necessary input for progress. where you get your dopamine from determines what you do, focus on getting dopamine from building and improving ideas rather than having them validated. don't just talk about what you want to do. start it. finish it. share it. iterate.

Finish something. Anything. Stop researching, planning, and preparing to do the work and just do the work. It doesn't matter how good or how bad it is. You don't need to set the world on fire with your first try. You just need to prove to yourself that you have what it takes to produce something. There are no artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, or scientists who became great by half-finishing their work. Stop debating what you should make and just make something.