Thinking like a gardener, slime mold, the adjacent possible: Product advice from Alex Komoroske

Introduction to Alex (0s)

• The traditional "Builder mindset" is a common approach to tackling problems and building products, where one creates a plan and manipulates things to match it, but this approach has limitations and can't create more value than the effort put into it (8s).
• A different mindset is needed, one that involves "gardening" - finding things that can grow on their own and directing or curating them with a little extra energy, which can lead to powerful results (15s).
• This approach is considered unconventional in the product development world, but it can be effective in various contexts (30s).
• Alex Komoroske is a guest who is known for his original and articulate thinking on the future of product and tech (42s).
• Alex has a diverse background, having spent 13 years at Google, working on search, DoubleClick, and leading Chrome's open web platform team, as well as stints at Stripe and his current startup that aims to reimagine the web for the AI era (52s).
• The conversation with Alex covers topics such as the impact of LLMs and Geni on product development, the skills that will matter most as AI becomes more prevalent, and what companies can learn from slime mold and the concept of the "adjacent possible" (1m13s).
• The discussion also touches on the importance of thinking like a gardener rather than a builder, as well as productivity tips, life advice, and more (1m28s).

Alex’s Bits and Bobs document (1m53s)

• Alex Komoroske has a document called "Bits and Bobs" that is a collection of his notes and ideas, currently around 600 pages long, which he updates almost daily and reflects on once a week to find patterns and meaning (2m25s).
• The document is a Google Doc that has become so large that it takes a long time to load, and sometimes people accidentally add suggestions or comments while waiting for it to load (2m29s).
• Komoroske takes notes during meetings and writes down ideas that he finds interesting, which he later reflects on to find patterns and meaning (2m42s).
• He started sharing "Bits and Bobs" publicly, but it's primarily for his own self-reflection and not designed to be easily readable or compelling for others (3m33s).
• Komoroske intentionally makes the document a bit illegible and uses terminology that may be unfamiliar to readers, allowing them to work with the content and decide whether it's worth their time (3m43s).
• The document is a collection of unspooled insights, and it's okay if readers don't want to dive into it (4m2s).
• The episode is sponsored by EPO, a next-generation A/B testing and feature management platform, and Vanta, a trust management platform that helps companies automate compliance and security practices .

The Compendium and note-taking process (6m20s)

• A personal note-taking system called the Compendium is used to store and organize notes, with 17,248 unpublished working notes currently in the system (6m24s).
• The process involves taking quick notes during meetings, processing and adding context to them every day or two, and using embeddings to find similar ideas from the past (6m43s).
• On Friday afternoons, the notes from the week are reviewed, and the ones that still resonate are exported to a Google Doc for further distillation over the weekend (7m5s).
• The distilled notes are then published on Monday mornings, creating a system that fosters deep thinking and reflection (7m24s).
• The practice of taking time to reflect and write down ideas is crucial for deep thinking, as it allows for the crystallization of thoughts and the identification of interesting insights (7m47s).
• Creating space for reflection is essential, as it enables the exploration of ideas and the discovery of new connections (8m7s).
• The importance of making time for reflection and deep thinking is emphasized, as it can lead to increased productivity and effectiveness (9m51s).
• Working from home on Fridays was a deliberate choice to allow for focused time to read documents, reflect, and think about the week's events (8m21s).
• This dedicated time enables the identification of patterns and the creation of documents that can save time and effort in the future (8m50s).
• The process of reflection and documentation can also lead to the discovery of new ideas and perspectives, such as finding a different approach to a problem (9m25s).

The impact of AI and LLMs on product development (10m10s)

• The impact of AI and LLMs on product development is expected to be significant, with LLMs being a disruptive technology that changes many assumptions about software development (10m25s).
• LLMs are considered "magical duct tape" that operates between humans and old computing, allowing for the creation of "good enough" software at a lower cost (11m11s).
• The cost structure of software development is being undermined by LLMs, making it cheaper to write software, but also making some software more expensive to run due to high inference costs (11m18s).
• This shift makes it challenging for consumer startups to rely on advertising as a revenue model, as the cost of inference cannot be cleared by advertising revenue (11m50s).
• The industry's reliance on mature playbooks from the last tech era is no longer effective, and new approaches are needed to adapt to the changes brought by LLMs (11m2s).
• The dynamics of product development are changing, with LLMs allowing for faster prototyping and development, but also introducing new challenges, such as the need to design for "squishy" and not fully accurate systems (12m43s).
• Many people are using LLMs as oracles, expecting them to provide fully-fledged answers, but this approach is not always effective, and a more nuanced understanding of LLMs' capabilities is needed (13m51s).
• Instead of relying on LLMs to solve all problems, product developers should assume that they have access to "magical duct tape" and focus on building new products and experiences that take advantage of this technology (14m8s).

Skills to lean into as a product manager (14m24s)

• The current stage of technology is in the "community gardening phase" rather than the "factory farming phase," requiring product builders to have curiosity and playfulness when trying out different things and exploring what is possible (14m50s).
• The ability to think creatively and come up with unique, provocative, and generative ideas will be valuable in finding interesting patterns and solutions (15m23s).
• The existing playbook for product development is no longer applicable, and product builders should be willing to ignore or throw it out and navigate through a new industry (15m36s).
• Vertical SaaS is not the right model for attacking AI-native style problems, and product builders should be adaptable and assume that tactics may not work as expected (16m3s).
• The cost of distribution and production of information has decreased, resulting in a cacophony of information, and product builders should focus on standing out by having good taste and a unique perspective (16m42s).
• Having good taste means having a perspective that is different from the background noise and the average, and product builders should focus on finding and leaning into their own unique taste (16m46s).
• To develop one's taste, product builders should differentiate themselves from what a large language model (LLM) would write, and focus on being distinctive and having something unique to say (17m10s).
• In the new world of product development, product builders should focus on becoming the best version of themselves and leaning into their unique strengths and perspectives (17m28s).
• To differentiate oneself, it's essential to lean into unique perspectives and ideas that resonate with others, as good taste is both individual and compelling to others (17m33s).
• Web Sim is an example of a disruptive and innovative tool that uses AI to generate websites based on a given URL, creating a coherent world that can be steered and explored (17m52s).
• Dylan Field, the founder of Figma, identified Web Sim as the number one thing people will get excited about in the future, showcasing its potential for creativity and innovation (17m58s).
• Web Sim allows users to generate specific content, such as games, by using context from previous pages and can be steered to create unique experiences (18m30s).
• The tool's ability to create a coherent world makes it fascinating to explore, with many users discovering wacky techniques to generate content, such as games for kids (18m37s).
• Disruptive and innovative tools like Web Sim, which may seem alien and weird at first, are worth paying attention to, as they offer new possibilities and opportunities for growth (18m52s).
• Instead of taking an existing playbook and adding AI, it's more valuable to focus on tools that offer new and unique experiences, like Web Sim (18m57s).

How AI makes us better as individuals (19m2s)

• Most tools adopted in the workplace are collaborative, helping teams work better together, whereas AI makes individuals better, often in ways they might not want to share with their managers (19m8s).
• AI can be seen as "magical duct tape" that is hard to scale and make repeatable, but it can add significant value when used individually, often below the level of awareness of the organization (19m57s).
• The value created by AI might not be immediately visible, as it often happens in the "long tail of usage," but it can be used heavily in various projects and contexts (20m27s).
• AI tools like Claude can be used to think through problems, generate ideas, and explore different perspectives, making them a valuable asset in day-to-day work (21m1s).
• Using AI tools can be compared to having a conversation with a well-read but slightly naive friend who is willing to engage in any topic without making the user feel dumb (21m39s).
• AI tools can help users explore problem domains and generate ideas, which can then be checked with experts to ensure coherence and validity (22m7s).
• The use of AI tools can be seen as having an "electric bike for idea spaces," allowing users to cover more ground and explore ideas more quickly (22m19s).
• This metaphor builds on Steve Jobs' idea that computers are "bicycles for the mind," highlighting the potential of AI tools to enhance human cognition and creativity (22m28s).
• The role of AI tools is to help users generate and explore ideas, making them a valuable asset for individuals who want to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions (22m53s).

Organizational kayfabe (23m4s)

• The concept of organizational kayfabe is discussed, which refers to a situation where everyone in an organization knows something is fake, but they all act like it's real, similar to professional wrestling. (24m30s)
• Kayfabe can be optimism and enthusiasm, which is valuable for organizations to believe in their goals and attempt to achieve them, but it can also lead to problems when it's used to hide the truth. (24m50s)
• In larger organizations, kayfabe can lead to a situation where employees are reluctant to report the true status of a project, fearing that it will lead to unnecessary reviews and interventions, so they may report a more positive status than the reality. (25m23s)
• This behavior is self-defensive and may be beneficial for the organization in the short term, but it can also lead to a lack of transparency and accountability. (25m47s)
• The concept of kayfabe is not unique to organizations, but it's a common phenomenon that can be observed in many areas of life, and understanding it can help individuals and organizations make better decisions. (24m35s)
• The idea of kayfabe is related to the concept of the "adjacent possible," which refers to the idea that there are many possible solutions to a problem, but only some of them are feasible or desirable. [Not explicitly mentioned in this part of the text, but mentioned in the title]
• The concept of slime mold is also mentioned, which is a type of organism that can solve complex problems through simple interactions, and it's used as a metaphor for how organizations can work together to achieve their goals. (23m58s)
• In organizations, a "kayfabe" can form, where everyone pretends to believe something is true, even if it's not, and this can lead to bad decisions being made (26m2s).
• When someone tries to point out the truth, they may be met with resistance, and a senior person may ask them to keep quiet and just help fix the problem, rather than revealing the ground truth (26m34s).
• This can lead to a situation where the organization becomes a "zombie" and continues to lumber on, even though everyone knows it's not working, and this can be a kind of death state for large organizations (27m54s).
• To navigate this, it's essential to acknowledge the kayfabe and find ways to allow disconfirming evidence to show up without killing the organization, and one solution is for leaders to ask their reports to share bad news as soon as possible, so they can address it early on (28m34s).
• This approach can help prevent the buildup of problems that can lead to a critical state that could shatter the organization (28m25s).
• The idea of a kayfabe can be seen in many organizations, and it's essential to recognize it and find ways to address it to make good, grounded things happen (28m5s).
• The pressure to maintain the kayfabe can be intense, and individuals may feel like they have to choose between holding on to the truth and being knocked out of the game, or letting go of the truth and maintaining their position (27m38s).
• In some cases, the easiest way to maintain the kayfabe is to just turn off the part of the brain that knows the truth and earnestly believe the kayfabe, even if it's not true (27m42s).
• When individuals are busy, they often don't take a step back to absorb confirming evidence, which can feel like an existential threat, and this can lead to making bad decisions (28m56s).
• Large companies are radically different from smaller companies due to the dynamic of being surrounded by confirming evidence, which can be created without their knowledge, leading to emergent and dysfunctional behaviors (29m13s).
• In any organization, there is an underlying dynamic where employees can't make their boss look dumb, as this can affect their performance evaluation, leading to systemic compounding and dysfunctional emergent behaviors (29m39s).
• It's essential to acknowledge fundamental and inescapable things, such as entropy, which can cause pain and misery when ignored, and instead, find subsets of ideas that work despite these challenges (30m21s).
• A tactic to overcome these challenges is to plant small, cheap seeds of ideas, which may not have a guaranteed outcome but have a low opportunity cost, and enjoy the process of planting them (31m7s).
• This approach involves not trying to analyze which seed will grow into an oak tree beforehand but instead planting many seeds and watering the ones that start growing (31m24s).
• This method may be perceived as unserious or playful, but it's about admitting that one doesn't know the answer and responding to the ideas that work on a systemic basis (31m39s).
• The viability of working methods does not matter if it is not known ahead of time which ones will be successful (31m45s)

Gardening vs. building (31m48s)

• The concept of building versus gardening is a core idea that informs the way one thinks, with the builder mindset involving manipulating things to match a plan, whereas the gardener mindset involves directing or curating things to grow on their own (31m53s).
• The builder mindset can create value, but it is limited to the effort put into it, whereas the gardener mindset can lead to more value being created with less effort (32m12s).
• The gardener mindset involves working with what is already present, leaning into things that are going in a valuable direction, and constantly seeking disconfirming evidence (32m35s).
• This approach can lead to "farming for miracles" and increasing the likelihood of finding something that works in a transformative way (32m51s).
• The gardener mindset is not about knowing which specific thing will work, but rather about creating an ecosystem that can grow and accelerate on its own (32m56s).
• This approach is often contrary to the advice given for building products, but it can be a powerful approach that works in many different contexts (33m16s).
• An example of this approach is creating an open-source project that can attract more developers and users, creating a self-accelerating ecosystem (33m43s).
• This approach is often cheap to implement, and it's fine if the project doesn't work out, but if it does, it can be invested in incrementally (33m55s).
• The key is to look for things that have a network effect or a compounding loop, which can lead to growth and acceleration (34m16s).
• Many things have network effects or compounding loops, and it's a matter of finding the dynamics of a thing that can work at an accelerating rate (34m29s).

Emergence-oriented thinking (34m46s)

• Thinking in an emergence-oriented way, rather than top-down, can be a powerful approach, as it allows for opportunities to arise from the bottom up, rather than being controlled from the top (34m46s).
• However, this approach can be challenging, as it may make one appear less serious or less in control, and it can be difficult to measure the impact of one's work (35m8s).
• When working on a project, it's common to follow a top-down approach, making a plan and executing it, even if the plan doesn't work out, in order to appear productive and serious (35m19s).
• In contrast, designing for emergence can lead to unexpected and innovative results, but these may be attributed to luck rather than the individual's efforts (35m32s).
• The freedom to work in an emergence-oriented way can be powerful, as it allows for high-impact work without the need for measurable individual effort (35m49s).
• To balance this approach with the needs of an organization, it's recommended to allocate 70% of effort to tasks that are widely acknowledged as important and useful, and 30% to more experimental and innovative projects (36m12s).
• This approach allows for minimizing the risk of being seen as unnecessary, while also allowing for the possibility of high-impact innovation (36m25s).
• By giving team members the freedom to work on their own ideas, even if they seem silly or unconventional, they can exercise their agency, learn, and grow, with the potential for unexpected successes (36m50s).
• This approach also allows for the opportunity to plant "seeds" of innovation, which can be nurtured and developed over time (36m52s).
• To help teams grow, it's essential to create a supportive environment where they can thrive without being forced or stopped, similar to how a gardener nurtures plants, allowing them to grow and develop naturally (37m34s).
• A leader's role is to provide "cover fire" for their team, protecting them from external pressures and allowing them to focus on their work, while also building a foundation for future success (37m45s).
• One of the most challenging aspects of growth is protecting the team from external threats, such as criticism or skepticism, and giving them the space and time they need to develop (38m0s).
• To achieve great work, a team needs an extremely high trust environment where individuals can lean into their strengths and work together to create something greater than the sum of its parts (38m30s).
• New ideas are often initially met with resistance, as they may seem unpolished or unrefined, but it's essential to recognize the potential for greatness in every idea and nurture it (38m47s).
• When working with individuals, it's crucial to identify and acknowledge their unique strengths and superpowers, and provide guidance and support to help them develop and grow (39m18s).
• By treating people with respect and assuming they have seeds of greatness within them, leaders can create a positive and supportive environment that fosters growth and development (39m55s).
• Adopting a mindset that treats everyone with respect and dignity, similar to how one would treat the Buddha, can help leaders find and nurture the seeds of greatness in others (40m14s).
• Being compassionate and creating value is a win-win-win situation, where it is the right thing to do as a person and a member of society, and also creates business value and real value in the world (40m30s).
• Koda is an app used for coordinating workflows, such as podcasting and newsletter management, and combines the best of documents, spreadsheets, and apps to help users get more done (40m48s).
• Koda can help teams stay aligned and ship faster by managing the planning cycle in one location, setting and measuring OKRs with full visibility, mapping dependencies, creating progress visualizations, and identifying risk areas (41m10s).
• Koda offers hundreds of pre-built templates for various tasks, including roadmap strategy and decision-making frameworks (41m25s).
• Companies like DoorDash, Figma, and Qualtrics use Koda, and startups can take advantage of a limited-time offer to get six free months of the team plan by signing up at coda.io/Lenny (41m30s).

Slime molds and organizational structure (41m55s)

• Slime molds are used as a metaphor to describe the organizational structure of companies, highlighting the challenges of coordination and decision-making as the organization grows in size (41m55s).
• The core dynamic that makes organizations hard to navigate is the emergent force of coordination, which involves finding a subset of projects that everyone agrees on and commits to, and this coordination cost grows with the square of the number of people involved (42m34s).
• Companies typically try to fight or ignore this coordination cost, but as the organization grows, it becomes more difficult to navigate, much like trying to drive a big rig like a sports car (43m7s).
• To address this challenge, companies can either invest more in program management, processes, and planning, or split into smaller, autonomous teams that can move quickly and make decisions independently (43m40s).
• The downside of the latter approach is that it may appear disorganized to external observers, but it can also lead to greater autonomy and strength at the bottom-up level (44m13s).
• Companies like Apple have chosen to prioritize coherence and unity, while companies like AWS have chosen to prioritize autonomy and diversity, with multiple teams working independently (44m30s).
• Slime molds can be seen as a model for organizations that prioritize autonomy and agency, and embracing this approach can lead to finding creative solutions to problems (44m52s).
• By acknowledging and embracing the slime mold-like nature of their organizations, companies can avoid fighting against their natural tendencies and instead leverage their strengths (45m2s).

Identifying resonant ideas (45m15s)

• The process of identifying resonant ideas involves talking to people from diverse backgrounds and skill sets to discover what resonates with them, with the goal of finding ideas that will be interesting to a wide audience (45m15s).
• The test for a resonant idea is when multiple people from different backgrounds respond positively to it, such as a person in sales and a person in engineering both finding the same idea interesting (45m52s).
• The diversity of people who resonate with an idea is an important factor, as it implies a larger potential audience, and finding ideas that resonate with people from different subgraphs in a social network can indicate a much larger maximum audience (46m24s).
• Once a resonant idea is identified, it's essential to invest more time in it, think about how to frame it, and refine it through conversations with others (46m35s).
• Writing down key formulations and metaphors as they emerge in conversations can help to tighten and refine ideas over time (46m44s).
• The use of metaphors can facilitate connections between different ideas and concepts, and having a large collection of examples and metaphors can be beneficial for this type of thinking (46m57s).

The power of metaphors (47m5s)

• Leaving one connection open in an argument allows the listener to engage and connect the dots themselves, making the message more relatable and less likely to be met with resistance, as it appears to be their own discovery (47m6s).
• Connecting all the dots in an argument can be seen as more confrontational and may be met with resistance, especially if it goes against the official strategy (47m17s).
• Leaving one dot unconnected allows people to make the connection themselves and come to a realization, making the message more impactful and memorable (47m23s).
• To make a metaphor more effective when leaving one dot unconnected, it's essential to make it evocative and interesting, capturing the listener's attention and imagination (47m35s).
• The use of unexpected or unconventional metaphors, such as comparing something positive to something typically seen as negative, like slime, can be particularly effective in grabbing attention and making a lasting impression (47m37s).
• The use of visuals, such as emojis, can also make a message more engaging and memorable, especially when used in a non-traditional way, such as in a presentation deck (47m55s).

Strategy salons and nerd clubs (48m2s)

• Strategy salons, also referred to as "nerd clubs," are a secret group created to facilitate collaborative debate and idea generation, with the goal of strengthening techniques used in open source community organizing (48m24s).
• The concept of strategy salons was discovered many years ago and was initially used to address a complex problem domain at Google, where 12 different groups were working on various aspects of the same problem, but their efforts were undermining each other (48m49s).
• To set up a strategy salon, a secret group is created with explicit norms, including a collaborative debate environment where only positive energy is allowed, and participants are encouraged to engage in a "yes and" approach, where they build upon each other's ideas (49m37s).
• In a strategy salon, participants are free to not engage with ideas they disagree with, and if they choose to engage, they are encouraged to do so in a productive way by saying "I wonder" to make the conversation about themselves, not the other person (49m58s).
• The "yes and" approach may seem non-rigorous, but it allows participants to choose which ideas to build upon, and if multiple people are building on the same idea, it's a sign that there's something interesting and potentially valuable (50m20s).
• New perspectives are introduced gradually, one to three per week, to minimize the chance of disrupting the group's norms and to allow participants to absorb and build upon the new ideas (50m35s).
• To minimize the chance of a single person disrupting a group and to maximize the benefits of diverse perspectives, it's essential to have people with different viewpoints added to the group, a concept that can be referred to as novelty search, as coined by Ken Stanley (51m1s).
• When novelty search is done properly, it can lead to the creation of a group that people find intrinsically valuable and enjoyable to participate in, and can also lead to game-changing insights for the surrounding context (51m10s).
• This type of group can be thought of as an "idea lab," a term used by Tim, where ideas are shared and built upon in a low-stakes environment, leading to amazingly interesting insights (51m30s).
• The key to creating such a group is to allow it to be bottom-up and emergent, rather than trying to steer it towards a specific outcome, as this can stifle the creative process (51m38s).
• By creating these types of groups, individuals can experiment with different ideas, build on them, and be inspired by others, which can lead to the creation of valuable environments (51m55s).
• This approach is an example of emergent properties, where things are allowed to emerge naturally, rather than being dictated by a top-down approach (52m20s).
• The creation of such groups can lead to the development of novel and innovative ideas, and can be a valuable strategy for individuals and organizations (52m23s).

Building and sustaining communities (52m30s)

• Building and sustaining communities is all about momentum, and to achieve this, it's essential to start with a small, engaged group of people who share similar interests and topics of discussion (52m35s).
• This initial group should be the smallest seed of people who are actively engaged, and then incrementally add others who are likely to fit in and contribute to the community (52m58s).
• To keep the community alive, it's crucial to feed it with interesting conversations and ensure that there's always someone facilitating and participating in discussions (53m6s).
• A community with only one person talking is considered dead, and it's essential to maximize the chance of having interesting conversations even when the facilitator is not present (53m12s).
• Active policing is necessary to maintain a healthy community, similar to a gardener tending to a garden, and this involves pruning back and providing feedback to members (53m23s).
• When people reach out with ideas, it's essential to encourage them to share their thoughts in the group and engage with their contributions to create a self-sustaining norm (53m41s).
• To maintain momentum, it's necessary to propose new ideas and activities, such as live conversations, and ensure that they have a quorum to avoid the appearance of a dead community (54m27s).
• After events, it's essential to send follow-up messages, such as notes or thank-you messages, to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and encourage others to participate in future events (54m42s).
• Starting a community requires someone with a lot of energy to seed the group and provide the foundation for growth, and it's essential to look for people who already want to be part of the community rather than trying to convince those who don't (55m4s).
• The key to building a successful community is to create a space where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas and taking risks, and this can be achieved by setting the right tone and norms from the beginning (54m3s).

Productivity hacks and self-control (55m59s)

• Productivity can be improved by understanding how you work and what gives you energy, and structuring your day accordingly to maximize energy and motivation (56m14s).
• Activation energy is required to start a task, especially those that are not enjoyable, but completing tasks can provide a burst of energy to help with subsequent tasks (56m26s).
• Breaking tasks into smaller, manageable chunks with limited time allocations can make them easier to complete and help build momentum (56m46s).
• Using "always rules" instead of "sometimes rules" can be an effective way to maintain self-control and stick to goals, such as dieting or exercise routines (57m8s).
• Having clear, black-and-white rules can make it easier to maintain streaks and avoid exceptions that can lead to breaking a streak (57m31s).
• Creating a daily habit, such as a Peloton workout, can help build a streak and make it easier to maintain over time (57m49s).
• Keeping track of progress, such as the number of days in a row a task has been completed, can be a helpful tactic for maintaining motivation and productivity (58m42s).
• Tactics like these can be effective for getting things done and achieving goals, but may not always be given enough credit (58m46s).
• There are various social tricks that can help increase productivity, such as acknowledging when a particular approach is not working and being open to change, which can lead to significant improvements in productivity (58m49s).
• A community with zero people speaking is considered dead, and a community with one person speaking may not realize it's dead, highlighting the importance of engagement and participation (59m16s).
• The ability to type quickly and capture ideas efficiently is a valuable skill, developed through practice and experience, such as writing a thesis and transcribing 150 hours of interviews (59m27s).
• Constantly capturing ideas and writing notes can help to refine and develop them into more stable and coherent concepts (59m55s).
• The ability to work efficiently and be in a state of flow is crucial for productivity, and it's essential to identify and avoid situations that can grind progress to a halt (1h0m35s).
• When working on a project with potential for significant impact, it's possible to become fully engaged and motivated, leading to a state of unstoppable productivity (1h0m47s).
• Allowing oneself to lean into exciting ideas and pursue them, even outside of regular working hours, can be beneficial for creativity and progress (1h1m0s).

Life philosophy and personal insights (1h1m4s)

• When an idea strikes, it's essential to capture it immediately, as delaying can lead to forgetting the details, and it's easier to clean up a rough draft later rather than trying to recall the idea from memory (1h1m4s).
• The concept of "do things that give you energy that you are proud of" is a guiding philosophy, as it combines doing something you believe in, which gives you energy, making you 10 times more productive, and the effort becomes its own reward (1h1m46s).
• Finding activities that align with this philosophy can provide infinite energy, as they energize you more than the opportunity cost of time spent on other things (1h2m8s).
• It's crucial to distinguish between things that give you energy in the short term, such as addictive video games or substances, and things that you'll look back on and be proud of (1h2m24s).
• Taking a 10-year perspective on decisions and imagining how you'll feel about them in the future can help you make choices that align with your values and goals (1h2m40s).
• Considering how you'll feel about your decisions in front of people whose opinion you care about can help you take a broader perspective and make choices that you'll be proud of (1h2m47s).
• Focusing on activities that give you energy and make you proud can help you avoid taking shortcuts and losing sight of who you want to be (1h3m27s).
• The quote "the secrets to life are things you've heard a million times already, you just weren't ready to hear them" highlights the importance of being open to insights and perspectives that may have seemed insignificant in the past (1h3m45s).
• The "Hallmark card fallacy" refers to the tendency to share deep insights that resonate with us, but may not be new or original, and to recognize that true insights often come from being ready to hear and understand them (1h3m52s).
• The phrase "the point of life is the friends we made along the way" is often shared because it holds meaning, and people tend to appreciate it more when they're ready to understand its significance (1h4m7s).
• Having epiphanies and experiencing vertical development can lead to a desire to share newfound knowledge with others, but it can be challenging to get them to understand and appreciate it (1h4m33s).
• Sharing ideas can be likened to planting seeds in someone's brain, even if the soil isn't ready, as it can create a crack for the idea to grow into in the future (1h4m54s).
• Mentoring and sharing ideas can have a lasting impact on people, and it's fulfilling to hear from those who have been influenced by one's words years later (1h5m14s).
• It's essential to recognize that people can't be forced to understand certain topics before they're ready, and it's crucial to be patient and allow them to come to their own realizations (1h5m40s).
• Clichés can become profound and meaningful when experienced personally, as seen in the example of having a psychedelic trip and deeply feeling the phrase "Love is All You Need" (1h6m0s).
• The Transcendent mindset involves feeling part of something larger than oneself and losing one's ego, which can be achieved through various means such as hiking, concerts, or psychedelics (1h6m26s).
• Being in awe, wonder, or curiosity is essential for being open to disconfirming evidence and seeing beyond current limits, and it should not be treated as a childlike or unserious thing (1h6m51s).
• Constructing the world around oneself to avoid disconfirming evidence can make systems and individuals stronger through confirming evidence that supports their views (1h7m15s).
• To receive and process disconfirming information, one must come to terms with the possibility of being perceived in a certain way, such as being seen as "kooky" (1h7m30s).
• Embracing and being at peace with such perceptions can help individuals focus on the impact of their work, even if others do not fully understand the methods or approaches used (1h7m40s).

The adjacent possible (1h7m52s)

• The concept of the "adjacent possible" is a powerful idea that suggests focusing on small, achievable actions that are within one's reach, rather than jumping to big, bold ideas (1h7m58s).
• This concept argues that people often default to assuming that the adjacent possible is a big leap, when in reality it is a small set of actions that can be taken with certainty (1h8m36s).
• Recognizing the adjacent possible as small allows for full agency to pick from a subset of actions that are within reach, and each action matters because it reconfigures the world and leads to new possibilities (1h8m55s).
• By slicing decisions into smaller and smaller actions, it's possible to arc to wildly different outcomes while minimizing risk (1h9m12s).
• The general advice is to not be scared to take incremental steps, but also to have a coherent worldview and a principled approach to guide decision-making (1h10m5s).
• It's necessary to have both incremental and bold thinking, as only doing incremental will lead to following the steepest gradient in front of you, while having a North Star in three to five years can provide coherence and direction (1h10m12s).
• A North Star should be a low-resolution description of a plausible future that everyone agrees is possible, and it should be used to guide decision-making and provide direction (1h10m27s).
• A Northstar is a guiding vision that should be far off in the distance and will update over time, but it won't drastically change direction, instead, it will arc slightly differently (1h11m5s).
• To achieve the Northstar, one should look at the adjacent possible, which is the next step that has the steepest gradient pulling towards the Northstar, and choose the option that users want and also aligns with the desired direction (1h11m18s).
• Having both a Northstar and an understanding of the adjacent possible is crucial, as only focusing on incremental steps can lead to random walking into a corner, and only focusing on the long-term can lead to designing impossible castles in the sky (1h11m32s).
• A metaphor for achieving success while not clinging to a specific outcome is to point your cart in a specific direction and start walking, without figuring out the exact path, and being open to adjusting the path as needed (1h12m3s).
• It's essential to navigate unknowns and accept uncertainty, rather than trying to achieve false precision through analysis, which can be a comfort blanket that ignores the uncertainty that is present everywhere (1h13m16s).
• Overemphasizing efficiency and trying to avoid wasting effort can lead to doing nothing or doing things that don't work, and it's better to have a slightly inefficient path that is adaptable to unknowns (1h12m27s).
• In strategy, it's not necessary to know exact numbers or details, and trying to achieve precision can be a waste of time and resources, especially when dealing with unknowns that can't be predicted (1h12m49s).
• Ideas with strong potential can have a compounding return, and it's often not about achieving a specific outcome, but rather about making progress and having a better alternative, which can be a freeing mindset (1h13m28s).
• Happiness can be defined as reality minus expectations, a concept coined by Tim Urban, which suggests that setting high expectations can lead to disappointment even if reality is good, but not perfect (1h13m58s).
• It's often easier to change one's expectations rather than reality, so it's essential to hold expectations lightly and not set them too high, especially in situations that are hard to control (1h14m25s).
• Having a flexible mindset and being open to change can help in achieving something great and authentic, rather than being stuck on a specific outcome (1h15m45s).
• It's possible to find humor in difficult situations, even in the moment, by trying to feel the emotion that the story will evoke in the future, such as looking back on a challenging experience and finding it funny (1h14m55s).
• Having a long-term perspective can help in dealing with difficult situations, such as a friend's experience with their newborn's frequent and projectile pooping, and finding the humor in it even in the moment (1h15m4s).
• Holding expectations lightly and being open to change is not about settling for mediocrity, but rather about being willing to adapt and seek something great and authentic (1h15m40s).

Lightning round (1h15m56s)

• The conversation has covered a lot of topics and could have gone on for hours, but it's time to wrap up and move on to the lightning round (1h15m56s).
• The book "Origin of Wealth" by Eric Beinhocker is recommended as it provides a complexity of economics and an evolutionary lens on business plans and company execution, serving as an introduction to systems thinking (1h16m31s).
• Another recommended book is "Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows, which is short, easy to read, and approachable, offering a unique perspective on systems thinking (1h16m51s).
• The concept of "dancing with systems" is mentioned, which involves letting go and adapting to the system, a phrase coined by Donella Meadows (1h17m14s).
• The movie "The Green Knight" is recommended as a thought-provoking and impactful film that encourages engagement and reflection (1h17m25s).
• The use of parables is discussed as a way to encourage listeners to engage with ideas and think critically (1h17m40s).
• Web Sim is mentioned as a favorite product, a tool that generates fake data and can be used for various purposes, such as creating email templates or generating data for arbitrary schemas (1h18m9s).
• An example use case of Web Sim is generating email templates for famous people, which can be a fun and creative way to use the tool (1h18m32s).
• The tool Clad is also mentioned as something that is used 20 times a day, although the speaker is now considering using Strawberry as an alternative (1h18m16s).
• Elms are considered as little holograms of humanity, packed with information, and can be seen as a mirror reflecting different aspects of human knowledge, which is amazing and sometimes shocking (1h19m6s).
• A favorite life motto is to do things that give you energy and make you proud, and happiness is reality minus expectations, which are simple yet clarifying words (1h19m46s).
• Non-aggregator ecosystems are preferred as they allow participants to contribute without fearing the empowerment of an overlord, and aggregators can curtail exploration in the early stages of an era (1h20m20s).
• The current technical paradigm is considered to be in its late stage, and many things feel figured out, but this outcome is not ideal, and there is a desire for a different approach (1h20m52s).
• The idea of software as alchemy, extending human agency beyond ourselves, and creating something that can combine with others' creations in unexpected ways, is preferred over the current monolithic app-based approach (1h21m25s).
• The potential of human agency should not be limited to a dozen little boxes on a phone, and the assumption that everyone will be locked inside a box with a super good AI is not desirable (1h21m41s).
• The concept of "arrogators" in software and humans using it allows for agency and creativity in a safe environment, but it cannot be fully open-ended as it needs to maintain the ecosystem's boundaries (1h22m7s).
• Large language models (LMs) can be a disruptive technology, enabling people to break free from monolithic organizations and exercise their agency in a pro-social way, leading to increased creativity and collaboration (1h22m21s).
• Alex can be found online at ky.com, where links to their posts, Google group, and Medium articles can be accessed, and people can subscribe to updates (1h22m56s).
• Listeners can be useful to Alex by joining their office hours, which are open to anyone, and sharing ideas, experiences, and backgrounds that can lead to new connections and insights (1h23m17s).
• Alex values talking to people with different life experiences and backgrounds, as seen in an example where a magician shared a parallel between one of Alex's tactics and cold reading used by psychics (1h23m41s).
• The conversation with Alex was valuable, and listeners can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or their favorite podcast app, and consider giving a rating or leaving a review to help other listeners find the podcast (1h24m16s).