Conor's Newsletter: Issue 42
Bus ticket collectors, scaling marketplaces, and local-first software
Let's get to the stories and links that I thought were worth sharing this week. As always, enjoy the newsletter. If this was forwarded to you, you can go ahead and subscribe at conordewey.com.
What I read —
"If I had to put the recipe for genius into one sentence, that might be it: to have a disinterested obsession with something that matters." This is really, really important. The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius.
Lenny Rachitsky's recent posts on growth have been fantastic, and this recent series on growing marketplace businesses are just as good. Here's part 1 of many to come. How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business.
My colleague Omar Abboud wrote on how our data science team started asking better questions and collecting better data at checkout. Checkout Surveys.
Wow, this write-up on local-first software from Adrian Colyer blew a hole in my mind. It certainly seems like this could be the direction we eventually end up heading. Local-First Software.
Interesting blog post here from the LinkedIn Data Science team on dealing with interference in A/B tests with network effects. An A/B Test of A/B Tests.
What I found interesting —
This Twitter thread drawing similarities between the Sun Microsystems "Sunblade" and the recently launched Google Stadia is well worth your time. Building For Users.
People don't get enough praise for solid communication, despite how important it ends up being in practice. I like the idea of taking more responsibility here. Extreme Ownership.
Working long hours gets a bad rap these days, but I thought this experiment seemed like a fun one. The 120-Hour Workweek.
Quote I'm pondering —
"Resistance is not out to get you personally. It doesn't know who you are and doesn't care. Resistance is a force of nature. It acts objectively.” — Steven Pressfield