Oversimplified: Volume 93

Startup studios, the modern data stack, and predictions from Pinterest

Hey there 👋

Hope everyone is ready for the holiday season! You know, I think there’s some good stuff on the menu today. Oversimplified is a weekly digest of the best links I stumble upon. If this is your first issue, welcome aboard.

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User Advocacy and Referral Programs for Growth

I’ve been thinking a lot about user advocacy at startups over the last few months. This post primarily goes over two frameworks that I’ve found helpful for brainstorming new ideas and optimizing previous ones.

Why the Future of Startups are Studios

Startup studios aren’t a new concept, but they do seem to be getting more popular. As someone who plans on being a founder one day, my attention is piqued. At the same time, isn’t every pre-product-market fit startup doing essentially the same thing, validating and iterating on new ideas?

The Modern Data Stack: Past, Present, and Future

This article from Tristan Handy is a must-read for anyone in the data world. Trust me. If you are more into video, check out the talk version from Future Data 2020. I have so many thoughts on this. I might just have to write a response blog post to collect them.

Write Five, Then Synthesize

Love this post. In short: “When you’ve rehashed the same discussion three or four times, it’s time to write another strategy. When the future’s too hazy to identify investments worth making, it’s time to write another vision. If neither of those sound like familiar problems — move on to other work for now and return later.”

Portals and Flags

I want to get better about opening up portals and planting fewer flags. While it’s easier said than done, the upside seems fantastic. Just to start: “The point of complex debates is not to prove your side right and the other wrong.”

Pinterest Predicts 2021

This certainly won’t be the last “prediction” post you see shared from me — I love this stuff. For what it’s worth, Pinterest seems uniquely positioned to offer some valuable insights here. Some of these caught me by surprise.

Types of Self Care

This summary image of self-care approaches has been making its round. Next time I’m feeling off, I’ll try to remember to take a look at this. Definitely couldn’t hurt.

“But how easy it is to love people when you understand this. How easy it is to love everyone when you don’t identify with what they imagine you are or they are. It becomes easy to love them, to love everybody.” — Anthony de Mello

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Thanks for reading Oversimplified this week! Did anything stand out? I’d love to hear about it. Reply to this email or tweet at me and let’s chat 😁

Until next time,

Conor