I believe that creating a successful consumer product can be attributed to somewhere between 70-90% luck and 10-30% executing against that luck. A lot of things have to go right: timing, product, distribution, zeitgeist, etc. So much of it is stumbling your way into capturing lightning in a bottle or indestructible product market fit.

This may seem disheartening, but the good news is that it's possible to optimize for getting lucky. When building consumer products, I think one of the best ways to increase the chance of doing this is by building for yourself. Building products and companies is hard, so if you're building a consumer internet application, you might as well build something you want to use yourself. That way, by the end of the day, you are making yourself happy. And that's a win.

Building for yourself means that you are your target customer. You can prioritize the features that you find most useful or fun. Your roadmap is all the things you want to exist. Nobody knows your product or the problem you're trying to solve better than you. And if the product you're building can't make you happy or satisfy your needs, there's little chance it will do so for others.

I've seen a lot of people think about building or trying to build consumer internet applications by drastically overthinking things. They're midwitting their way into a problem that doesn't exist, a product nobody cares about, or an idea they think the world needs based on some hole they perceive to exist in Facebook Marketplace or Events or fill in the blank. This is not the way. Build something you want to exist and use yourself, not something that appears to be some opportunistic arbitrage.

Many durable consumer products take some time to truly inflect, and it takes even longer to figure out how to build and scale the business. On top of that, it's difficult to maintain your energy over that period of time. So you better be enjoying the ride and the product you're building. Build for yourself.

For the past four years my family has spent most of July and August in the Catskills in a town called Accord, NY. We love it there and ended up buying a place here like a lot of Brooklyn transplants did during Covid. Summers are magical up there

One of the things I always look forward to is using the garage gym I have assembled together over the years. Once we head up, I restart a program called TrainFTW. It's a workout regimen organized by an ex-crossfit athlete named Matt Chan and his wife Cherie. I'd describe it as crossfit-lite. It's a mixture of full-body workouts that span weight training, Zone 2, HIIT, and some cardio-focused work, too. More than anything, the premise is to enjoy the benefits of crossfit without getting injured. By a long shot, it's my favorite type of workout.

I also mix it up and play tennis and mountain bike to get a variety of different cardio. I used to road bike more often, but mountain biking is a lot more fun and there are no cars. I love this summer setup for fitness. It's a highlight of my year.

Things in Brooklyn are definitely different. I feel like exercising is more of something I do to check the box than it is fun. I used to be part of a gym and do TrainFTW, but I found it takes up too much time and need something I can just get done in 45-50 minutes in the early morning. Normally I will switch between using the Tonal machine in our basement and riding the Peloton. On the Tonal I have 7 workouts I cycle through that I programmed myself, and on the Peloton I just do 4x4 Zone 5 training at least once a week. I will also try to play tennis once a week after work.

My issue with these workouts back in the city is I get bored of them rather quickly. Lifting weights in a basement isn't necessarily "fun" for me. Sometimes I will mix things up and get into F45 for a couple of weeks or months and that will help. But I've found it's hard to get as excited about fitness when I'm in the city. The best thing for me has simply been to mix it up to stay motivated. I hope to one day be as enthusiastic about my fitness program in the city as I am upstate.

I believe that creating a successful consumer product can be attributed to somewhere between 70-90% luck and 10-30% executing against that luck. A lot of things have to go right: timing, product, distribution, zeitgeist, etc. So much of it is stumbling your way into capturing lightning in a bottle or indestructible product market fit.

This may seem disheartening, but the good news is that it's possible to optimize for getting lucky. When building consumer products, I think one of the best ways to increase the chance of doing this is by building for yourself. Building products and companies is hard, so if you're building a consumer internet application, you might as well build something you want to use yourself. That way, by the end of the day, you are making yourself happy. And that's a win.

Building for yourself means that you are your target customer. You can prioritize the features that you find most useful or fun. Your roadmap is all the things you want to exist. Nobody knows your product or the problem you're trying to solve better than you. And if the product you're building can't make you happy or satisfy your needs, there's little chance it will do so for others.

I've seen a lot of people think about building or trying to build consumer internet applications by drastically overthinking things. They're midwitting their way into a problem that doesn't exist, a product nobody cares about, or an idea they think the world needs based on some hole they perceive to exist in Facebook Marketplace or Events or fill in the blank. This is not the way. Build something you want to exist and use yourself, not something that appears to be some opportunistic arbitrage.

Many durable consumer products take some time to truly inflect, and it takes even longer to figure out how to build and scale the business. On top of that, it's difficult to maintain your energy over that period of time. So you better be enjoying the ride and the product you're building. Build for yourself.

For the past four years my family has spent most of July and August in the Catskills in a town called Accord, NY. We love it there and ended up buying a place here like a lot of Brooklyn transplants did during Covid. Summers are magical up there

One of the things I always look forward to is using the garage gym I have assembled together over the years. Once we head up, I restart a program called TrainFTW. It's a workout regimen organized by an ex-crossfit athlete named Matt Chan and his wife Cherie. I'd describe it as crossfit-lite. It's a mixture of full-body workouts that span weight training, Zone 2, HIIT, and some cardio-focused work, too. More than anything, the premise is to enjoy the benefits of crossfit without getting injured. By a long shot, it's my favorite type of workout.

I also mix it up and play tennis and mountain bike to get a variety of different cardio. I used to road bike more often, but mountain biking is a lot more fun and there are no cars. I love this summer setup for fitness. It's a highlight of my year.

Things in Brooklyn are definitely different. I feel like exercising is more of something I do to check the box than it is fun. I used to be part of a gym and do TrainFTW, but I found it takes up too much time and need something I can just get done in 45-50 minutes in the early morning. Normally I will switch between using the Tonal machine in our basement and riding the Peloton. On the Tonal I have 7 workouts I cycle through that I programmed myself, and on the Peloton I just do 4x4 Zone 5 training at least once a week. I will also try to play tennis once a week after work.

My issue with these workouts back in the city is I get bored of them rather quickly. Lifting weights in a basement isn't necessarily "fun" for me. Sometimes I will mix things up and get into F45 for a couple of weeks or months and that will help. But I've found it's hard to get as excited about fitness when I'm in the city. The best thing for me has simply been to mix it up to stay motivated. I hope to one day be as enthusiastic about my fitness program in the city as I am upstate.