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Ride It to the SkyDon't Die of Heart Disease
During my "hiatus" I've been doing research in a variety of different areas that interest me. After a personal experience with basal c...
Ride It to the SkyThe Deal
Founders have little to no diversification. They are all in on one idea, company, and mission. It's an insanely high-risk, high-reward endeavor. As founders become increasingly wary of this level of risk concentration, they begin to think about ways to mitigate it. One idea I've heard repeatedly is the notion that a group of founders can self-assemble and contribute a percentage of their equity in their company to a shared pool. That way, if they fail and one of the other founders in the grou...
Ride It to the SkySequoia Wants It Hard
I have seen a lot of young first-time founders play it fast and loose in their fundraising processes the past several years. It’s been frothy times, so I think it brings out a lot of strange behavior. It got me thinking of when I was a young founder and the things I’d do, particularly one specific story that I tell people when I get asked “what not to do” when fundraising. Back in 2010 Steve and I launched GroupMe to much fanfare. It got a lot of attention out the gate because we built it at ...
Ride It to the SkyDon't Die of Heart Disease
During my "hiatus" I've been doing research in a variety of different areas that interest me. After a personal experience with basal c...
Ride It to the SkyThe Deal
Founders have little to no diversification. They are all in on one idea, company, and mission. It's an insanely high-risk, high-reward endeavor. As founders become increasingly wary of this level of risk concentration, they begin to think about ways to mitigate it. One idea I've heard repeatedly is the notion that a group of founders can self-assemble and contribute a percentage of their equity in their company to a shared pool. That way, if they fail and one of the other founders in the grou...
Ride It to the SkySequoia Wants It Hard
I have seen a lot of young first-time founders play it fast and loose in their fundraising processes the past several years. It’s been frothy times, so I think it brings out a lot of strange behavior. It got me thinking of when I was a young founder and the things I’d do, particularly one specific story that I tell people when I get asked “what not to do” when fundraising. Back in 2010 Steve and I launched GroupMe to much fanfare. It got a lot of attention out the gate because we built it at ...
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Several years ago, I read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. She writes about a concept called "shitty first drafts" that has stuck with me ever since:
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something -- anything -- down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft -- you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft -- you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.
To me, shitty first drafts is a mindset. It's about getting ideas on the page and out of your system, however convoluted or unintelligible they may be. It's a release of whatever pent up energy and thoughts and ideas you've had stewing. And it's about not judging yourself when you put the words on the page. They're not intended to be perfect or poetic. They're just there to be the first step on the journey or the first rotation of the snowball rolling down the hill.
I like this because it's not just about writing. This mentality is applicable to many different things. Building and shipping products is one of them. Perfect is the enemy of good. Most of the time, you just need to start and ship and see what happens. 99% of the time you won't get it right the first time so just get it out there and revise, revise, revise.
All I know is ship early and often. Never seen it work any other way in consumer. https://warpcast.com/woj.eth/0x31b576ae
This blog post is a shitty first draft. I've thought about and talked about this idea at least ten times in the past several months, and it's time to get it out of my system. It's a cathartic process.
Anything that requires creativity is well suited to a shitty first draft. The more shitty first drafts, the merrier.
Several years ago, I read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. She writes about a concept called "shitty first drafts" that has stuck with me ever since:
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something -- anything -- down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft -- you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft -- you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.
To me, shitty first drafts is a mindset. It's about getting ideas on the page and out of your system, however convoluted or unintelligible they may be. It's a release of whatever pent up energy and thoughts and ideas you've had stewing. And it's about not judging yourself when you put the words on the page. They're not intended to be perfect or poetic. They're just there to be the first step on the journey or the first rotation of the snowball rolling down the hill.
I like this because it's not just about writing. This mentality is applicable to many different things. Building and shipping products is one of them. Perfect is the enemy of good. Most of the time, you just need to start and ship and see what happens. 99% of the time you won't get it right the first time so just get it out there and revise, revise, revise.
All I know is ship early and often. Never seen it work any other way in consumer. https://warpcast.com/woj.eth/0x31b576ae
This blog post is a shitty first draft. I've thought about and talked about this idea at least ten times in the past several months, and it's time to get it out of my system. It's a cathartic process.
Anything that requires creativity is well suited to a shitty first draft. The more shitty first drafts, the merrier.
Ship early and often! Love that.
Any suggestions on overcoming fears/risks not just on the quality of the "shitty first draft" but if there may be anyone remotely interested in it all?
Yes. Don’t worry if anyone is interested in it.
Thanks Jared.
“Shitty first drafts” is a concept and mindset I’ve come to embrace over the years. Get things out into the world early and often: ideas, products, art, etc. https://jared.xyz/shitty-first-drafts
This mindset that has saved me more time creating products than perhaps any other productivity hack. The panacea for the overthinker
Thanks, Jared! Loved your article. I’m in the trenches with my collection art game’s first draft and getting some rough feedback. It’s really early days, so the feedback is pretty raw. Your words on embracing those messy first drafts really hit home. Appreciate the inspiration
Love it. Ty.
3000 $farther
Persistence over perfection.
its better to be done than be perfect - changed how i looked at startups (prior to this the Steve jobs hangover to perfection was real....)
Where most ideas come out of the mind.