flâneur

Jacky Huang

74 followers · 33 following · 5991 views

on the atlas — 295

highlights — 3420

  • having some sort of attendee database with contacts, emails, and how people can help them/how they can help others
    Mistakes often made by inexperienced event organizers
  • shout “if you want thai food, go to this corner and meet all the other people getting thai food; if you want italian, go to that corner; if you want chinese, go to that corner” → let everyone go to the cuisine of their choice and make some new friends.
    Mistakes often made by inexperienced event organizers
  • if you want attendees to learn some concrete skill, you can ask a practitioner of that concrete skill who’s demonstrated that they’re competent at teaching it extremely well (e.g. at previous events, or on YouTube/Twitch) to give a workshop
    Mistakes often made by inexperienced event organizers
  • if you want attendees to make new friends, you can do stuff like speed-friending (thread on how to run this well)
    Mistakes often made by inexperienced event organizers
  • If you want to meet interesting people, you have to do interesting things yourself for them to want to talk to you.
    breaking into VC early-career - by mathu - chai latte
  • Your fears become self-fulfilling too. If you’re scared of being abandoned, for example, you will subconsciously look for signs that you could be abandoned and act in ways that make it more likely for someone to abandon you.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • This dynamic, verb-based language, also known as nonviolent communication, will both avoid a ton of fights and also help create space for you and others to change.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • . Keeping score and needing reconciliation will make you resentful, because the ball lies all the time.
    Let Sleeping Dogs Lie - Erik Torenberg
  • Anytime you need someone to apologize to you or change their behavior before you can be happy, you’ve ceded your agency over your own happiness. Instead, let them and focus on what you can control.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • They don’t remember what you say as much as how you made them feel. This means you can both disproportionately make them happy by making them feel seen and special and disproportionately make them feel sad by making them feel judged or rejected.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • People remember the negatives far more than the positives, so think about having a significantly higher percentage of positive experiences than negative ones.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • If you’re going to offend someone, do it on something you care about.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Deposits into your own bank account look like being proud of yourself — contributing to others, gaining competence at something that matters, doing the right thing, keeping promises to yourself and others, and taking good care of yourself.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Get a “life board” — meet with a crew of ~4 friends 3-4x a year to discuss big life, career, and finance decisions.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Mistaking communities rooted in commerce for true friends
    Optimize - Erik Torenberg
  • You can try to repress your feelings, but they’ll likely rear their heads in other ways. Ultimately, you can’t run from yourself.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • because then it makes it harder to like yourself. No amount of money or fame will make you feel good if you aren’t proud of how you’ve acted.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Similarly, get your security from liking yourself, not from external validation
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • 6. Happiness and security are skills that can be developed.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • A lot of stress in my life came from being set on certain strategies when if I appreciated what need I was trying to meet, I could have been more flexible in switching strategies.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Write down a list of what you want in your relationships and the types of people you want personal and professional relationships with and then make sure you are bringing those attributes to the table too. e.g. If you want loyal friends, *be* a loyal friend. Focus on “being” rather than “having”, because you can only control the former, and by doing so you can influence the latter.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Which is why we instinctively feel someone else's gain as our loss. But the more you want others to succeed (and the more you help them), the more they’ll help you and want you to succeed. Genuinely see their success as your success.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • . This means loving people and wanting other people to flourish on their own terms, independent of what’s in it for you—even when it’s at your expense.
    35 - Erik Torenberg
  • Pete and I thought of the people we wanted to run these new business areas as “10 out of 10s.” We had both been judging talent long enough to know a 10 when we saw one. Eights just do the stuff you tell them. Nines are great at executing and developing good strategies. You can build a winning firm with 9s. But people who are 10s sense problems, design solutions, and take the business in new directions without being told to do so. Tens always make it rain.
    Building for builders - Linda Tong
  • From the outside in, it probably looked like I had my shit together because once I quit, I immediately launched my climate newsletter and started a podcast. But on the inside, I felt lost. It was the first time in my life that I didn’t have tangible achievements to strive for.
    Becoming an Apprentice 📖 - by Matt Yao
  • Here’s where I might get some criticism: I never hard sell. My goal isn’t to pressure someone into a “yes.” It’s to understand their problem and figure out if we’re actually the right solution. If we are, they’ll get to “yes” on their own.
    How to Sell - Andrew Yeung's Newsletter
  • The most common concerns: Lack of perceived value → Offer a free trial Too expensive → Provide a risk-free guarantee Not the right time → Introduce an expiring offer Lack of trust → Share case studies and social proof Prospects aren’t trying to challenge you. They’re just working to fully understand how your product or service can fix their problems
    How to Sell - Andrew Yeung's Newsletter
  • The story matters. In a competitive industry—think marketing agencies—your biggest differentiator isn’t your product. It’s your come-up story and why you wake up every morning fired up to do this work.
    How to Sell - Andrew Yeung's Newsletter
  • Once I’ve nailed that, I’ll recommend a solution. Sometimes, the solution isn’t my product—and that’s fine. I’m upfront about it because trust always wins in the long run.
    How to Sell - Andrew Yeung's Newsletter
  • The beauty of the system was not only that everyone received a card, regardless of social standing, or that it was so extensive it required its own custom machine. It also confirmed Rockefeller’s early instincts, forcing him to focus on the exact personality traits that he lacked and identified in his older brother and father: their attentiveness to others, their dedication to service, their hardworking nature.
    David Rockefeller and His Rolodex of Index Cards - Clay
  • Productivity addiction, like other types of addictions, is a coping mechanism. It’s a habit formed to ward off emotional distress that gets louder when the mind gets quieter; a habit that can go on for a while before realizing you are actually suffering. But eventually, working hard on terms that don’t feel naturally good leaves little space for reflection, and no time to refocus.
    A Soft Manifesto – The Creative Independent
  • As designers and creative people, we are world-builders. We tell stories that convince others of future possibilities. While I won’t claim graphic design saves lives (though I’ve heard stories where it has), designers are often among the earliest hires, brought on to smooth rough edges, craft narratives, or build stories that close funding rounds. With that influence comes responsibility.
    What we talk about when we talk about values
  • But the crawl turned into a walk and then a steady trot. Then, an accidental sprint. As though someone had unknowingly leaned up against the speed controls of my treadmill. Somehow, by the 17th of January, I had more writing assignments than I had for the whole of 2023.
    how i manifested a year beyond my wildest dreams
  • I raised the stakes. At our next event—a 2,000-person tech party at a swanky hotel—I sold a $5,000 sponsorship from a law firm specializing in startup law. Within the first hour of the event, one of their partners closed a deal with a CEO looking for counsel for their Series A. 10X ROI. Both sponsors returned to us, asking to sponsor more events, and I saw the potential for a real business. We were off to the races.
    Reflections on Andrew's Mixers (One Year In)
  • Somewhere in the middle (but probably closer to the curiositymaxer) there are those who lead with curiosity and evaluate their work both internally and externally.
    Statusmaxing vs. Curiositymaxing
  • Ice Spice flag: this culminated from a couple of realizations, with Shreyas and Anton: a) pink American flags with Ice Spice's face on them are mass produced, b) there are lots of empty flagpoles around the city, and c) you can just rent a boom lift for $100.
    2024: Year in Review - Riley Walz
  • Numerous.ai, Mehran and I's startup, is chugging along on autopilot and is now a lifestyle business as of this month. Itching to start something new for the long-term. Not sure what shape that'll take yet. But I'm excited.
    2024: Year in Review - Riley Walz
  • Dealt with back pain. It hurt to walk and even lay down in bed for a few months. Really, really bad. Going to my doctor and a chiropractor didn't help. I thought it was pain in my tailbone because of bad posture. After Gytis forced me to talk to Claude in depth about what was going on, we narrowed it down to weak glute muscles, probably from sitting down for way too long at once. Did lots of stretches targeting the glutes and feeling great now! (if you slouch or sit for way too long, STOP! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR SINS EVENTUALLY! YOU ARE NEVER TOO YOUNG!)
    2024: Year in Review - Riley Walz
  • I have only started to realize that, when Loom was in its early innings, I felt very secure with my position in life, and lots of this stemmed from an extreme gratitude for the journey I was on. I was happy with everything as it was. The growth trajectory of the company was more than I could ever dream for. I was happy. I felt secure. It could all turn to shit the next day, and that would be ok.
    I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life
  • We started getting into regular arguments, and I knew it wasn’t on her. It was me. I was starting to come to terms with all the mounting insecurities I had stuffed down over the past several years. I didn’t feel like I could work on them with her. So I broke things off after almost 2 years of unconditional love. It was extremely painful, but it was the right call. I needed to fully face myself.
    I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life
  • At the end of the 2 weeks, I left feeling deflated and foolish. I didn’t want to start a robotics company. The only thing that seemed interesting to me was humanoids. It started to dawn on me that what I actually wanted was to look like Elon, and that is incredibly cringe. It hurts to even type this out.
    I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life
  • The scariest part of being in San Francisco isn’t failure — it’s success. Success scales everything, like a distributed system — both the good and the bad parts. Without a proper support system — which I didn’t intentionally build at the time (was the right decision) — managing that scale becomes incredibly challenging.
    Why I “left” San Francisco - by Albert Lie | 이영덕
  • A funny yet extreme example: a friend of a friend rejected a date because the guy wasn’t a Series A founder. Even dating felt like an acquisition deal.
    Why I “left” San Francisco - by Albert Lie | 이영덕
  • I was lucky enough to fall into the “favorable bracket,” but it didn’t take long to realize most interactions were transactional. People talked to you because they wanted something, not because they genuinely wanted to know you — more about extracting features than building relationships.
    Why I “left” San Francisco - by Albert Lie | 이영덕
  • The best way to do so is to be smart and ambitious yourself, and do cool things.
    101 things I would tell my self from 10 years ago
  • The best reason to move to New York is because all your friends are moving there too.
    101 things I would tell my self from 10 years ago
  • Help people. Some of them may not remember, but you will feel good about doing it anyway. Some of them will, and it will create a strong bond between you.
    101 things I would tell my self from 10 years ago
  • But this isn't just for managers. I think it's a useful framework for deciding what to do next. For a long time, I thought I wanted money – so I reverse-sorted my job options by salary and picked the one at the top. But at some point I realized that making more money next year was going to cost me other things I cared about, like purpose, fun and autonomy. Money was no longer my main constraint. On reflection, I’m happier now to take something that pays fewer dollars in exchange for more of the other things I want.
    What are you getting paid in?
  • I would trade half my current net worth for a world in which I had a stronger community of friends and had worked more on my own projects instead of someone else's. Consider that when you make your choices, on the margin.
    101 things I would tell my self from 10 years ago
  • Against this backdrop, The Startup Track has no shot. As we exit a 15-year bull run, its power is diminished and novelty worn off. For many, it is the source of cynicism, not the antidote to it. Instead, to move men and women to action today requires a specific goal with high stakes — championed by founders who point to the possible. As the world searches for belief, they will find it in these companies. At first, they capture our attention as we all wonder, “How will they do that?” We are then drawn to participate in the story as their visions unfold — year after year, decade after decade — i…
    Terrain – Call Your Shot