Issue #30: The Struggle, The Messy Middle and The Mother of Invention.
Path was an intimate social media app for close friends and family. It launched in 2010 and put a 200 person cap on the number of connections you could have. It was beautifully designed and the user experience is one I would reference time and again. The app also launched ‘reactions’ two years before Facebook emojis/reactions. Like most users of the app, the ability to curate your network and only share with a select few was great. I remember sharing pictures of our son, a few days after he was born, with just a few friends and the one or two members of my family who were on the app.
The app didn’t gain mass adoption, a goal I always felt ran counter to the product promise, and was sold to Kakao in 2015. In times like these, with more Facebook issues reported this past week, one would expect apps like Path would to grow in popularity. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Path shut down in October…
One should never listen to what users say they want (’delete Facebook! We don’t trust Facebook!’) and just learn from what users actually do ('Check out the intimate family pictures of our holiday dinner!’). That being said, more people are dumping the app.
The legendary Walt Mossberg ditched Facebook.
Articles
I will probably share this article by Kevin Kelly, ’1000 True Fans’, once every calendar year. It’s one I think every creative, entrepreneur, dreamer etc needs to read. It’s as relevant now as it was when he wrote it in 2008. I think you should read it.
Nnedi Okorafor is has a show coming out on HBO sometime soon. Her Binti and Akata witch series has slowly grown her fanbase. In advance of the HBO series, and before you commit to a full-length book, enjoy her short story on Slate, Mother of Invention.
Preparing for the next war by developing a strategy for the war that you lost is a recipe for losing again. Renee DiResta, in The Digital Maginot Line, suggests that we are fighting the information wars using old strategies. That better AI will shift the battle lines and what makes democracy strong, free speech and free exchange of ideas, make democracy unprepared for this new battle for people’s minds (longread). Must read.
There is some bigtech bashing commentary out there that is borne out of not understanding the complexities of running companies that impact billions. Or just ignorance. This Arstechnica article, in technical but simple terms, actually describes one reason we should be worried about Google.
Hat-tip to Farnam Street for this video on ’How To Be A Systems Thinker’.
A few folk have asked me why I’ve decided to chew glass again with Varuna. Yes, it is a struggle, as this Ben Horowitz article perfectly points out, but the way things have been going make it clear to me that this is exactly what I should be working on… Thanks so so much to the folk who committed to investing after the last PM.
I love ads :). I’ve said it before. And I thoroughly enjoyed this mash-up of the best ads of 2018. And it includes the Apple ad (with fka twigs and Anderson .paak) that I referenced for it’s engineering brilliance.
‘The 1980s was America’s “decade of greed,” and it was Jacobson’s job to create instant millionaires’. One of many lines in this epic story of how an ex-cop stole millions of dollars from McDonalds (longread).
I watch or listen to Bomani Jones and think ’I could be friends with this chap’. This GQ profile cemented that sentiment.
Books
I’m midway through Scott Belsky’s (founder of Behance and now Chief Product Officer at Adobe) ’The Messy Middle’ and I’ve recommended it to every entrepreneur I’ve spoken to in the last couple of weeks. It’s the book version of Ben Horowitz’s ’The Struggle’.
Craftsmanship. Focus. Symbols. Brand. Tribes. All things Seth Godin continues to preach, this time in ’This Is Marketing’, as the way to get ahead in this noisy world. Pair with the '1000 True Fans’ article above.
If you don’t have time to read a long book over the holidays, go with a short book that also helps you live a healthier life. Go with ’A Short Guide To A Long Life’.
I’ve never been into poetry. But as a logophile I’ve always wanted to read stuff by Pablo Neruda. ’All the Odes’ took me me a while to get through. But I think I might now love words even more. You can read ’Ode to things’ to get a taste.
’The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden’ was the bedside book at a friends place on my last work trip. I couldn’t finish it before heading back home but had to pick it up once I got back to Austin. Implausible. Farcical. Hilarious. Fantastic.
Product
If it’s not on my calendar or on my to-do-list, it doesn’t exist. I’ve used Trello for business purposes but, on the advice of my closest confidant :), I decided to try it for personal productivity. It’s going well so far.
There is something symbolic about this being the 30th issue of PM… It’ll also be the last issue for 2018. Thanks for going on this journey with me. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I do…
Happy holidays and I wish you the very best as you step into 2019.
Seyi