Tweets

@mattmedeiros @pjrvs DID I MENTION I WAS ON VACATION

@iChris Agreed. This. Every time.

@JoshuaPDawson Great story! Incredible to see how (for many people, including me) our “big breaks” come when folks give us a chance.

@pjrvs Sorry I missed your tweet.

I’m currently using coupons at Arby’s, and will be indisposed for the rest of the day.

You can reach me by calling Arby’s.

@conorgil Damn

@lynnandtonic @CodePen Wow! This is sweet! 🙌

@danieleagee @gtmcknight Exactly: "illustrating a way of thinking" is a good way to put it. 👌

If you're looking for a new podcast to listen to, @podhuntapp has tons of short episode previews you can listen to:

https://podhunt.app/

@danieleagee @gtmcknight 👋 that’s my post. You can read more here:
http://justinjackson.ca/today

My guess is enterprise companies are spending a lot more on:
- Legal
- Security
- Devops
- HR
- Sales management
- Data management
- User management
- etc

RT @arvidkahl: For anyone interested in the newsletter with the FeedbackPanda case study, it is really worth subscribing to. Justin is a gr…

@boaticus @daverodenbaugh @cgenco @itengelhardt @lovevalgeisler 👋 I’d also like to see networking events that aren’t alcohol-focused.

XOXO in Portland had a sponsored mocktails bar/event that was really popular.

@petersuhm Yeah, I don't really know either. I'm just trying to ask myself the hard questions.

@petersuhm Yes, I hard that in university too.

The problem is our economic model has always been incompatible with the ecological model.

Ecologists have a very different viewpoint on economic growth. 😉

@petersuhm It seems like we are becoming more efficient, but overall consumption is still higher than the planet can withstand.

It feels like all we can do is "cause the least amount of harm possible" and hope for the best.

@petersuhm Except, this doesn't appear to be true, in practice:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/12/why-growth-cant-be-green/

@brhea @GemmaBlackUK @digitaltrouble Lol so good.

@_KevinGraham Yup! https://vimeo.com/74338272

@_lizardbird_ I haven't! I'll take a look.

The other challenge: it's hard to stop a successful company from growing!

"Now the bad news. Let's say all of this works: you create this little company and it's making $30k a month in profit. What happens next? It keeps growing that's what it does."

There are more factors that influence a business than just inflation: the labor market, the cost of goods, the cost of energy, competition, the cost to acquire a customer.

If any of those costs go up, you'll need to bring in more revenue, and likely increase your consumption.

As @beberlei is pointing out: keeping up with inflation wouldn't increase your business' consumption.

Theoretically, your consumption would stay the same; only the price of that consumption would go up.

https://twitter.com/beberlei/status/1187945852146536448

@beberlei Ah, wait I get it now.

You're saying actually consumption doesn't increase; just the cost of that consumption.

@beberlei I don't think I understand what you're saying. Can you point me to a resource that explains this more fully?

@pjrvs 🙌 yes! Nice work.

@GemmaBlackUK @digitaltrouble @brhea +1

@natalienagele @Wildbit @cnagele Incredible! Congrats! 🎉

@stauffermatt It’s nuts what kids can make these days!

He just made his first animation video with his younger brother:

https://youtu.be/AyZqKgfNdFs

@TransistorFM @thelieonroars @KarenUnland I think you’d dig what James is doing here too!

He’s the former senior editor and columnist for Hearst Connecticut newspapers.

@TransistorFM @thelieonroars @AndrewYang I think you'd be interested in the discussion @thelieonroars is having with regular folks here. 👌

@ScottHYoung Yeah, I wrote about this back in 2016. I should update it!

It's still not a perfect solution though. Thousands of tangible inputs go into making intangible goods.

https://justinjackson.ca/virtualplanet

@PMJtweets I compounded it annually at 2%.

So, if you were making $150k in 2015, you'll need to earn $15,000 more in 2020 just to keep pace with inflation.

In practice, your company will need revenue growth just to keep pace with:

- Increase in business costs (2% each year is pretty conservative)
- Increase in cost-of-living costs (currently 2%-3%) for employees

If costs go up by 2%/year, revenue also needs to increase by 2%/year

There are some folks saying that businesses don't need to grow, that they can get to "enough" and just coast.

But, I can't see how that works practically.

@borekb The more I dig into both, the more I see they're not wrong.

@AndrewAskins Yup. Exactly.

Foundationally, inflation itself requires companies to increase revenue every year.

Theoretically, growth could be slowed, but not eliminated.

#2864a996397e" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2018/10/31/why-arent-wages-keeping-up-its-not-the-economy-its-management/#2864a996397e

@erwblo One foundational reason revenue needs to grow is inflation.

You might have enough to pay salaries today, but if you want to keep up with inflation, you'll need to increase salaries (which would require revenue growth).

#2864a996397e" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2018/10/31/why-arent-wages-keeping-up-its-not-the-economy-its-management/#2864a996397e

Maybe this is all we can do.

"Cause the least amount of harm possible."

@PaulHawken Pragmatically, true human sustainability on the planet isn't realistic.

"We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable. Then you can try to achieve a situation where you’re causing the least amount of harm possible." – Yvon Chouinard

@pjrvs @developerjack It's sobering to hear Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia) talk about this. He (seemingly) sees ALL growth as cancerous.

http://www.fastcompany.com/90411397/exclusive-patagonia-founder-yvon-chouinard-talks-about-the-sustainability-myth-the-problem-with-amazon-and-why-its-not-too-late-to-save-the-planet

@dohertyjf Can you explain what you mean (in this context) when you say "business and economy are different."

Do you mean this with respect to growth?

@dbchhbr Yes. But if someone (like Andrew McAfee) is presenting solutions, they have to stand up to rigorous assessment; otherwise, it's no better than believing in fantasy.

From what I've seen, McAfee's theory doesn't properly account for externalities.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/capitalism-will-save-the-world/

@dbchhbr I'm familiar with Andrew McAfee's decoupling argument. (And emotionally, I wish it was true because it's satisfying for the optimist in me)

But, pragmatically, dematerialization doesn't satisfy the meta-problems I'm describing here.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613845/the-planet-has-a-fever-and-the-cure-is-more-capitalism-a-prominent-economist-argues/

@brhea @benediktdeicke Former brick-and-mortar store owner here. 👋

Happy to chime in on this. I have lots of opinions. 😉

@LinusEkenstam @mhartl @KiddBubu @andreasklinger Published way before Motherfucking Website. 😜

@dbchhbr Up until this point in history, economic growth has depended on those three things. 😉

Unless you've found a counterexample I haven't seen yet?

@jonathanwmeier @Noahpinion This one? I’ll take a look!

https://twitter.com/noahpinion/status/1187025565636648960?s=21

A remember @PaulHawken having a brighter take when I read "The Ecology of Commerce" years ago while I was taking my undergrad.

I should read it again.

https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Commerce-Revised-Declaration-Sustainability-ebook/dp/B00B72CG5C

"To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created." – @GeorgeMonbiot

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/27/if-we-cant-change-economic-system-our-number-is-up

As founders, it's hard enough to wrestle with the "normal" issues, much less wrestle with existential questions.

But this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night...

But on a macro-scale, our economic system relies on perpetually increasing:

- resource extraction
- population growth
- energy usage

(Not sustainable)

On a micro-scale: "How much MRR is enough?" is a silly question, because, in our current global economic model, your business has to keep growing (or it will eventually die).

The "conventional capitalist" in me knows that "if your business isn't growing, it's dying."

BUT...

The burgeoning ecologist in me knows that our planet can't sustain perpetual economic growth.

@MalinovszkyL @jonbuda We’ve just started following the “no backlogs” approach, and we’re liking it.

@iChris @Clew_less damn meese

RT @mijustin: Even with good principles, there are no guarantees!

In surfing, you paddle out hoping to catch a good wave.

Knowing which w…

@robwalling Really enjoyed this one!

@arvidkahl Yes, a pre-existing behavior seems to be what we’re looking for.

If we’ve already “hired” something else to do the same job in the past, and we’re not satisfied with it, we’re more likely to hire something else in the future.

Even with good principles, there are no guarantees!

In surfing, you paddle out hoping to catch a good wave.

Knowing which wave to catch helps.

Being in the right place helps.

Having the right skills helps.

But even then, there are no guarantees you’ll ride that wave in.

BTW – you’re free to do whatever you want.

If you want to start a business based on your gut, go ahead! 😜

But if you want to reduce your risk, look for existing demand in your segment (or in a parallel category).

Good point by Arvid:

There are other indicators that can show you whether a market is worth pursuing.

(However, existing purchasing behavior is probably the safest.)

https://twitter.com/arvidkahl/status/1187230537854967808?s=21

@arvidkahl I’m curious about this.

There was clearly momentum in that market (an increasing number of teachers earning a living teaching English).

We’ve seen a similar pattern of “paying for things that make you better in your career” in the dev market.

Do you think it’s the same here?

This approach isn’t just for bootstrappers.

Tesla, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon all entered existing categories where folks were already spending money.

They rode a rising tide; they didn’t create the wave. 🏄‍♂️

@JeanCHoffman For bootstrappers, this is the approach that works.

But even in the venture funded space:

- SpaceX and Twitter are outliers (and aren’t yet demonstrably good businesses yet)
- Tesla and Apple both entered existing categories where folks were already spending money

Apple has consistently followed this approach.

They didn’t make the first:

- PC
- Laptop
- MP3 player
- Smart phone

They saw the existing demand, and built on it.

@apnerve Apple’s always followed this. They didn’t make the first:

- PC
- Laptop
- MP3 player
- Smart phone

They saw the existing demand, and capitalized on it.

Don’t look for “problems that need solving.”

Look for categories where people/businesses are already spending money.

From an entrepreneur’s POV, if folks are willing to spend money on it, it’s a problem worth solving.

Entrepreneurs need to follow the money:

“Where is it already being spent, and how can I get a piece of it?”

There should be be evidence that folks are already spending money in the space you’re thinking of entering.

Before AirBnB, folks paid money to stay at hotels, B&Bs, cottages, vacation homes, and hostels.

Annually, people spend $570 BILLION on travel accommodation.

If folks aren’t already buying what you’re thinking of selling, don’t start that business!

@jayclouse It’s totally nuts.

@bramk 💁‍♂️

@itengelhardt Wow

@Patticus In gaming, doesn’t pricing work this way?

Sell the game systems at a loss, make your money selling games and accessories.

@mattragland He'll be ecstatic!

Full article here:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/interview-fat-mike-of-nofx/

(@cheriehu42 I think you'd dig this)

I think about this Fat Mike (NOFX) interview constantly.

It's a sobering reminder about the dangers of fast growth (for bands and businesses).

"Once you get really big, you can't hold on to it. You can't sustain that level of popularity. Our level of popularity we can sustain."

@SproingCreative you got it 👍

@ColinBrauns @zoom_us @DescriptApp @TransistorFM Yup! That's a good way to do it.

Zoom will split your call into two separate files. The only downside is that the audio quality isn't perfect.

Descript is awesome. I'm a big fan.

And Transistor is 💯. 😉

@ArlonAntonius @buildyoursaas @jonbuda Aww sweet! Thanks Arlon! 🙌

@AJChadha Totally impressive! I don’t know how he built it.

@pstephan1187 I’m blown away by it.

@DCoulbourne he's already a better engineer than me

@mcardle87 Yes! He builds these all the time. He's always building and re-building them.

@ClaytonRowney It's crazy! I don't know how it works.

@maxogles It's crazy to me! I have no idea how it works.

I've been wanting to share this forever:

My 11-year-old made a vending machine out of LEGO that dispenses OREOS and it REALLY WORKS and it's AMAZING.

https://youtu.be/lTlaaWINYVs

@misterparker I talked about this a bit on @okproductive:

https://overcast.fm/+LSBrUYdFI

RT @gonedark: The third episode in our 6 part mini-series on testing just hit the airwaves. In this episode, @jessarchercodes and I focus o…

@JeffAmentsArmy @berrics check this out

@kevinleeme I say we all eat pancakes.

@rrhoover we have maple syrup 🍁 🥞

@rrhoover r u moving 2 🇨🇦

@nwquah ... Raptors? 🦖

@mastermaq I'm not a big fan of "think bigger" startups.

Increasingly: if you can't get traction when it's small, it won't have traction even if it's big.

There are a few exceptions, but not many.

(And a lot of the exceptions are in trouble now: WeWork, Uber, etc)

@gettingtoramen @joshuaanderton @mattwensing @simsaas_ Nice! I enjoyed part 1. 👌

@awilkinson @GrahamAllen_1 💯

@tracymakes @MicroConf Nice!

@PaulDMendoza @taylorotwell That’s this app:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/bullet/id1464117391