Hey Indie Thinkers,
This week was all about getting v1 of the forum in a good spot.
Reid Hoffman famously said, "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.”
That is no longer completely true.
Designing a beautiful user experience takes a fraction of the time it used to.
You can’t hide behind the excuse of trying not to waste time. One still has to be careful though. The new risk is having too much fun in the sandbox. All of these new tools are a joy to play with. You could end up spending weeks on endless iterations and completely lose track of what matters most.
Shipping.
Here’s what you missed this past week:
Beck At It
I’m stoked to catch up with
on Tuesday at 8 PM EST via Substack Live.Becky will be the second Write of Passage alum I’ll have the pleasure of speaking with, and they’re an impressive bunch.
was the first.Becky recently landed a gig with Ali Abdaal, and I was struck by one of her latest YouTube videos. Don’t get lost playing with shiny new toys.
Your pretty tools are trapping you.
Becky highlights an uncomfortable truth.
It’s false that just by using the tools that creatives I admire use that I can make art like them.
Just because you buy Air Jordans, or drink Gatorade, doesn’t mean you’ll “Be like Mike.” Remember this campaign?
It’s so absurd it’s easy to miss the false message.
We just buy the thing, and hope for change.
That new tool, book, course, could help, but it could also be a trap.
If there are questions you want to ask Becky, drop them in the comments.
Fin
Context is King.
— Daniel
Ahhh thanks for sharing my stuff! Looking forward to our chat in a few days