This is a super simplistic framework for thinking about building a new product.

Many people come up with business ideas without enough demand, this framework ensures you're going after an audience with a problem + demand + money:

Credit: @sgblank @nivi

I once had dinner with Peter Thiel...

....and whenever someone asked his opinion on something, he’d give a “spectrum of possibilities” for every answer.

Example: If I asked his thoughts on the future of the Dollar, he would respond: 

“Ok, here’s 3 scenarios…”

Then he would give 3 different “scenarios” ranging from: 
- Normal and boring scenario. 
- Good and Bad mixed scenario. 
- Crazy worst case scenario.

Then he’d backup each scenario with data or comparable past events.

He rarely thought something was black and white, but that everything was a spectrum of possibilities.

It was super cool to see his thinking in action!

Here's an interesting thought:

"The Internet" still runs on servers and cables, and the companies that run the most bare metal on the internet are: 

- Amazon: 32% 
- Microsoft: 20% 
- Google: 9% 
- Alibaba: 6% 
- IBM: 5% 
- SalesForce: 3% 
- Tencent: 2% 
- Oracle: 2%

That means as you're reading this on your phone/tablet/desktop, some bits and bytes travelled either by air or physical cable to a metal server likely controlled by one (or several) of the companies listed above.

You might be reading my words originating from a cluster of servers just like this!

I watched a demo video of the Oculus Quest, and Mark Zuckerberg was demo'ing it.

One random interesting thing I noticed was that he was demo'ing this off his private jet:

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is a Gulfstream G650-ER.

By pulling up some similar-layout G650's you can see the seat he's sitting in is the forward seat closest to the galley:

I just thought Zuck demo'ing Quest from his private jet is one of those things half the people will think is awesome, and half the people will make fun of 😂

Sometimes text alone isn't the best way to transmit an idea....but often text and video is a strong combo!

I was working with a designer to re-do some images on a sales page, and I thought it was fun to see all the trial-and-error done to come up with the best image:

Here's the original image I made in Google Presentations:
It's not pretty, but it did the job:

Then you can see more versions of the same idea come to life (some better than others).

This one was a simplified version, but wasn't as obvious

This one took me several brain cycles to figure out what was going on:

This version abandoned the scale and just went with benefits:

I thought this looked badass, but was too confusing:

Another version that looked visually interesting, but I think is hard to tell what's going on:

This one was good, but it wasn't clear there was a transformation taking place:

I ended up liking this one the best!

Which version did you like best?? You can respond and lemme know.

Last Friday I sponsored a "Friday Writing Club" here in Austin, where a whole coffee shop of people is doing a dedicated 1 hour silent writing time:

If you want you can sponsor the Writing Club and pay for everyone's coffee, so I volunteered.

There were about 25 people, and my total bill to pay for everyone's coffee was...
...
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$75!

I thought it would be $200+ so I happily tipped another $75 bringing it to a total $150.

Not bad!