Ajay's Quest Log #2

Hey guys!

New email this week - a bit of a big week for models so I’m going to break it a little bit more. Also I’m working on something big called “F**k Subscriptions” which is a whole collection of self-hosted, free or one time payment software solutions. It’s crazy that I’m paying so much in SaaS so i’m on a mission to get it as close to zero as possible. Share this newsletter with others who might be keen to get the first sneak peek into it!

• Model Count: 114

• Questions Count: 50

1. Get good enough to recognise the best

This is something I’ve always kind of thought when it came to hiring but when Joe Lonsdale explained it - it struck a chord with me. Having the skills to differentiate between a graduate physics student and an expert scientist who has published 50+ papers on a specific topic is actually difficult. In the same way, many non-technical founder struggle to hire engineers because they don’t have the baseline to differentiate between them. The solution here is to learn enough to distinguish A+ from B or have trusted parties who can do this for you.

2. Narrative follows price

This one is something that rings true primarily for the stock market but also in other areas. When Meta & Zuck were under all kinds of scrutiny the price of the stock was ~$90. Now that the price is over $450 (as of writing this) there are so many positive stories about the company. Seeing this play out many times its clear that price doesn’t follow narrative or news but the news just follows the price.

Think about Elon Musk - the narrative about how he’s distracted from Telsa which is price is down and it’s all Twitter’s fault. He has always been distracted with many companies! All that has changed is Tesla’s price. 🤷‍♂️

3. Making things easy: What would this look like if it was easy? What do you see me do that is easier for me than it is for other people?

I was listening to the podcast with Tim Ferris & Shaan Puri and the concept of leaning into your advantages was really interesting. Tim asks himself the question “what would it look like it was easy?” which is a good question to help you reframe your own thinking but also your teams thinking. Then an question to help you see what others see in you is “What do you see me do that is easier for me than it is for other people?” because people around you might see your strengths differently to you or confirm your hunches.

4. What silly story am I telling myself?

This is a question Shaan brought up. Sometimes we have an internal dialogue that is just silly - like overanalysing what someone thinks of us or being nervous about something. Asking yourself this question and framing it as ‘silly’ can be helpful to disrupt negative thoughts and help reframe your mind.

5. Laugh at Perfection, it’s boring and keeps you from being done.

Perfection is often viewed as the ultimate goal, but chasing it can be a trap. It can lead to endless tweaks and revisions, preventing us from completing our work and moving on to the next task. Instead of striving for perfection, we should aim for progress and learn from our mistakes.

View everything at https://ajays.quest/

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ajay

P.S: What else would you like to hear about? Hit “reply” and i’ll respond to every email 😀