Plenary Expansions Part II: The Founder’s Fallacy
A startup is a conspiracy to change the world in some meaningful way. The product is the secret vehicle to affect this change, privy only to the founding team. If the product fails, everything fails. But if it does, it can change the world. It’s the ultimate leverage.
Founders – who are in fact utopian artists, aspiring to infuse their spirit into the very fabric of their startup – tend to lose focus, which is of paramount importance in the chaotic and resource-parched environment of a startup.
Plenary Expansions Part I: The Artist in the Art
When we experience a transformative piece of art, our curiosity naturally turns towards the artist. How does an artist produce a great piece of art? What is their process? Of course, there is no formula. But the general perception is that a real artist would be a living embodiment of the values that shape their art. The way they live their lives becomes the fertile soil in which the seeds of art take root. Every piece of art they create is a plenary expansion of themselves.
AI and a new human economy
"Open war is upon you," Aragorn tells King Theoden in LOTR, The Twin Towers, "whether you risk it or not."
And that is the truth we're all staring in the face – whether we will it or not!
It's mind-boggling what AI can already do; its abilities extend way beyond ChatGPT. Today there are tools and applications that can write code; create and edit art, photos, and videos; write screenplays, songs, and music; make lesson plans; convert speech to text; do brilliant voice-overs; translate between several languages; drive cars; write poems, stories, and blogs – hell, it can even generate texts in the style of a particular person! And the list goes on.
Hof-nung
Und ich kann wieder atmen.
Können ist so eine Sache. Prüft deine Fähigkeit, hält aber die Lage gefangen. Die externe und die gedankliche.
Was brauchst du denn nur zum Atmen? Eine Nase, so die Fähigkeit und die Luft, die externe Lage.
Was aber, wenn die Luft dir nur nicht passt? Wenn sie zu dir nicht gehört? Wenn sie dich nicht auffrischt?
Learn the macro from the micro
Reality is fractal in nature. It means that there is a pattern followed by things small and big, something like a DNA that knows to architect the whole structure. Think of the veins on a leaf that follow a pattern. Once you know how to ‘draw’ them, you can keep drawing more leaves. Similarly, once you know how to strum (or pick) the guitar, you can possibly do it for any song. Once you ‘get’ the knack of solving a Sudoku puzzle, you could solve many more. And once you ‘get’ the knack of making a sentence, you can be in control.
Die Kiesel aus der Donau
Sie ist echt schön, dachte ich im Gehen. Da stolperte ich über zwei nasse Steine. Zwei kleine Kiesel. Der eine türkis. Der andere weinrot. Beide so niedlich wie Sterne am Nachthimmel. Ich nahm sie in die Hand – sie waren wunderlich warm. Und weich. Ich wollte sie küssen. Hab’s auch getan. Und sie an meiner Wange gerieben…
A cold morning in December
All I remember is the walk I in the school grounds, on that cold and frosty December morning in the year of 1989 – the morning moistened with frosty tears; the morning with a somber light and a scarlet wound across the skies; the morning when my best friend and I walked together in a restrained silence – a silence that echoed our desolate sense of loss.