The essay “Building Something New” maps the territory of company creation with all its contradictions-patterns that usually hold, except when they don’t. Principles that often apply, except when violating them works better. Mathematics that generally governs, except when exceptions prove more instructive than rules. That essay reveals the fundamental uncertainty at the heart of building…
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If you studied thousands of companies – the ones that succeeded and the many more that failed – what patterns would emerge? Not the glossy narratives we tell at conferences, but the uncomfortable realities that determine whether something survives or disappears? I’ve been exploring this question, and what emerges isn’t particularly inspiring. It’s more like…
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Picture this: You’re in a dream, seated in an ornate concert hall with burgundy velvet seats and golden baroque molding that seems to breathe with the music. A stranger approaches, apologetic – you’re in their seat. You stand, move aside, and exchange a brief glance of mutual acknowledgment. The moment passes. You wake. Somewhere else,…
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Often, I think about our effort at permanence – how we construct cities, nations, and entire civilizations as though they were eternal fixtures rather than brief arrangements of matter in an indifferent cosmos. There’s something both terrifying and liberating in contemplating the immense scale of time, in recognizing that Earth spins not just on its…
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