The Curiosity Chronicle: On Execution, Patrick Collison, Seinfeld’s Systems, and More

Episode IV - Brought to you by Pallet!

Welcome to Episode IV of The Curiosity Chronicle - a weekly newsletter sharing 5 pieces of content, all curated for curiosity. Enjoy this post? Join the 17,000+ others stimulating their intellectual curiosity by subscribing today!

Today’s Curiosity Chronicle is brought to you by Pallet!

Pallet was built on the foundational belief that the future of hiring is distributed and community-driven. Pallet is building the infrastructure that powers this future, enabling anyone to transform their audience into a unique talent pool that forward-thinking companies can access. The company is backed by an amazing group of investors and creators and has raised ~$4 million in seed funding to date.

I am partnered with Pallet for The Bloomboard and cannot speak highly enough about the team or vision. They are truly building what LinkedIn wishes it could be.

If you’re a creator with an engaged community, getting involved is a total no-brainer. They have a huge waitlist right now, but the team has graciously agreed that any of my referrals will move to the top of the list. Email or DM me if you’re interested!

Without further ado, here’s Episode IV of The Curiosity Chronicle!

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One Quote:

“Ideas are cheap. Ideas are easy. Ideas are common. Everybody has ideas. Ideas are highly, highly overvalued. Execution is all that matters.” - Casey Neistat

Ideas are cheap - execution is expensive. I was chatting recently with Josh Fabian - the founder of a crazy cool gaming/creator company called Metafy - who had recently decided to publish his investor letters publicly via a newsletter.

He said people thought he was crazy for sharing Metafy’s ideas publicly. His response? Who cares if my competitors know what I’m doing? It’s all about execution - and they won’t execute like we will. With that mentality, my money is on Josh…

One Tweet:

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Bad execution: All decisions are rigorously considered and debated. Good execution: Expensive, hard-to-reverse decisions are rigorously debated. Cheap, easily-reversible decisions are made quickly. (Most decisions are the latter.) 4/10

I recently discovered the brilliant Julie Zhuo and she has quickly become one of my favorite follows on Twitter. This tweet (and the thread in which it was nested) was exceptionally good.

Perfect is the enemy of good. Tailor your decision-making process to the type of decision you are making - Julie’s razor (the “good execution” above) will help.

One Article

An Interview with Patrick Collison - Elad Gil

I find Patrick Collison to be one of the most interesting thinkers (and doers) in the world right now. The company he co-founded - Stripe - is on a (seemingly successful) mission to increase the GDP of the internet. Patrick thinks big and I’m here for it.

In this interview (with the great Elad Gil), he talks about scaling company culture, handling naysayers, and driving sustainable growth. When brilliant people offer free tours of their mind, I suggest you take them up on it.

One Podcast:

The Tim Ferriss Show: Jerry Seinfeld - A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success

This episode of The Tim Ferris Show (one of my favorite podcasts!) was incredible. Jerry’s insights on the creative process were super interesting (creativity comes in bursts!), but it was his perspective on failure that left a lasting impression:

“If you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the last ones I would trade would be the failures. Those are the most valuable ones.”

Truer words have never been spoken. Failures shape you. Embrace them.

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

One Bonus:

Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar

A marketing masterclass by Steve Jobs

This is why YouTube is disrupting education. A marketing masterclass from one of the greatest of all time - for free. I still gets chills from that Apple Think Different campaign video. Pure awesomeness.

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Until next time, stay curious, friends!