Last 10 Commits for breckyunits.com

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commit 5c8ced747b1226a6b0ef810a3d03dfc939ee325b
Author: Breck Yunits <breck7@gmail.com> Date: Mon Oct 21 05:23:10 2024 -1000 diff --git a/ketoneMap.scroll b/ketoneMap.scroll index a20c656d1..cc4722893 100644 --- a/ketoneMap.scroll +++ b/ketoneMap.scroll @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ date 8/14/2024 -tags All Ketones +tags All Ketones BipolarEnergy title The Journey of the Ketones standardHeader.scroll diff --git a/liver.scroll b/liver.scroll index 1637d6e0d..060042a80 100644 --- a/liver.scroll +++ b/liver.scroll @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ date 9/19/2024 -tags All Life +tags All Life Ketones BipolarEnergy title The Liver Turns On and Off header.scroll ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 5059541b716ef31cff4e39a3596c3fe23acf12a3
Author: Breck Yunits <breck7@gmail.com> Date: Sun Oct 20 16:46:28 2024 -1000 diff --git a/startupAdvice.scroll b/startupAdvice.scroll new file mode 100644 index 000000000..96cd1faa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/startupAdvice.scroll @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +date 2024-10-20 +tags All Startups +title Strong Startup Advice + +header.scroll +printTitle + +## A collection of strong advice for those doing startups. + advice.html strong advice + +printDate +printAuthors + +container 600px + +// todo: Foo: bar. + Foo: should be bolded. + +*Publish early and often:* I don't know of a single polished world changing product that did not start as a shitty product launched, iterated, and relaunched to increasingly larger groups of people. Even the iPhone went through this process. + +*Make something you love:* I don't know a single person who makes something they love and is not successful and happy. I know people that make something people want and make money but are unhappy. + +*Master your crafts:* I don't know a single person who built anything worthwhile who didn't have at least ten years of practice mastering their crafts. + +*Befriend other pioneers:* I don't know anyone who started a successful colony who didn't make friends and trade help with other colony starters along the way. + +*Take care of your health:* I don't know of a single founder who achieved success and didn't eat well, sleep well, take a lot of walks, enjoy time with family and friends, and write a lot. + +*Become skilled in all ways of contending:* I don't know of a single founder who built a great organization who didn't master many complementary skillsets (sales, marketing, cash flow, fundraising, recruiting, design, et cetera). + +**** + +# Strong Startup Advice from others: + +> *Talk to users:* I don't know of a single case of a startup that felt they spent too much time talking to users. - Jessica Livingston + +> *Read:* in my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time – none, zero. - Charlie Munger + +footer.scroll ------------------------------------------------------------
commit fe422764498863984763d2feb493c71198759a94
Author: Breck Yunits <breck7@gmail.com> Date: Sun Oct 20 09:56:35 2024 -1000 diff --git a/essentials.scroll b/essentials.scroll new file mode 100644 index 000000000..25b8274e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/essentials.scroll @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +date 2024-10-20 +tags All Life +title What do you need to make our universe? + +header.scroll +printTitle + +center +Bit +Persistence +Direction +Boundaries +Cloning +Randomness +Assembly +Decay + +*** + +center +What else? + +**** + +printDate + +footer.scroll diff --git a/pageFooter.scroll b/pageFooter.scroll index f079d6bcb..e897c6a75 100644 --- a/pageFooter.scroll +++ b/pageFooter.scroll @@ -1,8 +1,10 @@ importOnly endColumns +br center theScrollButton emailButton breck7@gmail.com editButton +br 2 scrollVersionLink ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 375169e1b4c9369400b8040e6adc62dd7b4ea07a
Author: ffff:72.234.190.31 <ffff:72.234.190.31@hub.scroll.pub> Date: Sun Oct 20 18:14:53 2024 +0000 Reverted to 9de0e139d90039e2f87783083f33e2f2d0735ddb diff --git a/sf.scroll b/sf.scroll index 4e90f229b..e85870b83 100644 --- a/sf.scroll +++ b/sf.scroll @@ -1,5 +1,45 @@ -djfh +date 2024-10-19 +tags All Programming +title sf: instant scratch folders + +header.scroll +printTitle +# a bash one-liner +printAuthors +printDate + +thinColumns 1 + +I make many scratch folders and often hit this: +code + $ cd ~ + $ ~ mkdir tmp + mkdir: tmp: File exists + $ ~ mkdir tmp2 + mkdir: tmp2: File exists + $ ~ mkdir tmp22 + mkdir: tmp22: File exists + +*** + +Now I just type `sf` + +code + $ sf + $ 2024-10-19 pwd + /Users/breck/sf/2024-10-19 + +*** + +The line I added to `~/.zprofile`: + +endColumns + +container 720px + +code + alias sf='date_dir=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) && mkdir -p ~/sf/$date_dir && cd ~/sf/$date_dir' + **** footer.scroll -lk;sdfjglkjdfgkldsjfklgjdkflgjskdlfjglkdfjg ------------------------------------------------------------
commit d86d81d6d04a9eb8dbeb03fbc74c1c8131b2829a
Author: ffff:145.224.90.174 <ffff:145.224.90.174@breckyunits.com> Date: Sun Oct 20 15:22:57 2024 +0000 Updated sf.scroll diff --git a/sf.scroll b/sf.scroll index e85870b83..4e90f229b 100644 --- a/sf.scroll +++ b/sf.scroll @@ -1,45 +1,5 @@ -date 2024-10-19 -tags All Programming -title sf: instant scratch folders - -header.scroll -printTitle -# a bash one-liner -printAuthors -printDate - -thinColumns 1 - -I make many scratch folders and often hit this: -code - $ cd ~ - $ ~ mkdir tmp - mkdir: tmp: File exists - $ ~ mkdir tmp2 - mkdir: tmp2: File exists - $ ~ mkdir tmp22 - mkdir: tmp22: File exists - -*** - -Now I just type `sf` - -code - $ sf - $ 2024-10-19 pwd - /Users/breck/sf/2024-10-19 - -*** - -The line I added to `~/.zprofile`: - -endColumns - -container 720px - -code - alias sf='date_dir=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) && mkdir -p ~/sf/$date_dir && cd ~/sf/$date_dir' - +djfh **** footer.scroll +lk;sdfjglkjdfgkldsjfklgjdkflgjskdlfjglkdfjg ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 9de0e139d90039e2f87783083f33e2f2d0735ddb
Author: Breck Yunits <breck7@gmail.com> Date: Sat Oct 19 13:55:15 2024 -1000 diff --git a/404.scroll b/404.scroll index f9401eac7..03cc4a509 100644 --- a/404.scroll +++ b/404.scroll @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ metaTags theme gazette homeButton /index.html -viewSourceButton +editButton printTitle thinColumns 1 diff --git a/code/header.scroll b/code/header.scroll index 1133ae8fa..67bf47ec9 100644 --- a/code/header.scroll +++ b/code/header.scroll @@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ metaTags ../gazetteTag.scroll homeButton leftRightButtons -viewSourceButton +editButton diff --git a/code/index.scroll b/code/index.scroll index 5bc022f91..44257e5f4 100644 --- a/code/index.scroll +++ b/code/index.scroll @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ metaTags ../gazetteTag.scroll homeButton leftRightButtons -viewSourceButton +editButton printTitle printSnippets index footer.scroll diff --git a/code/settings.scroll b/code/settings.scroll index 5ed80ceaf..65cfa081c 100644 --- a/code/settings.scroll +++ b/code/settings.scroll @@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ importOnly baseUrl https://breckyunits.com/code/ description Helpful one liners, and more, that I may need later rssFeedUrl feed.xml -viewSourceBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7/breckyunits.com/blob/main/code +editBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7/breckyunits.com/blob/main/code diff --git a/header.scroll b/header.scroll index 990d33336..0b4bc04c3 100644 --- a/header.scroll +++ b/header.scroll @@ -7,6 +7,6 @@ gazetteTag.scroll homeButton leftRightButtons -viewSourceButton +editButton css img {border: 2px solid #e9e9e9; border-radius: 5px;} diff --git a/ketones/chemicalBloodTests.scroll b/ketones/chemicalBloodTests.scroll index 35e37ed6d..f5b1988df 100644 --- a/ketones/chemicalBloodTests.scroll +++ b/ketones/chemicalBloodTests.scroll @@ -2,12 +2,12 @@ title Chemical Blood Tests Dataset buildConcepts chemicalBloodTests.tsv chemicalBloodTests.csv ../settings.scroll -viewSourceBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7/breckyunits.com/blob/main/ketones +editBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7/breckyunits.com/blob/main/ketones metaTags ../gazetteTag.scroll homeButton ../index.html -viewSourceButton +editButton wideColumns 1 diff --git a/liberateIdeas/perelman.scroll b/liberateIdeas/perelman.scroll index 11e494284..b40ff9374 100644 --- a/liberateIdeas/perelman.scroll +++ b/liberateIdeas/perelman.scroll @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ date 4/01/2002 description #BringBackNapster title Perelman -viewSourceBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7 +editBaseUrl https://github.com/breck7 ../header.scroll printTitle diff --git a/microprograms.scroll b/microprograms.scroll index f1e6429a6..066b49425 100644 --- a/microprograms.scroll +++ b/microprograms.scroll @@ -115,13 +115,13 @@ Microprogramming is using languages where every single line is capable of being Below is an example of microprogramming. This is the code that generates the homepage for BuilderNews https://news.pub . I annotated everyline to explain it in the terminology of microprogramming. You can also view and edit it with syntax highlighting. - https://try.scroll.pub/#scroll%0A%20%2F%2F%20This%20code%20generates%20the%20homepage%20for%20BuilderNews%20-%20https%3A%2F%2Fnews.pub%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%0A%20title%20BuilderNews%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%20tags%0A%20viewSourceUrl%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fbreck7%2Fnews.pub%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%20tags%0A%20description%20News%20for%20builders.%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20includes%20more%20scroll%20code%0A%20header.scroll%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20div%20tag%0A%20%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22container%22%3E%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20h1%20tag%0A%20%23%20BuilderNews%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20h3%20tag%0A%20%23%23%23%20Watch%20people%20try%20your%20web%20creations%20for%20the%20first%20time.%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%2012%20line%20microprogram%20that%20reads%20a%20csv%20file%2C%20runs%20a%20dataflow%20pipeline%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20table%20tries.csv%0A%20%20rename%20url%20creationLink%0A%20%20%20select%20rank%20creation%20creationLink%20user%20date%0A%20%20%20%20rename%20user%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20orderBy%20rank%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20groupBy%20rank%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20date%20first%20date%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20creationLink%20first%20creationLink%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20creation%20first%20creation%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20tries%20concat%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20select%20rank%20creation%20creationLink%20date%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20printTable%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%202%20line%20microprogram%20that%20adds%20links%20to%20a%20piece%20of%20text%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20Build%20something%20new%20to%20try%3F%20Email%20a%20title%20and%20link%20to%20one%20of%20our%20users.%0A%20%20link%20users.html%20users%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%203%20line%20microprogram%20that%20adds%20links%20to%20a%20piece%20of%20text%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20Download%20this%20data%20as%20JSON.%0A%20%20link%20tries.json%20JSON%0A%20%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fbreck7%2Fnews.pub%2Fblob%2Fmain%2Ftries.scroll%20this%20data%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20includes%20the%20content%20of%20this%20html%20file%3A%0A%20modal.html%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20runs%20%22import%22%3A%0A%20footer.scroll%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20an%20html%20div%20tag%0A%20%3C%2Fdiv%3E%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20javascript%20tag%0A%20tableSearch view and edit it with syntax highlighting + https://try.scroll.pub/#scroll%0A%20%2F%2F%20This%20code%20generates%20the%20homepage%20for%20BuilderNews%20-%20https%3A%2F%2Fnews.pub%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%0A%20title%20BuilderNews%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%20tags%0A%20editUrl%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fbreck7%2Fnews.pub%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20sets%20some%20top%20matter%20information%20for%20html%20meta%20tags%0A%20description%20News%20for%20builders.%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20includes%20more%20scroll%20code%0A%20header.scroll%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20div%20tag%0A%20%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22container%22%3E%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20h1%20tag%0A%20%23%20BuilderNews%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20h3%20tag%0A%20%23%23%23%20Watch%20people%20try%20your%20web%20creations%20for%20the%20first%20time.%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%2012%20line%20microprogram%20that%20reads%20a%20csv%20file%2C%20runs%20a%20dataflow%20pipeline%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20table%20tries.csv%0A%20%20rename%20url%20creationLink%0A%20%20%20select%20rank%20creation%20creationLink%20user%20date%0A%20%20%20%20rename%20user%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20orderBy%20rank%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20groupBy%20rank%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20date%20first%20date%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20creationLink%20first%20creationLink%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20creation%20first%20creation%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20reduce%20tries%20concat%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20select%20rank%20creation%20creationLink%20date%20tries%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20printTable%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%202%20line%20microprogram%20that%20adds%20links%20to%20a%20piece%20of%20text%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20Build%20something%20new%20to%20try%3F%20Email%20a%20title%20and%20link%20to%20one%20of%20our%20users.%0A%20%20link%20users.html%20users%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%203%20line%20microprogram%20that%20adds%20links%20to%20a%20piece%20of%20text%20and%20outputs%20html%0A%20Download%20this%20data%20as%20JSON.%0A%20%20link%20tries.json%20JSON%0A%20%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fbreck7%2Fnews.pub%2Fblob%2Fmain%2Ftries.scroll%20this%20data%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20includes%20the%20content%20of%20this%20html%20file%3A%0A%20modal.html%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20runs%20%22import%22%3A%0A%20footer.scroll%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20an%20html%20div%20tag%0A%20%3C%2Fdiv%3E%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20A%201%20line%20microprogram%20that%20outputs%20a%20javascript%20tag%0A%20tableSearch view and edit it with syntax highlighting codeWithHeader https://github.com/breck7/news.pub/blob/main/index.scroll // A 1 line microprogram that sets some top matter information for html meta title BuilderNews // A 1 line microprogram that sets some top matter information for html meta tags - viewSourceUrl https://github.com/breck7/news.pub + editUrl https://github.com/breck7/news.pub // A 1 line microprogram that sets some top matter information for html meta tags description News for builders. // A 1 line microprogram that includes more scroll code diff --git a/package.json b/package.json index 7c7a9fafb..64afbc8cf 100644 --- a/package.json +++ b/package.json @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ }, "homepage": "https://breckyunits.com", "dependencies": { - "scroll-cli": "^142.0.1" + "scroll-cli": "^143.0.0" }, "devDependencies": { "tap": "^15.0.1" diff --git a/pageFooter.scroll b/pageFooter.scroll index 5c6f6505d..f079d6bcb 100644 --- a/pageFooter.scroll +++ b/pageFooter.scroll @@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ endColumns center theScrollButton emailButton breck7@gmail.com -viewSourceButton +editButton scrollVersionLink diff --git a/settings.scroll b/settings.scroll index cadf8f7f9..5ec36aac0 100644 --- a/settings.scroll +++ b/settings.scroll @@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ authors Breck Yunits https://breckyunits.com Breck Yunits baseUrl https://breckyunits.com/ rssFeedUrl feed.xml -viewSourceBaseUrl edit.html?fileName= +editBaseUrl edit.html?fileName= diff --git a/topLinks.scroll b/topLinks.scroll index 9b5a26aae..c82c10644 100644 --- a/topLinks.scroll +++ b/topLinks.scroll @@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ metaTags gazetteTag.scroll homeButton leftRightButtons -viewSourceButton +editButton diff --git a/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us.scroll b/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us.scroll index 2a2ffefd2..2f0bfbd8b 100644 --- a/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us.scroll +++ b/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us.scroll @@ -390,5 +390,5 @@ _Bill Joy, cofounder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, was cochair of the </div> -viewSourceLink +editLink ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 6fa0f378b7bcfef3ad73fbde4a2438b9c9599295
Author: Breck Yunits <breck7@gmail.com> Date: Sat Oct 19 08:00:21 2024 -1000 diff --git a/sf.scroll b/sf.scroll new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e85870b83 --- /dev/null +++ b/sf.scroll @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +date 2024-10-19 +tags All Programming +title sf: instant scratch folders + +header.scroll +printTitle +# a bash one-liner +printAuthors +printDate + +thinColumns 1 + +I make many scratch folders and often hit this: +code + $ cd ~ + $ ~ mkdir tmp + mkdir: tmp: File exists + $ ~ mkdir tmp2 + mkdir: tmp2: File exists + $ ~ mkdir tmp22 + mkdir: tmp22: File exists + +*** + +Now I just type `sf` + +code + $ sf + $ 2024-10-19 pwd + /Users/breck/sf/2024-10-19 + +*** + +The line I added to `~/.zprofile`: + +endColumns + +container 720px + +code + alias sf='date_dir=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) && mkdir -p ~/sf/$date_dir && cd ~/sf/$date_dir' + +**** + +footer.scroll ------------------------------------------------------------
commit ffb949df91a74ba25e2de2eeeb9b0ec8ce32cf70
Author: ffff:184.169.45.4 <ffff:184.169.45.4@breckyunits.com> Date: Sat Oct 19 03:59:39 2024 +0000 Updated aftertext.scroll diff --git a/aftertext.scroll b/aftertext.scroll index 7a509c177..45167edd5 100644 --- a/aftertext.scroll +++ b/aftertext.scroll @@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ Markups on text may increase monotonically. With current patterns that means sou # Related Work Thank you to Kartik, Shalabh, Mariano, Joe and rau for pointing me to related work. I am certain there are similar efforts I have missed and am grateful for anyone who points those out to me via comments or email. - link http://akkartik.name/ Kartik + http://akkartik.name/ Kartik https://shalabh.com/ Shalabh https://twitter.com/warianoguerra Mariano https://trellick.work Joe ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 6208029f066aa59bbd917b1555a29bc7c4cb8ebf
Author: ffff:24.23.157.43 <ffff:24.23.157.43@breckyunits.com> Date: Wed Oct 16 04:28:08 2024 +0000 Updated insist-on-focus.scroll diff --git a/insist-on-focus.scroll b/insist-on-focus.scroll index 1b7f9e0da..db7172a70 100644 --- a/insist-on-focus.scroll +++ b/insist-on-focus.scroll @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ title Insist on Focus - Keith Rabois describes working at PayPal header.scroll -container 50ch +container 40ch printTitle I read an interesting Twitter thread on focus strategy. That led me to the 3-minute YouTube video Insist on Focus by Keith Rabois. I created the transcript below. ------------------------------------------------------------
commit 74e3b1a5e2e8e30e0363cacac2afa4805c43f8d4
Author: ffff:24.23.157.43 <ffff:24.23.157.43@breckyunits.com> Date: Wed Oct 16 04:17:48 2024 +0000 Updated insist-on-focus.scroll diff --git a/insist-on-focus.scroll b/insist-on-focus.scroll index cb23af990..1b7f9e0da 100644 --- a/insist-on-focus.scroll +++ b/insist-on-focus.scroll @@ -1,43 +1,43 @@ -authors Others -date 2021-02-28 2 -permalink insist-on-focus.html -tags All Startups OtherAuthor -title Insist on Focus - Keith Rabois describes working at PayPal - -header.scroll -printTitle - -container 50ch - -I read an interesting Twitter thread on focus strategy. That led me to the 3-minute YouTube video Insist on Focus by Keith Rabois. I created the transcript below. - dateline - italics - https://twitter.com/markkofman/status/1366030683118833665 focus strategy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcohHIJr6Ns Insist on Focus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rabois Keith Rabois - -*** - -One of the fundamental lessons I learned from Peter Thiel at PayPal was the value of focus. Peter had this somewhat absurd, but classically Peter way of insisting on focus, which is that he would only allow every employee to work on one thing and every executive to speak about one thing at a time, and he distributed this focus throughout the entire organization. So everybody was assigned exactly one thing, and that was the only thing you were allowed to work on, the only thing you were allowed to report back to him about. - -My top initiatives shifted around over the years, but I'll give you a few. One was initially Visa, MasterCard really hated us. We were operating at the edge of their rules at the time. My number one problem was to stop MasterCard particularly, but Visa a bit from killing us. So until I had that risk taken off the table, Peter didn't want to hear about any of my other ideas. - -Once we put Visa, MasterCard into a pretty stable place than eBay also wanted to kill us. Wasn't very happy with us processing 70% of the payments on their platform, so that was my next problem. - -Then 9/11 happened and the US Treasury Department promulgated regulations, which would require us among other things to collect Social Security numbers from all of our buyers, which would have suppressed our payment volumes substantially. So then my number one initiative became convincing the treasury department to not propagate these regulations, right post 9/11. - -At some point, we also needed to diversify our revenue off of eBay. So that became another initiative for me. That one I did not solve that well, which in some way led to us eventually agreeing to be acquired. - -I had another number one problem, which was this publication called the Red Herring, had published this set of unflattering articles about us and how to fix that and rebuild the communications team. - -Peter would constantly just assign me new things. He didn't like the terms of our financial services relationship with the vendors that we were using, so I took on that team and fixed the economics of those relationships, et cetera, et cetera, but they were not done in parallel. They're basically sequential. The reason why this was such a successful strategy is that most people, perhaps all people tend to substitute from A-plus problems that are very difficult to solve, to be a plus problems, which you know a solution to, or you understand the path to solve. - -You have a checklist every morning. Imagine waking up, and a lot of people write checklists and things to accomplish. Most people have an A-plus problem, but they don't know the solution so they procrastinate on that solution? And then they go down the checklist to the second or third initiative where they know the answer and they'll go solve those problems and cross them off. The problem is if your entire organization is always solving the second, third or fourth most important thing, you never solve the first. - -So Peter's technique of forcing people to only work on one thing meant everybody had to work on the A-plus problems. And if every part of the organization once in a while can solve a problem that the rest of the world thinks is impossible, you wind up with an iconic company that the world's never seen before. - -I absolutely love the math behind this strategy. There are a few other terms to get right, but there's a fantastic idea here. - -**** - -footer.scroll +authors Others +date 2021-02-28 2 +permalink insist-on-focus.html +tags All Startups OtherAuthor +title Insist on Focus - Keith Rabois describes working at PayPal + +header.scroll + +container 50ch +printTitle + +I read an interesting Twitter thread on focus strategy. That led me to the 3-minute YouTube video Insist on Focus by Keith Rabois. I created the transcript below. + dateline + italics + https://twitter.com/markkofman/status/1366030683118833665 focus strategy + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcohHIJr6Ns Insist on Focus + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rabois Keith Rabois + +*** + +One of the fundamental lessons I learned from Peter Thiel at PayPal was the value of focus. Peter had this somewhat absurd, but classically Peter way of insisting on focus, which is that he would only allow every employee to work on one thing and every executive to speak about one thing at a time, and he distributed this focus throughout the entire organization. So everybody was assigned exactly one thing, and that was the only thing you were allowed to work on, the only thing you were allowed to report back to him about. + +My top initiatives shifted around over the years, but I'll give you a few. One was initially Visa, MasterCard really hated us. We were operating at the edge of their rules at the time. My number one problem was to stop MasterCard particularly, but Visa a bit from killing us. So until I had that risk taken off the table, Peter didn't want to hear about any of my other ideas. + +Once we put Visa, MasterCard into a pretty stable place than eBay also wanted to kill us. Wasn't very happy with us processing 70% of the payments on their platform, so that was my next problem. + +Then 9/11 happened and the US Treasury Department promulgated regulations, which would require us among other things to collect Social Security numbers from all of our buyers, which would have suppressed our payment volumes substantially. So then my number one initiative became convincing the treasury department to not propagate these regulations, right post 9/11. + +At some point, we also needed to diversify our revenue off of eBay. So that became another initiative for me. That one I did not solve that well, which in some way led to us eventually agreeing to be acquired. + +I had another number one problem, which was this publication called the Red Herring, had published this set of unflattering articles about us and how to fix that and rebuild the communications team. + +Peter would constantly just assign me new things. He didn't like the terms of our financial services relationship with the vendors that we were using, so I took on that team and fixed the economics of those relationships, et cetera, et cetera, but they were not done in parallel. They're basically sequential. The reason why this was such a successful strategy is that most people, perhaps all people tend to substitute from A-plus problems that are very difficult to solve, to be a plus problems, which you know a solution to, or you understand the path to solve. + +You have a checklist every morning. Imagine waking up, and a lot of people write checklists and things to accomplish. Most people have an A-plus problem, but they don't know the solution so they procrastinate on that solution? And then they go down the checklist to the second or third initiative where they know the answer and they'll go solve those problems and cross them off. The problem is if your entire organization is always solving the second, third or fourth most important thing, you never solve the first. + +So Peter's technique of forcing people to only work on one thing meant everybody had to work on the A-plus problems. And if every part of the organization once in a while can solve a problem that the rest of the world thinks is impossible, you wind up with an iconic company that the world's never seen before. + +I absolutely love the math behind this strategy. There are a few other terms to get right, but there's a fantastic idea here. + +**** + +footer.scroll