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This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Currently Reading

Daily Reading from September 21, 2010

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21 Sep 2010

Links to what I’ve been reading recently.

Why Startups Outside Tech Cities Arenâ€™t Totally Farked — "Most people are surprised to find out Fark is based in Kentucky. Not because Fark is based in Kentucky per se, but that Fark isn’t based in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. I thought this was strange at ..."

Recently Written

Think Systems, not Symptoms: Dec 15: Piecemeal process creation frustrates teams and slows work. Stop patching problems and start solving systems. Adopting a systems thinking approach helps you design processes that are efficient, aligned with goals, and truly add value.
Your Policies Aren’t Your Culture: Dec 13: Policies guide behavior, but culture is the lived norms and values of your team. Policies reflect culture -- they don’t define it. Netflix’s parental leave shift didn’t change its culture of freedom and responsibility. It clarified how to live it.
Lighten Your Process Burden: Dec 7: Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Product Add-Ons Are An Expansion Myth: Dec 1: Add-ons can enhance your product’s appeal but won’t drive significant market growth. To expand your customer base, focus on developing standalone products.
Protecting your Product Soul when the Same Product meets New People.: Nov 23: Expand into new markets while preserving your product’s core value. Discover how to adapt and grow without losing your product’s soul.
Building the Next Big Thing: A Framework for Your Second Product: Nov 19: You need a first product sooner than you think. Here's a framework for helping you identify a winner.
A Framework for Scaling product teams: Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup: Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.

Older...

What I'm Reading

His Startup Is Now Worth $62 Billion. It Gave Away Its First Product Free. at wsj.com
How to Turn a Competitor's Strength into a Weakness at aprildunford.substack.com
“Founder Mode” and the Art of Mythmaking at charity.wtf
Clever Hans, Plato, and Large Language Models at aalokbhattacharya.substack.com
Bringing Elon to a knife fight at eatingpolicy.com
Netflix’s Extraordinary Parental Leave Was Part of Its Culture. That’s Over. at wsj.com
The secret tricks hidden inside restaurant menus at bbc.com
Storing times for human events at simonwillison.net
Tesla’s Big Bet: Cameras over LiDAR for Self Driving Cars at viksnewsletter.com
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni
Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Brand by Matthew Dicks
Soft matter mechanics of baseball’s Rubbing Mud | PNAS at pnas.org
bureaucracy at dhruvmethi.substack.com
Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot by Matt Abrahams
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell
Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey
Why GitHub Actually Won at blog.gitbutler.com
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
Why UX Fails: The Critical Importance of Staying Focused on Your Primary Customer at medium.com
The Antidote to "Manager Mode" is Actual Management at edbatista.com
Founder Mode at paulgraham.com