returning to sf

so I said I was going to share frameworks and that would be my substack.

something highfalutin. like “how to reason through this problem so that it disappears from your life’’.

lol that didn’t happen.

I didn’t publish anything for 3 months.

so I changed the name and it’s just going to be semi-regular updates. around every two weeks - a month.

like an investor update. all of you have invested in me non-monetarily (even in the smallest of ways, like reading this substack). and i really appreciate that :)

so my pieces will be more unvarnished. with maybe the occasional well written piece.

I’m leaving to san francisco. like literally right now I’m in the airport

feels like im about to walk down memory lane :)

some thoughts

I went through the wheels with this MCP indexer thing but I don’t believe it has *business* potential, at least right now (although would be a COOL thing to build).

so back to square 0.

plan right now?

I’m literally going to post up in a cafe with a sign at The Mill that says “are you a developer? chat with me for 15 and ill buy you coffee”

that’s it.

(also of course talk to friends who are developers and find problems that have budget etc etc a la e-sales. there are quite a few paths)

also one other thing.

there was a question that Swen asked me last week that I’m still noodling on.“Would you rather work on an idea that has a 50% chance of returning you $10M in 5 years? or a 5% chance of a $1B.”

took me a while to realize I can’t really answer, because I don’t think I care about either. the journey is much more interesting to me. and who i build for.

then the natural question is why not take a job instead. great time to be at nvidia/oai/anthropique/meta/cursor insert your favorite ai agent startup here.

i might. for once its exciting to work at company.

i think i just want to take an honest shot myself first.

but why?

i felt this so strongly with my ckpantry, and then again with trove and pantheon and simplata and all these random little side projects.

a product is a love letter to your users.

knowing that you can make a dent on a person’s life is really quite wonderful. there’s no greater joy than hearing from people who love your product.

how people feel about themselves is something we have influence on. and when we build beautiful things that make people feel wonderful, powerful, or happy – we affect that.

a well crafted product is like a love letter.

and I’d like to write one again.