How to be Great? Be Good Repeatedly.
Steph Smith's mountain of ideas and finding answers from experts
** My brother tears up the slopes at White Pass, WA **
Hello there,
I'm working on completing a garage renovation before we welcome our second child in a few weeks, and I’m thankful for my friends!
Once we have heat and some carpets on the floor, I’ll move my office outside, which will either turn me into a productivity wizard or a lonely penguin on an iceberg (but a warm one!).
I’ve also been getting in a few days of skiing and loving the easy access to Mount Hood, even if it’s just for a 90-minute backcountry ski lap.
This week’s goodies include the most useful advice from the mountain of ideas Steph Smith shares all over the internet, how to look cool walking under bridges, and finding answers from experts
The Consistently Good Advice from a Serial Creator
Steph Smith started with public side projects like a coworking retreat list and a personal time tracker and ended up making over $500k in self-published book sales.
What truly stands out is her curiosity, particularly around the pursuit of even the super niche stuff.
One of my favorite articles from Steph Smith, who now hosts the Andreessen Horowitz podcast, is titled - How to be great? Be Good Repeatedly.
As a self-taught marketing expert, Steph stumbled upon the article idea when she googled, “How can I be great?”
It encouraged her to reflect on her successes and failures to tease out what made certain experiences great. The biggest gains didn’t come out of brilliant overnight discoveries. Instead, they required long-haul effort which compounds over time.
“Perhaps ‘great’ is just ‘good’, but repeatable.”
And her advice on how to reach that repetitive cycle:
“In order to achieve the things you want in life, you’ll need to establish a habit of progression. You literally need to become good at being decent."
What amazes me is that wherever she shows up, from podcasts to newsletters to Twitter, she brings an enormous list of ideas and enthusiasm!
On a recent episode of “How I Use ChatGPT”, Steph gives very clear steps to validate a business idea, but one unique thing stood out: don’t ignore the silly pieces.
She highlights things like the subreddit TV Too High or a YouTube channel about Japanese passenger trains with millions of views. This stuff might seem pointless, but the quirky things that motivate you and feel fun will carry you much further.
“It's a window into what people really want, and if you can understand what people really want, there is a direct spin-off in terms of how you can leverage it… but it helps you create better things in the world.”
Further validation that you should pursue creative projects and put them out into the world! And if you see a TV too high, maybe post it on a weirdly popular subreddit.
Worthy & Remarkable
The NASA Artemis watch from XERIC features “tumbling hour pods” and carbon fiber (and raises $262k).
It’s terrific to offer a way for kids to make their own toys - The Nüdel Pod - yet what really gets me is… the name is fantastic! ($160k on Kickstarter)
The Radiant Mega Sling is perfect for your drone and camera lenses and walking under stylish bridges ($300k).
Sonnie Trotter climbs a 5.14a first ascent route in Squamish in impeccable style.
I’ve been enjoying the National Geographic show Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold and Hazel Findlay - here’s a clip: Alex rappels into the Moulin.
One Thing from Me
Over the past few weeks, I skimmed Principles by Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund.
Here are my three favorites from his list of work principles:
Look for people who have lots of great questions.
Share the things that are hardest to share.
Fail well.
One fascinating thing he explains is that 99% of the world's events can be categorized as “another one of those.” Just because something hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it should be a surprise.
My takeaway is that someone out there has experienced the problem you’re stuck on right now, so how do you learn from them?
I’m working on my sling bag side project, and I found an amazing podcast by e-commerce experts. Each episode clearly answers one of my top questions. Don’t start from scratch if you don’t have to!
Can you reach out to a few experts in a field that interests you to make progress faster?The easier approach is to find a good podcast interview.
Consistently (trying to be) good,
Jono
PS - my favorite recent posts from /r/showerThoughts (saving you the click!)