Jan 17, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick, Daniel McCormick
This piece really hit close to home. When you were talking about how the board was looking for a new CEO to ultimately simplify the business, I thought you were going to go into how simplifying ended up being the right path. But your comment about how the complexity brought smart people who enjoyed the challenge and working with motivated and smart people is part of what makes a business enjoyable and unique.
I'd rather fail in working on something complex with smart people than enter into the mediocrity of a "me too business".
This piece is coming at a good point where my wife (who's also my business partner) and I are thinking a lot about our differentiation in our core business, and how much complexity should we have in the customer's we take on (and our internal systems).
All while also writing my angel investing content, and figuring out how to differentiate in that as well. We were just talking last night... Maybe how involved my wife is in it all and what her experience has been is unique and interesting? How our investments directly stem from the software we use in our business together? There's a lot that makes us unique, just need to figure out the voice and how to build a personal monopoly around it.
A lot to think about. One things for sure, forwarding this post to my wife for us to discuss 😁
You may be pleased to hear that your article was deemed "Clearly different". As a junkie of brand strategy, the hype around differentiation is loud. You explain it in a way it can be retold and understood easily by colleagues, children, or clients, and serve a metric of success. Thank you.
I just finished reading this and I have to say, it was incredibly thought-provoking. The idea of being able to add knowledge and experience (be it f1 racing, karate, etc) on demand in just a few minutes or hours (like in Matrix) would be truly mind-blowing. It would definitely change the game for how we value skills, knowledge, hard work. Creativity (differentiation) would become even more important in this new world. It's exciting to think about the possibilities and potential advancements that could come from us having a product that meets what the dreams of team Neuralink are.
love your writing man, I just wish more 20 year olds could have the attention span to read such long articles instead of just scrolling on insta and tiktok
This blog def makes me feel better about what I'm doing atm. I'm working a remote internship at a Web 3.0 company and traveling the country while I'm doing it.
At each city I go to, I am attempting to make copious amounts of content via podcasts, tiktoks, blogs, and more to document the journey and also make myself more comfortable putting myself out there.
Don't see many other people (that I know at least) doing something like this, and def made me feel like and outcast at first. Great blog
Great thinking, best material I’ve read to date on the panic and fever surrounding the impending destruction of our species through robots that we taught how to love…
I read today that Getty Images and a few other choice luddites have started to sue…
Here we go again.
Invent something powerful, far reaching, socially, psychologically, economically, philosophically and technologically - and then like the monkeys we are flinging crap at each other from trees…
Jan 17, 2023·edited Jan 17, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick
In college my first day of business classes the professor gave an example about opening a package shipping company in the 1970s. The problem was, that UPS and the post office already existed so why and how would you want to compete with them. The answer was differentiation. Specialize in overnight shipping. and Fedex was born.
Also as someone who cured his autoimmune diseases with carnivore diet, I can feel the extra creatine in my lifting and jiu jitsu workouts.
********
Are you a problem solver?
We know the problems. The problem is our systems are corrupted. It is time to organize and fix them.
This piece really hit close to home. When you were talking about how the board was looking for a new CEO to ultimately simplify the business, I thought you were going to go into how simplifying ended up being the right path. But your comment about how the complexity brought smart people who enjoyed the challenge and working with motivated and smart people is part of what makes a business enjoyable and unique.
I'd rather fail in working on something complex with smart people than enter into the mediocrity of a "me too business".
This piece is coming at a good point where my wife (who's also my business partner) and I are thinking a lot about our differentiation in our core business, and how much complexity should we have in the customer's we take on (and our internal systems).
All while also writing my angel investing content, and figuring out how to differentiate in that as well. We were just talking last night... Maybe how involved my wife is in it all and what her experience has been is unique and interesting? How our investments directly stem from the software we use in our business together? There's a lot that makes us unique, just need to figure out the voice and how to build a personal monopoly around it.
A lot to think about. One things for sure, forwarding this post to my wife for us to discuss 😁
Thank you.
The piece I didn't know I needed 🥲
absolutely spot on.
wrote something similar for startups a few years back called “Niche to Win”
https://500hats.com/niche-to-win-baby-934eba97f28c
You may be pleased to hear that your article was deemed "Clearly different". As a junkie of brand strategy, the hype around differentiation is loud. You explain it in a way it can be retold and understood easily by colleagues, children, or clients, and serve a metric of success. Thank you.
Great writing - great post & terrific insight. Many thanks!
Love this post! Great storytelling and speaks exactly to what I think many people are thinking/feeling right now 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Great post.
You might really enjoying going down the category design rabbit hole.
(it's about how to design and dominate your own market category)
I love Create creatine and both several bags of it for each family member https://valetudo.substack.com/p/merry-christmas
I just finished reading this and I have to say, it was incredibly thought-provoking. The idea of being able to add knowledge and experience (be it f1 racing, karate, etc) on demand in just a few minutes or hours (like in Matrix) would be truly mind-blowing. It would definitely change the game for how we value skills, knowledge, hard work. Creativity (differentiation) would become even more important in this new world. It's exciting to think about the possibilities and potential advancements that could come from us having a product that meets what the dreams of team Neuralink are.
love your writing man, I just wish more 20 year olds could have the attention span to read such long articles instead of just scrolling on insta and tiktok
This blog def makes me feel better about what I'm doing atm. I'm working a remote internship at a Web 3.0 company and traveling the country while I'm doing it.
At each city I go to, I am attempting to make copious amounts of content via podcasts, tiktoks, blogs, and more to document the journey and also make myself more comfortable putting myself out there.
Don't see many other people (that I know at least) doing something like this, and def made me feel like and outcast at first. Great blog
Great thinking, best material I’ve read to date on the panic and fever surrounding the impending destruction of our species through robots that we taught how to love…
I read today that Getty Images and a few other choice luddites have started to sue…
Here we go again.
Invent something powerful, far reaching, socially, psychologically, economically, philosophically and technologically - and then like the monkeys we are flinging crap at each other from trees…
Telling you man… robots are coming’ to git us…
That was a really fun read. Also, your podcast recs are always favorites.
Great writing - great post & terrific insight. Many thanks!
In college my first day of business classes the professor gave an example about opening a package shipping company in the 1970s. The problem was, that UPS and the post office already existed so why and how would you want to compete with them. The answer was differentiation. Specialize in overnight shipping. and Fedex was born.
Also as someone who cured his autoimmune diseases with carnivore diet, I can feel the extra creatine in my lifting and jiu jitsu workouts.
********
Are you a problem solver?
We know the problems. The problem is our systems are corrupted. It is time to organize and fix them.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/weaponized-direct-democracy-the-kryptonite?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
so good - each tidbit on differentiation is better than the last
hey, just wanted to say that this article was great