The Library of Minds

The World's First Interactive Podcast.

Hear from the world’s greatest thinkers - then continue the conversation with their Digital Mind on Delphi.

[Dara @daraladje]

A false belief can make you perform better.

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked, told me how a made-up statistic helped change the way Serena Williams played tennis.

Serena was struggling with her volleys at Wimbledon and had lost confidence playing close to the net.

Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told her she won 80% of points when she moved forward.

He made the number up.

But she believed it, started playing more aggressively, and went on to win Wimbledon.

We spend so much time asking whether our beliefs are true. We rarely ask whether they're useful.

What would you attempt if you didn't believe you were bad at it?

This week on the Library of Minds, I chat with @nireyal about why beliefs are tools, not truths, why you might not be as addicted to your phone as you think, and how the stories we tell ourselves shape what we're capable of.

1:00 - Why Clubhouse Didn’t Stick
3:37 - You Can Always Buy Growth, But Not This
9:02 - The 4 Steps of the Hook Model
13:34 - Great Products Get Better With Use
19:26 - Is Social Media That Bad?
26:57 - It’s Not the Algorithm’s Fault
41:10 - Stop Saying “Dopamine”
48:49 - The Man Who Overdosed on Placebos
56:30 - The Lie That Made Serena Williams Better
1:06:00 - Find Your Blind Spots With Nir’s Delphi

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

“Tech debt is the sign of a not dying startup.”

Reddit CTO Chris Slowe means it as a compliment.

[Dara @daraladje]

A lot of SF is longevity pilled.

I’m more of a life maxxer.

Everyone has lifestyle advice. One person tells you to track every night of sleep. Another tells you to take off the watch and go outside.

Whose advice makes sense depends on what kind of life you want.

See who you land next to, so you can decide who you should listen to:

https://t.co/gLtRaAyH4V

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

If your software can’t be used by an agent, it’s breaking the loop.

Guillermo Rauch, Vercel CEO, on the tools he’s deleting first.

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Wondering where he draws the line between a tool that amplifies you and one that replaces the skill? Ask Guillermo Rauch anything on Delphi: https://t.co/v3MRz1JqTB

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Being good at Google was a skill.

Being good at agents is the next one.

This is how Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch is thinking about his kids: build the foundation, then hand them the power-ups.

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

continue the conversation with g on delphi: https://t.co/v3MRz1JqTB

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

We asked Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch how to get a six-pack without doing a single crunch.

He gave us the same answer he gives founders asking how Vercel won over developers.

[Dara @daraladje]

Delphi has always been about understanding how other people think.

So we built a matrix to see who you think most like.

Not sure how I feel about some of my neighbors...

Find yours https://t.co/uEoqlCH7Cg

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

@daraladje @rauchg Thanks for coming on @rauchg!

[Dara @daraladje]

Our engineers have been fanboying over this episode with Vercel founder @rauchg all week.

I asked him how he’s built this much loyalty and trust with developers.

“Trust is gonna be one of the most valuable moats for a post-AGI business.”

But he says “trust is an output, not an input.”

Meetups and any tactic you can point to “probably ain’t it.”

What earns it is the unglamorous work: security, fixing bugs, simplicity, great documentation.

This week on Library of Minds, the legend Guillermo Rauch joins us to talk about competing with AWS, selling to agents, building verification loops for agent evals, deciding which SaaS tools to replace, and raising his “six sub-agents” (his kids) in an AI world.

0:39 - How to Compete With a Giant (AWS)
5:38 - One Person Doing the Work of Thousands
17:15 - Trust Is the Moat After AGI
24:24 - You’re Not Confronting Enough Pain
25:54 - His Slack Channel Called “Scream”
27:46 - Your Next Customer Is an Agent
30:05 - How to Sell to Agents
37:05 - The Future Is Just Capital Allocation
47:30 - The Night His House Caught Fire
49:50 - Raising Six Sub-Agents (His Kids)

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

“I actually think the comp for Canva is Google and Microsoft.”

Nikhil Basu Trivedi backed Canva early, when people passed because it had no single use case.

Turns out the breadth was the strength.

#canva #vc #startup #delphi #consumer #enterprise

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

full episode: https://t.co/xn2hfsGIMg

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

1 in 10 US marriages started on Hinge.

Every one is a win, and a customer who just churned.

Nikhil Basu Trivedi backed Hinge and The Farmer’s Dog, where customers stay for life. Same scale, opposite genetics.

#Startup #businessmodel #growth #delphi

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Full episode: https://t.co/xn2hfsGIMg

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Some of this decade’s best companies will never be a 'unicorn' or do $2M in 10 days.

Some that do will flame out.

Nikhil Basu Trivedi, on the stat every founder is chasing.

#founder #startup #vc #delphi

[Dara @daraladje]

You can’t help but feel energized & inspired after chatting with @rauchg

Coming soon to the library of minds

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Big week for Julie Zhuo. If you want to understand how she thinks, start with her conversation on Library of Minds.

Full episode here: https://t.co/MBxPmEk6Gk

[Delphi @withdelphi]

Julie Zhuo (https://t.co/H5aMBridhJ) started at Facebook as an intern. She left after more than a decade to build her own company.

Today, Meta acquired it.

Ask @joulee what she learned along the way on Delphi.

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Ask Grant about building a team that holds up when everything else falls apart: https://t.co/lYh7jkxv9A

[The Library of Minds @LibraryMinds]

Creating your own luck isn’t just timing or hustle.

It’s surrounding yourself with people you could hand everything to tomorrow and know it’ll still be standing when you come back.

Grant Lee shares the story of needing to step away from Gamma in its earliest days when his daughter got sick.