This is a great observation and completely true. I suspect we are close to the end of this era though.
Setting up a dev environment for the first time is among the worst cold starts imaginable.
Now its easy with an agent that can guide and debug every step.
“Tools drive culture; if the tool makes an easy thing hard, the organization completely reorients itself around that thing being hard.
Employees allow the company to treat them in all these undignified ways—you're a sacred human being, and you should be able to just do things. You have to restore a sense of self-worth and dignity to the strongest engineers. They shouldn't have to schedule 10 meetings and write 10 docs. They have to feel like superheroes.”
@natfriedman@collision
@willcritchlow Can’t stop reporting on a metric just because you don’t like the trend anymore.
If traffic is down and conversion is up just put the numbers on a chart and explain.
Mitch Johnson shares the biggest lesson he learned from Gregg Popovich.
"How important people and relationships are."
"He understands people and relationships and the significance of every moment and every touch point with every person."
The best leaders and coaches invest in people.
Then he explained what investing in people really looks like:
"That can be having to yell and hold someone accountable. And that can be to put your arm around someone's shoulder and love 'em."
The best leaders combine high standards with high support.
"He did it better than anybody, I think, that's ever walked the sidelines."
"I will attempt to do it my way in whatever that looks like moving forward."
Great leadership isn't one style. It's knowing your people well enough to give them what they need.
Invest in the relationships. Care about people, hold them to their potential, and lead in your style.
(🎥 KENS5 - San Antonio)
This is all business theater.
Big companies have their version of it and it is running The Mgmt System.
For startups its grindslop.
None of it matters.
"If you are not working 7 days per week, you are going to lose".
Corgi Insurance is the most intense workplace culture in startups.
- The company works 7 days per week.
- Founder (@nico_laqua) lives and sleeps in the office.
- He built a cafe in the office because there was no local cafe that was open 24/7.
- 2/3 of the first 30 team members have the Corgi logo as a tattoo.
Today I went behind the scenes with Nico, who has used this culture to scale the company to a $2.6BN valuation in just two years.
My condensed notes below:
1. If You Are Not Working 7 Days Per Week, You Are Going to Lose:
Whatever you can get done in 5 days, you'll get more done in 6 and 7. If you are trying to solve the world’s hardest problems, a standard 5-day workweek will not cut it.
2. Work Trials Repel the Mediocre:
Corgi forces candidates into mock work trials over the weekend. If seeing a full office on a Saturday scares them, they don't belong. True intensity acts as a natural filter to attract killers and repel clock-watchers.
3. Lead from the Front Lines
You can’t demand 7-day weeks while sitting on a yacht. Nico sleeps 3–4 hours a night on a mattress inside the office. If you want your troops to bleed, you have to be in the trenches with them.
4. Culture Only Means One Thing: Winning
Forget superficial jargon like "hackers" or "ex-founders." Strip away the corporate fluff. A great startup culture is aggressively optimized around one single word: Winning.
5. Lifespan vs. Victories
Building something world-historic requires radical sacrifice. When asked if he'd rather build a trillion-dollar company and die at 50, or fail and live to 80, the answer was easy. "I would rather measure my lifespan in victories."
6. Reject the Comfort of "Quiet Quitting."
If you are operating in a hyper-growth environment and your days off happen to be Saturday and Sunday every single week, you are quiet quitting. To win, you must deliberately bypass the off-ramps of personal comfort and low volatility.
Corgi isn't for everyone—and that’s exactly the point.
High impressions on Search Console, almost no clicks
Why is this becoming more common?
Because LLMs are now reading the content, not humans
LLMs will scrape Google, but avoid the Google tracking link and instead do a direct fetch
So the "click" never registers
Many people don’t know that Claude was not named after Claude Shannon, father of information theory, but was actually named after Claude Lemieux, father of playoff hockey.
RIP Claude
The NHL Alumni Association is devastated to share that Claude Lemieux has passed away at the age of 60.
Born in Buckingham, Quebec, Claude was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the 1983 NHL Entry Draft and would make his NHL debut just a few months later on October 13, 1983 and scored his first career NHL goal on December 4, 1983.
Claude split time between the Canadiens organization and the QMJHL from 1983 to 1985, capturing the President’s Cup with the Verdun Junior Canadiens in 1985 as QMJHL playoff champions, while earning the Guy Lafleur Trophy as Playoff MVP.
The very next season, Claude recorded 10 goals and 16 points in 20 playoff games as he and the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. Claude remained with the Canadiens for an additional four seasons before joining the New Jersey Devils ahead of the 1990-91 season.
In 1994-95, his fifth and final season with New Jersey, Claude led the Devils to their first Stanley Cup championship, registering 13 goals in 20 playoff games, taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP. As a member of the Colorado Avalanche in 1995-96, Claude was once again an integral part of team history as the Avalanche hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup for the very first time in 1996.
Claude played 297 regular-season games in an Avalanche uniform before rejoining the New Jersey Devils in November of 1999, and for a fourth and final time, would be crowned a Stanley Cup champion on June 10, 2000. Claude later played for the Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars before making a comeback with the San Jose Sharks during the 2008-09 season.
Internationally, Claude represented Canada on several occasions, including capturing a gold medal at the 1985 World Junior Hockey Championships and winning the 1987 Canada Cup.
He was loved by his wife and four children, and on behalf of the Lemieux family, we kindly ask that everyone respect their privacy during this difficult time.
Memorial service details to follow.
@gaetano_nyc Listen we just have to spend 18% of total marketing budget on this. We unfortunately don’t have 2% to spend on unbranded SEO.
It’s science. We’re driving demand here.
The avs problem is that mackinnon is the best forward in this series and the six next best forwards are all on vegas.
Not sure theres one cool growth hack that fixes this.
Today is my last day at Ahrefs after 6.5+ years. Incredibly proud to have helped shape such an amazing product.
I plan to do some consulting and build some things. Let me know if you need help. Potentially open to the right in-house opportunity.
Likes / shares appreciated🙏
@scottastevenson This should be easier now because design tools let you roll through iterations quickly but ive found it’s actually harder because you have to choose to slow yourself down.
Its so easy to waste time by fooling yourself that you dont need to do this.