Finja

[Banu Guler @banu__guler]

I moved to New York when I was 17. I waited tables at a vegan restaurant, worked the night shift at Dunkin Donuts on 3rd Ave, and finally found out about bike messengering, which I figured was a great long-term career option if I wanted to focus on feminist zine/book projects and hitchhiking back and forth across the country. A bad car wreck and a broken heart ended that fantasy. Eventually, I got jobs in design and product departments at fashion companies and then in the art world.

Years later, I became fixated on building an astrology app. I wanted it to capture something my friends in the punk scene and in the political world had taught me: how to find recognition away from the gazes of a world we’d been told was important, but wasn’t, really. We read like maniacs, found our peers in history, a pantheon of writers who could describe our realities as they existed, reaching out across continents, languages, and sometimes centuries to explain our realities. Words that capture our experiences and make us feel utterly and completely seen.

I built Co–Star in the same tradition, mixing in that same pantheon of writers with the oldest technology (astrology) and the newest (AI). Nine years later, we've reached 35% of young people in the US with tens of millions of app downloads and a profitable business.

Along the way, I became friends with David Holz, who was similarly interested in the very old and the very new. He later started Midjourney: a weird AI lab, focused on beauty, imagination, and supporting human thriving with technology. Using Midjourney feels like uncovering something subliminal and new about yourself. It feels like being seen.

Today, Midjourney is acquiring Co–Star, and I’m joining Midjourney to lead a unified product, design, and frontend team across all Midjourney projects.

We're at a crazy moment in history. At a time when it feels like many labs are pushing toward replacing humans with computers, David and I are taking a different approach. We share the belief that computers can be tools that reveal our humanity to ourselves. Tools that show you what you mean, how you feel, what you're imagining, before you can articulate it yourself.

Co–Star will continue as Co–Star. The same app you know and love, now with Midjourney's support behind it. And as a part of Midjourney, we’ll help to develop new kinds of technology focused on humans, on making us more creative, more knowing, more alive in the world.

So, thank you: to the Co–Star team, the Co–Star community, our first decade, the next ten – and to the void itself.

Love,
Banu

[Finja @effcaa]

@ihteshamali Agent

[Finja @effcaa]

@JulianGoldieSEO Yes

[Robert Greene @RobertGreene]

Events in life mean nothing if you do not reflect on them in a deep way, and ideas from books are pointless if they have no application to life as you live it.

[Dan Go @CoachDanGo]

If you're stressed, go for a walk.

If you want to burn fat, go for a walk.

If you want to live longer, go for a walk.

If you want to be creative, go for a walk.

If you want to solve a problem, go for a walk.

If you want to be a better version of yourself, go for a walk.

[eden @edendotso]

Normalize disappearing for a few months to learn, write, and build.

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

You're bored because you haven't developed a skill set that allows you to take on interesting challenges.

[Dan Goldfield @itsdangoldfield]

mainstream education is slow.

but the modern world is fast.

stop relying on ancient systems for your education.

[Dan Go @CoachDanGo]

If your ability to exercise depends on how you feel then you will never get a workout done.

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

You aren't where you want to be because you aren't as skilled as you think you are.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

Unpopular opinion: i don’t like frameworks.

I don’t think the best in the world follow formulas. They follow their unique curiosity and experiment in new ways.

They are willing to be in the chaotic mess of the skill learning, aka experimentation and discovery.

That’s how they discover the nuances that everyone else misses.

I don’t want to follow someone else’s framework. I want to discover my own.

It will take longer. It will be messier. But I think it will taste sweeter

[Taylin John Simmonds @TaylinSimmonds]

A better world starts with a better you.

Read a book, learn a valuable skill, or build a business.

To break free from a miserable life, don’t try to change the world.

Change yourself.

[Finja @effcaa]

@Nicolascole77 @dickiebush @readwise save

[Finja @effcaa]

@dickiebush @readwiseio save

[Dickie Bush @dickiebush]

Here’s my process for learning from a course:

When I first buy it, I will listen to/watch/read the entire thing start to finish without taking detailed notes. I will simply jot down ideas that pop up or bookmark sections to revisit.

This is the “first pass.”

It gives me the lay of the land and shows me which parts are “filler” and which parts are worth a close second study.

Then, I will go back in to only the most insight-dense parts and take detailed notes. I will sit at my computer for this part, slow the audio down, and think about the concepts and how I can apply them.

Finally, I will write up a full summary of the course and everything I learned as if the course creator hired me to do so.

That way, I can revisit the notes over and over again in the future when I want a refresher on this skill or topic.

This whole process usually involves 3 or 4 passes at the material. And this where most people go wrong with trying to learn something via the internet.

They expect everything to click on the first pass, never take action on the ideas they learn, and never distill the concepts so they can revisit them in the future.

Instead, think back to topics you learned in college that you thoroughly enjoyed. Chances are, you spent hundreds of hours studying the same few pages of lecture notes and solving hundreds of practice problems.

This is by no means a flawless system but it works well for me. Toss a question in the replies if you want me to go deeper on anything mentioned.

[Finja @effcaa]

@MFreihaendig @NotionHQ Ahhh i cant believe ive missed this!

[Finja @effcaa]

@TheaEuryphaessa @ThisJungianLife @readwise add

[Finja @effcaa]

@dailystoic @readwise add

[Finja @effcaa]

@Theholisticpsyc @readwise add

[Finja @effcaa]

@_heloastro_ @readwise save