Evan LaPointe

4x founder with exits to Adobe and PE. I study and share the science behind human and team performance.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

If you're an outlier, high in compassion, creativity, abstract thinking, courage, or standard of quality, you will feel rejected, unloved, and misunderstood.

There is no significant history of people like this having easy lives.

Keep going anyhow.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

@signulll Have you tried Siri out yet? It's awesome.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

Proof doesn’t prove that the logic is right.

Logic proves that the proof is right.

Let that one sink in.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

Exciting news.

In a few weeks, I’m going to be launching a new Maven course on logical thinking.

While everyone else is getting dumber because of AI, you’ll be one of the few people getting smarter. Much smarter.

Sign up for the waitlist/details here:

https://t.co/1jqSrZwLib

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

In fairness, very few people are good judges of people and good at hiring. It’s shockingly rare. Mostly because most people look at the wrong signals and can’t be talked out of it, despite how obvious the right signals are.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

Or you could be good at hiring and skip the COO altogether.

[Teddy Blank @teddypowday]

Your CEO should be strong.

Your CTO should be wise.

Your COO should be wicked, cunning, of mysterious origins, fluent in the dark arts, blurry in pictures,

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

There are only two reasons a product gets made.

Either a customer need or a company goal.

Everyone can tell which one it was.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

There are four levels of being right about something.

Effective rightness: your idea works instead of not working.

Competitive rightness: your idea works better than most other people‘s ideas.

Robust rightness: your idea has fully thought through underlying logic and nth-order effects and will be truly excellent.

Godlike rightness: your idea is literally perfect.

It's a great idea to be aligned on what form of rightness you're shooting for in your culture.

It's an even better idea to disallow the first form in your culture. You'll thank yourself later.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

There are four levels of being right about something.

Effective rightness: your idea works instead of not working.

Competitive rightness: your idea works better than most other people‘s ideas.

Robust rightness: your idea has fully thought through underlying logic and nth-order effects and will be truly excellent.

Godlike rightness: your idea is literally perfect.

It's a great idea to be aligned on what form of rightness you're shooting for in your culture.

It's an even better idea to disallow the first form in your culture. You'll thank yourself later.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

Doing hard things requires humility, not ego.

Humility keeps you curious. And you'll never do a hard thing well without curiosity.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

Certainty is an asymptote, not a destination.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

You’ll notice in both cases that your initial creative act might need some refinement once you de-polarize your compassion.

That is entirely the point. You now have a starting point you wouldn’t have otherwise. This isn’t the endpoint.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

It is easiest to be creative if you polarize your compassion.

As you begin the creative act, either care completely about someone else and not at all about yourself, or care only about yourself and not at all about others.

This makes expression much easier.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

The exception to this is if you are world class in the field you’re building in. If that is the case, you should also spend some time polarizing the other way. This is how you build what they should want instead of what they do want. Model T’s instead of faster horses.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

@growthesque @itsme_urstruly Yes! This is how you have fun at parties! 😂😂😂

Well, at least I’d enjoy that party.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

@that_SandemaBoy The exception is that some people are truth seekers. Their advice is categorically not self-referential. It breaks this rule. And they are the only people worth listening to.

[Evan LaPointe @evanlapointe]

There is one exception to this rule, and it’s the only advice you should ever take.

[Ramin Nasibov @RaminNasibov]

The problem with advice is that it's always based on someone else's life.