Samarth

Life is an optimization problem of happiness

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

launched an alpha of my ai illustration tool

it was:
– buggy
– beautiful
– duct taped

still got 100+ people to try it

no launch
no ads
no audience

just dms and desperation

some lessons:

– cold dms are not dead. they just need to sound human.
i didn’t “present my product”
i said: “hey, i made this tool for custom illustrations. it’s super early and might break, but i thought you’d like it.”
people actually replied.

– people like being early. not to “support builders”, but to feel special.
say “you’re one of the first 10 to try this” and they’ll care more.

– i never asked for “feedback.”
instead i asked: “did it suck?”
more honest replies that way.

– one user said “i wish i could just type the edit instead of using buttons.”
that’s now a core feature.

moral of the story:
don’t wait for a “real” launch.
just throw your janky thing in front of people and talk like a human.
it works.
even when your product barely does.

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@claudeai @isharduld Fable after you ask it to center a div

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@TheChowdhary It’s called JuiceBox

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@boardyai building Oddega, an AI platform that helps independent creators turn scripts into vertical series without studio gatekeepers. count me in for Boardy Pro

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@DarrelFrater DM ❤️

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@MattBuildss @alexcooldev Gamification

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@whereswei @deedydas Same Scott Wu btw

[Scott Wu @ScottWu46]

People have asked about our culture and recent employee communications. Cognition has an extreme performance culture, and we’re upfront about this in hiring so there are no surprises later. We routinely are at the office through the weekend and do some of our best work late into the night. Many of us literally live where we work. We know that people who joined Windsurf didn’t expect to join Cognition and while we’re proud of how we work, we understand it’s not for everyone.

We gave our team the opportunity to decide. We offered for all employees who joined via acquisition to opt into our culture with full clarity on what entails. We know that we will lose some strong talent in doing this, but we truly believe the level of intensity this moment demands from us is unprecedented. While not everyone is looking for a culture like ours, everyone deserves respect and appreciation for their work. Regardless of their decision, we accelerated and cashed out all four years of equity for everyone from Windsurf, even for the 85% of employees who hadn’t hit their one year cliff. And for those who opt out, we’re providing an additional nine months of pay on top of this.

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@_Hybreed_

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@deedydas Drop the same updates a year ago and nothing would seem new lol. “Advanced reasoning”, “Multi step tasks”. OpenAI now simply playing catch up

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@Hesamation But it works and that’s all that matters

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@ScottWu46 lol that grind culture that you treat like a badge of honour might be the reason folks be walking out.

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@AnthropicAI Plot twist: it was Claude Opus 4 that brought its successor into existence

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

Instead of 'always building endless', you can try 'always selling endless'. There is no hack to building an app that makes money other than to personally reach out and get your first 100 paying users yourself. No 'marketing automation' or 'mass cold emailing'. If you're thinking of building on anyway, why not just never do it until you've made money with what already exists?

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@AravSrinivas So you’ll be talking to yourself at Perplexity meetings lol

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@noahkagan It’s for landing pages and frontend testing

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@0xOrkward Please explain how your third requirement translates into anything tangible

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@aidenybai Devs don’t like using the terminal, devs like using things that work

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

Mental health in startups is a joke.

"Just meditate!" while your company burns.
"Work-life balance!" while competitors sprint ahead.
"Take care of yourself!" while customers leave.

This shit is hard. Really hard.

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

"Follow your passion" is terrible advice.

Follow your problems. Follow your obsessions. Follow what keeps you up at night.

Passion fades. Obsession endures.

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

@tunguz When will we solve happiness?!

[Samarth @samarthbuilds]

Phone screen ✅
Take-home project ✅
Technical round ✅
System design ✅
Manager interview ✅
Culture fit ✅
Final round ✅

Result: "We're not sure if they're the right fit."

Sound familiar?

After 7 rounds and 20+ hours of everyone's time, we still can't tell if someone can do the job.

The problem isn't more interviews.
The problem is we're testing the wrong things.