Thomas McLaughlin

A good man in a storm. CEO Finch Claims. ex CTO @mapistry, CEO @masonapi, #15 @cartainc.

[🕊️ @lichthauch]

Fatherhood is the end of philosophy. you can read every book ever written about meaning and purpose and discipline, but the moment a small human looks at you and believes you, everything you thought you knew burns down. because now you have to do it, not think it, not debate it, not post about it. the child watches your hands, what you do when you are tired, what you do when you are mad, what you do when nobody else is looking. that is your only sermon and you cannot fake it for one day because children are bullshit detectors made of flesh. if you are a weak man your son will know it before he can spell the word weak, and he either becomes you or becomes the opposite of you, both out of desperation.

[jacque boatman @jacqueboatman]

“So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 310

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

This paragraph by C.S. Lewis, written in 1948, still hits hard:

“If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

[J.R.R. Tolkien @JRRTolkien]

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@nejatian Instead of "giving up" something negative, add in something positive. Commit to a consistent prayer window for 40 days in a row. Or add 10 minutes to your current daily routine. This shifts the Lent focus of us and onto Him

[Kaz Nejatian @nejatian]

I've found that when workdays start with Cursor, I am much much happier during the day than when they start with Slack.

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@SandroChess lot of wisdom here. most wont understand

[Eric Jackson @ericjackson]

Day 41 — 7:30 AM at Drake’s
Early walk, sun just coming up, and it’s a vibe.

Rising Dynasty isn’t about chasing memes. It’s about legacy.
It’s about teaching discipline, self-education, and the power of investing to the middle class.
One or two 100-bagger bets can change your family’s trajectory forever.

Slugging percentage over batting average. Generational wealth over quick wins.
That’s the Rising Dynasty mindset.

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@S27G_ @rabois @ericjackson @grok @S27G_ where’s this going from here- moon or 0? @rabois you were still on the board when they announced her right? Is it salvageable

[James Clark 📈📉¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @mr_james_c]

Apple's new "Crush" ad (let's call it "2024") is a visual & metaphorical bookend to the 1984 ad.

1984: Monochome, conformist, industrial world exploded by colourful, vibrant human

2024: Colourful, vibrant humanity is crushed by monochrome, conformist industrial press

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@drmillybarker @SandroChess

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@the_wilderless Modern man in search of a soul

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

Some of my most bone-headed (and insanely expensive) mistakes have been hiring fancy people from big Fortune 500 corporate gigs and putting them in charge of smaller companies.

There’s a saying, “You can take the man out of IBM, but you can’t take the IBM out of the man.”

These fancy corporate people sound great on paper.

And they might even be superstars at their old job.

But they are absolutely clueless about how to build a business on a smaller scale.

They live a gilded life in the corporate world.

Execution is often as easy as bringing in McKinsey or some internal strategy team, agreeing on the plan, then telling an army of employees with an unlimited budget to execute on it.

They’ve rarely hired and fired people. (Or if they did, they just called HR and the person was disappeared with a fat severance check)

They’ve almost never set someone’s comp. (Salary bands, again via HR)

They didn’t build any of the company’s systems or culture. (They were handed them in a training book the first week they joined)

They are usually specialists, who only understand their niche vertical. (VP Marketing knows nothing about finance, sales, operations, etc)

They barely understand a P&L (They had an Amex Platinum that they charge to their heart’s content and the company’s financial statements are measured in BILLIONS. Dollars, or even tens of thousands of dollars, are just meaningless space credits to them. They’ve never had to care about money, burn rate, or opportunity cost)

They love consultants. (Compensation and management consultants provide air cover when things go wrong and make fancy looking decks that make them look good with the CEO)

They are a cog in a machine.

A very, very big machine. And a very smart and impressive cog.

There’s nothing wrong with being a cog, especially a well-heeled corporate cog.

But they are a cog none the less.

And a cog can’t build a machine. A cog can only exist within one.

Hire one to run your company, and you will soon realize that they are an animal taken out of its natural habitat.

A tiger in the arctic. Unsure of how to hunt or what to do, other than curl up in a ball and freeze to death.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The best CEO is a jack of all trades, master of one or two.

[Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin @jasonlk]

You can challenge someone great to do better.

They usually do if the challenge is fair.

Challenge someone mediocre to do better though?

They usually lash out

[jonathan poma ✌️ @pomajp]

leadership.

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

👏

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Some people spend their entire life trying to blend in with the acceptable beta of a McKinsey Powerpoint deck, cover your bases

But all the alpha is in being raw, direct, and truthful even when inconvenient, uncomfortable, and vulnerable

[Zach Tratar @zachtratar]

Most software engineers have never experienced what I’ll call “full startup speed”.

Yes, it’s possible to fix 15 app bugs, fully dockerize apps, productionize dbs, get deploy scripts running (even kubernetes), add CI, SSL, and send first invites in… under 2 days.

[Thomas McLaughlin @ti_mclaughlin]

@jayyeh Nov Leads