Default Dead / Zombies

public interface Startup {
  default boolean isDead() {
    return true;
  }
}

The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

You can’t abort a company. Every company starts out as dead. Only through a miracle, luck, and a lot of sweat and tears will you breathe life into it.

I am not God. Not yet. Because my company is default dead.

Company OS

My company’s Operating System is a Google Doc with one entry for each day since I started.

This isn’t Linux. I’m not Linus Torvalds. Norros is barely functional and only works on one monitor resolution.

I manually copy over the previous day’s unfinished tasks and reflect every day in my journal.

I just added the words default dead in bolded red so I don’t forget.

Instead of increasing anxiety, it’s keeping me laser focused on taking advantage of the limited time I have.

Equation

The careful balance between optimism and realism is success. Optimism without application is daydreaming. Pessimism is depression.

The occasional uplift of optimism applied to realism will occasionally give you opportunities to turn your forward momentum into flight. And if you’re lucky you won’t crash.

But it’s okay if you do, because we’re already dead.

Notes

Trombonest was launched in Feb 2024. I’m posting it tomorrow on April 20th, 2024. I hope to learn more about its potential reach, virality, and pricing.

I want to pay forward the lessons I’ve learned into my next VR instrument release which will happen within the next month. I think I’ll be able to learn enough from that project to know the potential market size of hand-held VR instrument apps and whether I should keep working in the space or pivot.