Broever101
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Great post, with lots of application for startups especially in how you choose which ideas to work on. I've had a "claim" philosophy in contrast to the idea of "positioning" in that the latter is a passive activity, it is what gets assigned to you by the market instead of what you push onto the market, e.g., how Slack positions itself (workplace productivity) versus how people actually use it and talk about it (chatting app for work). Which is also why it's notoriously difficult to find the right positioning because you're essentially trying to guesstimate what the market thinks of you; in case of new startups, there is no market so it... (read more)
Personally, a fuzzy adherence to the UNIX philosophy has helped me cut out the "distraction demons" of the internet. I used to use social media a lot, and I questioned why I do that; turns out I had only two reasons: 1) To post and 2) Stay up to date on industry trends. I realized I could do the posting without having to scroll and I could keep up with industry trends via .. forums instead. Which are not infinite-scroll and hence not dopamine-hacking.
The "one use-case per device/tool" rule is awfully helpful in cutting out distractions without becoming a luddite.
"We’ve confused attention with impact. We’ve built an entire industry around measuring the wrong things. We track followers instead of looking for resonance. We count impressions instead of impressions made. We optimize for algorithms when we should optimize for memory." - Joan Westenberg
A great way to adjust your effort level, in my experience, is to ask if the piece you are writing needs a millions impressions or just one deeply engaged mind in order to justify your effort. Cut and trim accordingly.