Nothing compares to building the core of your product. Everything that comes after that seems a distraction and won't ever have the same impact. Build more core, less features. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like … [Read more...]
What do you do when nobody sees you?
Today I went for a run. Usually, a bunch of people are around so you kind of keep pushing and keep running because of the "social pressure". In your mind you think: "what would this person think of me if I stop running now?" and thereby, you continue to run. For context, I also live in a relatively small town (~30k inhabitants) so it is likely that you will bump into the same … [Read more...]
How many jobs?
How many jobs are you doing? If it's just one, you probably have a problem. If it's a lot, you probably have a problem. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
Thinking in systems
What system can you implement or refine today? Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
What makes you uncomfortable?
What makes you uncomfortable? Push there. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
About energy
Life is energy over time. Where you put your energy determines what you get. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
Skills are blocks, but not legos
Skills (for me) are little things you can do. Maybe you can type fast. Maybe you can design better than the average guy. Maybe you can understand code. Maybe you can sing. Those are skills, and skills are blocks. Then, there are levels. Maybe you are level 1 in design and level 2 in singing. The skills you accumulate define what you can and can not do. More skills != more … [Read more...]
Progress through action
Progress is simple. You have been doing some actions. Are they working and getting you towards where you want to be? Do more. Are they not? Replace them. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot … [Read more...]
On repetition
If you do it once, it can be luck, it can be a mistake. If you do it twice, it's a thing. You can't argue with that. You just validated it and gave it a new meaning. I use repetition a lot in jazz, because jazz is daring and repetition builds up confidence to say what you want to say, without thinking about mistakes you can make. There are no mistakes. One of the things I … [Read more...]
Same same but different
The most beautiful thing I heard this week: improvisation is like a sunset. The same, but different every time. P.S. Today is the International Jazz Day. Celebrate with me! UNESCO believes in the power of Jazz as a force for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding and this is why in November 2011, the UNESCO General Conference proclaimed 30 April as "International Jazz … [Read more...]
Patterns
Improvisation is about surprising yourself every time. That's why I don't like patterns. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
COVID is your excuse
COVID is an excuse for most people. An excuse to get fat.An excuse not to get work done.An excuse to ask for free money from state. For SaaS, that's probably an excuse to ask for a "pandemic account". I literally had one potential client asking this today. 🙈 Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are … [Read more...]
Up next
As Miles Davis would put it: “Don't play what's there; play what's not there.” Building, and really life, is about constantly thinking what is the best thing you can do next. In music, that has an element of surprise. Side note: sometime the best thing to do is "nothing" at all. Just let the events unfold. Nothing is also something that you do, it's a choice. Thanks for … [Read more...]
It looks like magic, but it is not
From the outside, doing what you do probably looks like magic. If I think about what I do, playing music and creating software products, both look like magic. In the case of music, I create something that wasn't there before. In the case of software, it's actually the same thing. I have an idea that wasn't there before and I build it. In both cases, I go from 0 (nothing is … [Read more...]
Remembering the future
In music you have "riffs" and "ostinato" and you have a lot of musical forms that have repetition in them like, for example, the "theme and variation" form. I'll just name two greats at this form: Mozart and Beethoven - maybe you know them. Anyways, the beauty of repetition is that you know what comes next. Not only you get to know the future, but because what comes next has … [Read more...]
Predicting the future
How to predict trends in one word: repetition. The only way to see the future with certainty is by looking for things that repeat through history. That's what I'm looking for. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies … [Read more...]
You have all the answers
Have you ever daydreamed of something in the future and then lived it months or years later? In the moment, you get that feeling of "I've already done this" or even "I've already been here". It feels weird. That's the feeling you need to tap into when you do things. You already have all the answers. You already know what to do. In fact, you have already done it. Go do it. … [Read more...]
Questions worth asking
Why do people ask questions they already know the answer to? Some say it's to get some affirmation, some say it's because they want to get a second option. Could be. But that's just wasted time. There's Google for that. The real question that's worth asking is just two or three layers deeper and that's the one you really don't know the answer to. The process is simple: You … [Read more...]
I’m #2 (or #3, or #5..)
People, apps, courses.. they all claim to be #1 in what they do. Find me some that claim to be #2. Nobody wants to be #2. Well, I do. With all the #1 apps for X and the #1 courses for X, your differentiation might just be "I made the #7 best course for X" or "The #4 app for X". Humans understand things visually. When you say you are #1, you don't really create a scale in the … [Read more...]
Make it boring
I was just watching a video on how you can spin up multiple docker containers with multiple versions of PHP and then you can install multiple versions of Laravel and then.. it struck me. There's always a shiny object or something that can make your project look or feel cooler. Instead, make it boring. You can sell "boring" quite more easily. Thanks for reading,Mike … [Read more...]