Doing things fast has more primary and second order benefits than we realize which makes it hard to conceptualize it’s full value. As a simple example, consider how we evaluate products by how completely they solve the problem. If you remove the temporal component, the value of the solution drops to zero—a solution is useless if it’s not available in a sensible amount of time.
Now factor in the value of exceeding your expectation for a sensible amount of time. Then factor in the likelihood of doing it again because it’s fast. Then repurpose the time saved towards working on something else that is valuable.
Links to this note
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Productivity Is Bounded by Decision Making
At a certain point, optimizing productivity becomes optimizing for speed of decision making. After all the tools, shortcuts, and hacks, that build up raw speed to get tasks done, you’re left with the cognitive load of decision making. That email you received? It’s a decision disguised as a reply. That Slack message that remains unread? You’re procrastinating because a decision needs to be made that you don’t want to confront.
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Faster is more productive because it is a multiplier on tasks you spend a lot of time doing (thinking, writing, typing, debugging).
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There is a noticeable difference between the speed of the most productive software engineers I’ve worked with and the slowest. What do they do that others don’t? Is it possible to learn how to be faster?
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Shipping and Hiring Velocity Are Predictors of Successful Pre-Product Companies
In the early days of a pre-product startup there is little to measure. There’s no sales, there’s no product KPIs, no press releases, and so on.
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Initial Stack for the Noteland Web App
My initial values and principles for developing Noteland helps to narrow down some guidelines for choosing a stack for the web app: