Always have a project

I always have a project I’m working on.

It’s a habit that has served me better than almost any other during my career.

Projects are how I ensure I stay sharp. It’s how I learn new things. If I’m being honest, I think it’s the only way to understand something new.

I developed this habit when I was in college. It’s no surprise that my Computer Science degree wasn’t teaching me many of the skills I would need for my career.

While I can’t remember most of what happened in my combinatorics class, I do remember the two project-based classes I took. Those were the exception to the rule.

So I developed most of my career skills outside the lecture hall. I built things, applied to YC a handful of times, and made sure to land an internship as fast as I could.

Ever since college (almost 10 years ago), this impulse to spin up something new has only grown stronger.

Projects are not companies

You’re might be wondering if I’m talking about projects outside of your day-to-day work. In short, I am. But really it’s about the mindset you approach the project with.

Sam Altman has an essay about projects vs. companies that I agree with. In short, labelling your work a “company” adds baggage to every conversation.

Every task needs to align with the “company.”

Every conversation needs to be in service of the “company.”

Every metric needs to track the health of the “company.”

Calling your work a “company” ends up being a straightjacket. There are immediate expectations about its purpose. It’s all so official sounding.

By contrast, projects are a container for a messy exploration. A project has a loose direction, but even that can change as the project steers you back.

Why you should always have a project

You know what you don’t know

We’ve all heard the saying “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

I find it to be one of the most sinister and frustrating paradoxes to grapple with. Especially when it comes to topics that involve your livelihood.

Half the battle in self-education is not having a map of all there is available. There is no curriculum.

When you have a project, you inevitably bump into problems that you don’t know how to solve. Only then are you able to seek out and value something you didn’t know existed.

A project helps direct questions, search queries, or conversations. This is an exciting development! At this point, you’ve reached a point where effortless learning happens.

You aren’t memorizing. You aren’t solving contrived examples. You’re solving a problem. But that solution has the ability to cascade out into all other problems you have. You’ve leveled up.

Develop the skills you don’t have

Lex Fridman asked George Hotz how to learn programming. His answer was pretty simple:

This statement supports my experience. I’ve never had success learning by watching or reading. I’ve only developed understanding as a byproduct of trying to do something.

Understanding is the exhaust of projects.

Directing effort towards a project is the most efficient way to develop your skills.

Nothing makes you learn to program like needing a computer to do something for you.

Nothing makes you learn to write like needing to nail a memo, post, or email.

Nothing makes you learn to market like needing a project to break even.

Sharpen the skills you have

There’s a small detail in the George Hotz quote above that can often go unnoticed but is equally important. It wasn’t enough to claim that you can learn to program, but to program well that’s important.

Projects force your theoretical knowledge into reality. Reality requires a standard of skill that reading and watching Youtube videos can’t give you.

It’s only once you confront the harsh requirements of reality that you understand your own limitations. Then you stretch to meet them.

Want to grow? Keep stretching. A project will give you more opportunities to stretch than you can handle.

Experimentation is easy

Projects, unlike companies or products, don’t carry the pressure of rigid expectations.

They are more flexible. Low stakes. Playful even.

What’s interesting about projects is that you can steer them, but they can steer you back.

Sometimes the action you take generates enough information to tell you what this project is or should be.

More often than not, your project will suggest several follow-up projects worth exploring. If you follow your curiosity, you’ll leave behind chain of projects that each have made an imprint on you.

Projects can graduate

When your skills have developed and you get a little lucky, sometimes a project can graduate to generate an income.

This is fantastic when it happens. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle. You can approach this as an opportunity to build something that is self-sustaining.

Your project has a chance at lasting. Now you have options: let the project be or see where it takes you. It’s entirely up to you.

If you’re curious here are some projects of mine that are still around:

• Spackle - Entitlements as a service

• Metathon - Marathon finish time predictor

• Archer - Instant landing pages for every Stripe product

• Flowpilot - Flow state on demand

That’s it for this issue. Thanks for reading.

Hunter