New Beginnings
Learning the Art of Excellence, Elevating the Mundane to Mastery.
Welcome!
A newsletter is something I’ve wanted to start for a long time, and so I’m committing myself to one post a week for now, on Saturdays. I’ve called it Standard Aesthetics1 – in celebration of a core tenant I hold: that exceptional user experience is both necessary and fundamental, and the prioritization of that belief is how we build products people actually want.
The following is a something I wrote in January of last year when I was struggling with feeling reactive about my approach to my workload at the time. I think systematic approaches to everything – life, relationships, work – has been a staple in my life for as long as I remember as a way to feel in control. Chaos brings clarity, or the need thereof, to focus.
More to follow.
Standard Operating Procedures
January 28, 2024
For most, it takes intentionality to do good work. I've developed a set of self-enforced standard operating procedures that I try to remind myself of on a daily basis.
An unaccounted hour is a wasted one, Demarcate everything ad nauseam. A week is 2% of the year.
Never bifurcate your attention. Be honest with what your working on, and ruthlessly burn one's boats if necessary. There's no time for backup plans.
Testing ideas and constantly pivoting is a legacy mentality from a time of novelty. Most good ideas have already been tested, and products built around them. Modern software companies are the realization of a thought-out vision, not a science experiment. Instead, build product that eclipses the competition in quality, speed, and user experience.
I've never met a team of 20 without passion that could outperform a team of 3 truly passionate individuals. Passion and skill is all you need in a team. Credentials are a poor indicator of future success. This industry moves fast, and the best of yesterday seldom drive future innovation.
Heartless objectivity professionally, but pure empathy otherwise. The whole ship sinks if we can't be totally honest. The market, or wherever you compete, doesn't care about feelings. Trading uncomfortable discussions for a comfortable mediocrity is a losing proposition, or worse, a slow death.
Emotional excitement is not a function of working on exciting software, but instead whether you're making the best software.
Solve for above, and your team becomes unstoppable.
In short, Standard Aesthetics means uncompromising quality made routine—my hopeful vision for life, business, and creativity distilled into two words.
I wonder if all of these principles could be summarized under the umbrella of vision. Point 3 makes this most explicit, but the rest feel similarly motivated: you need a vision for how you want to spend your time, the conviction to pursue it without backup plans, a team aligned around that same vision, and the clarity that enables honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations. Even the idea that the best software generates emotional excitement seems to come back to having a clear, compelling vision.