10/ Indeed. Years spent on failed ideas are often forgotten when success comes along.

e.g. Ever heard of Reid Hoffman’s "SocialNet"? Nope, because LinkedIn, Greylock.

e.g. Ever heard of Marc Andreessen’s “Ning”? Nope, because Netscape, a16z.

11/ I think the biggest career mistake young people make is they’re afraid to look dumb, so they follow safe paths that cap their downside, not realizing that they also cap their upside. 

And said paths are often tournament-style competitions, + perhaps not as safe as they think

Erik Torenberg

/ted | exploring the onchain frontier | surfing @ venice, ca | eating @ gjusta / gjelina

Two related posts I think about a lot:
https://x.com/eriktorenberg/status/1044093515863486464
https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/the-moat-of-low-status-68a

Just read this and loved it, any other reading similar to this that you have connected with?

Glad you liked it!

Here's a few posts I worked on with Erik back in the day

https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/starting-a-company-is-less-risky

https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/build-personal-moats

https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/take-asymmetric-bets

Im planning on starting a business, so this feels serendipitous