Alexandr Wang published a blog titled, “What I Learned in 2023“. Below are some of my favorite points:
2. Winning requires an incredible level of discomfort. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Every athlete knows this. Winning comfortably is an oxymoron. Build pain tolerance if you want to win.
7. Momentum trumps manpower.
The story of AI in 2023—small teams with momentum punched far above their weight. Momentum is a strong force—harness it and you’ll be unstoppable.
13. Focus on compounding activities. Avoid perishable pursuits.
Humans often compete over perishable rewards (status, fame, etc.) versus compounding ones (technology, teams, etc.). If you avoid this mistake, you will be unstoppable in 5+ years.
14. Find your superpowers and never let go of them—they will carry you your whole life.
We often fall into the trap of shoring up our weaknesses rather than doubling down on our strengths. If your story for how you win does not involve your superpowers, then it is likely wrong. We win through strength, not lack of weakness.
Around the same time, Sam Altman also published a bullet-outlined blog post titled, “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me“.
5. Concentrate your resources on a small number of high-conviction bets; this is easy to say but evidently hard to do. You can delete more stuff than you think.
6. Communicate clearly and concisely.
15. Compounding exponentials are magic. In particular, you really want to build a business that gets a compounding advantage with scale.
16. Get back up and keep going.