The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanThe Butter Thesis
At USV, we talk a lot about our investment thesis. The USV thesis is a set of ideas that has guided our investing over the years. It is a tool we u...
The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanFrom Crypto-Native to Crypto-Enabled
I’m not one to make big annual predictions, but one thing that seems likely to me is that 2024 will mark the emergence of mainstream apps powered by ...
The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanYou Never Know When You've Had a Good Day
Many years ago, when I had just started working at USV, I remember there was kind of a complicated situation that unfolded in a seemingly bad way, and I'll never forget what Brad said in response. He said:you never know when you've had a good dayI didn't really understand what that meant, so he told me a story that went something like: back around the year 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom, there was a guy who was a senior exec at a successful startup. That person had a falling out with ...
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The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanThe Butter Thesis
At USV, we talk a lot about our investment thesis. The USV thesis is a set of ideas that has guided our investing over the years. It is a tool we u...
The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanFrom Crypto-Native to Crypto-Enabled
I’m not one to make big annual predictions, but one thing that seems likely to me is that 2024 will mark the emergence of mainstream apps powered by ...
The Slow Hunch by Nick GrossmanYou Never Know When You've Had a Good Day
Many years ago, when I had just started working at USV, I remember there was kind of a complicated situation that unfolded in a seemingly bad way, and I'll never forget what Brad said in response. He said:you never know when you've had a good dayI didn't really understand what that meant, so he told me a story that went something like: back around the year 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom, there was a guy who was a senior exec at a successful startup. That person had a falling out with ...
Subscribe to The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
>1.2K subscribers
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Avoidance is to be avoided.
— Nick Grossman (@nickgrossman) February 22, 2018
I'm on a plane right now. I always find plane/train rides to be some of the best times to focus and get work done. On this trip, I managed to get two "monkeys" off my back -- little tasks that have been lingering in the back of my mind for a long time, and that I've been avoiding. It doesn't matter what they are, but I can tell you that one of them was tiny -- so tiny (literally 5 minutes to do), and one of them was sort of medium-sized (maybe 2 hours). So on this trip I finally stopped avoiding them Having these little monkeys is the worst feeling, and clearing them out feels so good. What is so pernicious about avoidance is the way it turns small problems into big problems. I've written before about how Pain x Resistance = Suffering. The more you avoid/resist, the more pain you feel and the larger your "problem" actually gets. A 5 minute thing turns into hours, days, or weeks of avoidance. Avoidance is a debt frame of mind. Amazingly, the reverse is also true. Taking "big" problems/challenges/tasks, and plugging away at them dutifully without resistance or avoidance, makes them smaller! If you just focus on getting a little better every day, all of a sudden you have compounding results. A little better every day is a capital frame of mind. Don't avoid. Rip off the band-aid. Take the medicine. Increase your throughput. Make today a little bit better. It will feel so good.
Avoidance is to be avoided.
— Nick Grossman (@nickgrossman) February 22, 2018
I'm on a plane right now. I always find plane/train rides to be some of the best times to focus and get work done. On this trip, I managed to get two "monkeys" off my back -- little tasks that have been lingering in the back of my mind for a long time, and that I've been avoiding. It doesn't matter what they are, but I can tell you that one of them was tiny -- so tiny (literally 5 minutes to do), and one of them was sort of medium-sized (maybe 2 hours). So on this trip I finally stopped avoiding them Having these little monkeys is the worst feeling, and clearing them out feels so good. What is so pernicious about avoidance is the way it turns small problems into big problems. I've written before about how Pain x Resistance = Suffering. The more you avoid/resist, the more pain you feel and the larger your "problem" actually gets. A 5 minute thing turns into hours, days, or weeks of avoidance. Avoidance is a debt frame of mind. Amazingly, the reverse is also true. Taking "big" problems/challenges/tasks, and plugging away at them dutifully without resistance or avoidance, makes them smaller! If you just focus on getting a little better every day, all of a sudden you have compounding results. A little better every day is a capital frame of mind. Don't avoid. Rip off the band-aid. Take the medicine. Increase your throughput. Make today a little bit better. It will feel so good.
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