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
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
For the past nine months or so, I've been seeing a therapist specializing in mindfulness. Perhaps the best decision I've ever made. One of the things we spend a lot of time talking about is resistance - everyone has their own quirks and issues, and that's one of mine. The tendency to hit the brakes when faced with something difficult or unpleasant. Set it to the side, avoid, wait. Obviously, this is a bad tendency, and only serves to make things worse. One idea that has come up is the relationship between resistance and suffering. Suffering is the ultimate mindstate we are looking to avoid. There's this equation which has really stuck with me : Pain x Resistance = Suffering In other words, it is possible (and typical) to start with a relatively painless situation and then amp it up, and multiply the ultimate suffering by resisting it. I can't tell you the number of things in my life that I have resisted and avoided which then ultimately ended up being no big deal. And the ultimate suffering was more a result of the resistance the the pain itself. The mindfulness approach to resistance is to instead turn and face whatever thing your avoiding. Just recognize it and be with it. I've thought of this before as "living in the fall line". The opposite of living in a mode of resistance. Another way of thinking about it is as throughput. Moving items (projects, emails, bills, whatever) through, rather than letting them like up. Resistance is like arterial plaque. Throughput is the result of keeping things healthy and flowing. It's a good feeling.
For the past nine months or so, I've been seeing a therapist specializing in mindfulness. Perhaps the best decision I've ever made. One of the things we spend a lot of time talking about is resistance - everyone has their own quirks and issues, and that's one of mine. The tendency to hit the brakes when faced with something difficult or unpleasant. Set it to the side, avoid, wait. Obviously, this is a bad tendency, and only serves to make things worse. One idea that has come up is the relationship between resistance and suffering. Suffering is the ultimate mindstate we are looking to avoid. There's this equation which has really stuck with me : Pain x Resistance = Suffering In other words, it is possible (and typical) to start with a relatively painless situation and then amp it up, and multiply the ultimate suffering by resisting it. I can't tell you the number of things in my life that I have resisted and avoided which then ultimately ended up being no big deal. And the ultimate suffering was more a result of the resistance the the pain itself. The mindfulness approach to resistance is to instead turn and face whatever thing your avoiding. Just recognize it and be with it. I've thought of this before as "living in the fall line". The opposite of living in a mode of resistance. Another way of thinking about it is as throughput. Moving items (projects, emails, bills, whatever) through, rather than letting them like up. Resistance is like arterial plaque. Throughput is the result of keeping things healthy and flowing. It's a good feeling.
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