Nick Baum

We want to build quality. I don’t believe it comes from endless death march. So people should have some time off as well. I don’t think it has slowed us down, probably the opposite (you can look at the changelog the past 5years). Good tech, hiring well, small teams and not changing the direction every 5mins also helps. Remote advantage is that also focuses people on the output, not hanging at the office late or going to motions that don’t produce much.

Peter Thiel tells me that he has had a dozen private conversations recently with signers of The Giving Pledge, encouraging them to "un-sign it."

Someone asked this question in Hampton’s slack (1000+ founders): “How do you build a business while raising kids?” Replies (anonymized): Member A (had his son at 22, now 44): "There was never anything in this world I wanted more than being a father. Business mattered, but my kids came first. I didn't miss their events. I coached their teams. I sat down for dinner with them. Did I exchange some financial upside and success for time with my kids? One hundred percent. And I would never change that for anything.” Member B (2 kids ages 1 and 5): "They are always the first place." Member C (3 kids and another on the way): "I feel the same way. Need to work on being at peace with my decision because comparisons still creep up." Member D: "You can't get the time back. You can always make more money. You'll be so happy you made this choice 10 years down the road." Member E (now an empty-nester:) "You only get 18 summers with your kids. Make the most of it. Time flies so fast." Member F: "I assumed an hour away from the business was an hour of lost productivity. In retrospect any hours I reallocated to family beyond 6.5 hours at work, the business cost was negligible. Compressing my time forced me to delegate things I had rationalized I couldn't delegate." ____ Anyone else raised kids while running a business? How’d it go?

what a boring world, without giants, without dragons, without monsters under bridges, without vampires in castles...

I played too much sim city as a kid. It broke me. So last weekend I decided I’d use Claude code to make my own city. I started posting and friends asked to have their own characters/buildings added. We are now at 70+ citizens and a few custom buildings. Including a working track & field as well as functional basketball court.

I love Derek. He came on MFM. I tried to convince him + people like him that capitalism is good. And that not only can you make a great living while having fun and providing value, but if you're really good at what you do, you owe it to the world to make money so you can continue giving value to the world. Something I've noticed about people who are artsy, soulful and amazing at their craft (those are all good things)...they think making money or charging for something is bad. My goal is to convince them that they're not just wrong but they're doing their craft a disservice.

a day in the life of a LEGO designer in Denmark is pretty how imagined the day in the life of a LEGO designer in Denmark