Fear and why it's good

    How do we decide what to make? How do big decisions of life come about? Most of the time we live in a semi-fantasy world. We dream of the things we would do "if things were a bit different" or if some extenuating circumstance wasn't holding us back. But even if things were different, would we do all that we talked about? Humans work better with constraints. Give someone a deadline and they will get something done, give them no deadline and they will float around, never delivering a final product. These obstacles that we think are so bad, and a hinderance to some "true calling", are exactly what makes us great. Not to be cliche, but diamonds are formed under intense pressure and heat.

    This feels very tied to Nassim Taleb's idea of "skin in the game" and "soul in the game". If you do not have some part of your being riding on a decision, it is easy for you to waft about, never really getting anything done. But if you have real risks from not accomplishing a goal, you will perform even better. In fact, it will make you feel alive. Much of our modern lives present no risk. We have no reason to do something great, because there is no immediate need to. We could maintain a strict diet, but we always have weight-loss pills and gastric bypass to fall back on. We could build a business, but daydreaming about it is easier than quitting your job and actually doing it.

    People and companies can become gluttonous. A company with a shitty product and huge amounts of funding is probably going to be less successful than a company with an okay product and almost no funding. The company with no funding is going to work harder, and be more practical with the problems they are trying to solve. A well funded company gets complacent. The product team has no skin in the game, because they could keep making useless features for months and it wouldn't make a difference. If a feature is a dud, they move on to the next one because they have plenty more runway to burn up.

    You need to put yourself in situations where there is a real risk of failure. Then you'll truly need to perform to survive. The outcome is more likely to be something great.