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Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
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2 Jan, 7 tweets, 3 min read
I got into Bitcoin around the same time we started our company. Little did I know Bitcoin has something to teach entrepreneurs.

Here are 5 lessons founders can learn from #Bitcoin
1. It’s not a straight line up.

One day you're on top of the world, the other you feel like nothing is working.

Similarly, the sentiment around Bitcoin can change from one day to the next.

Key is focus on the long-term which shows the true picture.

2. HODL your vision

Getting “no” from investors, recruits, and customers can be devastating.

But you must have an unshakable belief in your vision and stay the course. Just like HODLing through a bear market.
3. Build it and they will come

Satoshi put out a whitepaper to a forum and got his initial community. He spent his time building & improving the tech.

When they started getting attention Satoshi even felt it was too early

Contrary to popular belief: good products find traction
4. Community matters

You can’t possibly answer every question, write every article, or make every video.

An engaged community is a key to success and viral growth.

Also memes. Great way to spread the word and make it fun. See @bitstein’s talk on this diyhpl.us/wiki/transcrip…
5. Low time preference

How does the fact that money increases in value over time change how you make decisions?

As a founder: Do you take profits now or invest? Do you take a large salary or keep it in the business?

@saifedean is requires reading here amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standa…
What else? Feel free to share.

The technical aspects of bitcoin can teach you a lot how to build good technology but I tried to keep this focused on the business side.

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More from @amasad

Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
1 Jan
There is a class of people who take offense at any show of confidence in one's abilities or conviction in one's mission in life.

They tend to be the kind who never had to fight a day in their lives, and that's not a coincidence.
@robkhenderson defines luxury beliefs as "ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while taking a toll on the lower classes."

I want to introduce a related idea here:
I believe that excessive modesty, self-deprecation, victim mindset, and refusal to take pride in oneself or work are "luxury attitudes."

These attitudes are pushed down from the top -- people who already made it or were born with a silver spoon.
Read 7 tweets
Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
28 Dec 21
I landed in the United States 10 years ago with nothing but credit card debt.

After one startup exit, one big tech job, and one unicorn, I genuinely believe that it wouldn't have been possible anywhere else in the world.

Here are 10 things I love about this country: Image
1. Work Ethic

First thing I noticed was that everyone regardless of occupation took pride in doing a bang-up job, even when no one looked.

I asked people: "why do you pour everything into a job even when it is seemingly thankless?" And it was like asking fish "what is water?"
2. Lack of corruption

In the 10 years in the US, I've never been asked for a bribe, and that's surprising.

When you know that you predictably get to keep a sizeable portion of the value you create and that no one will arbitrarily stop you, it makes it easier to be ambitious.
Read 13 tweets
Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
27 Dec 21
If you want to start or join an early-stage startup, the most important investment you could make today is inner work to ensure you have the stamina & resilience to do extremely hard things.

Here is all self work I did between my 1st and 2nd startup that paid off big time:
1. Understand what matters to you

Startups are hard; if you start one you should aim to work on it for at least 5 years. To do something difficult for a long time you should care enough about it you'd do it for free.

I wrote more about it here:
2. Stop being a perfectionist

Putting yourself and your work in public requires a great deal of courage.

Perfectionism is often a protection mechanism against being hurt. You have to be okay with your work being criticized and even hated.

Blogpost: amasad.me/perfectionism
Read 12 tweets
Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
27 Dec 21
I've dealt with poor sleep for many years. As someone who's excited & energetic, I had a hard time going to sleep. And as a startup founder, I've had a hard time staying asleep.

Today I sleep ~8 hours, and almost every aspect of life is better. Here is an ordered list of tips:
1. Schedule

Your mum was right: Go to bed and wake up at a consistent time. Weekends, weekdays, holidays, etc -- always stick to a routine!

If you sleep late after a night out, wake up early. If you're tired, resist going to bed early.

Eventually, sleep will become automatic.
2. Sleep hygiene

It's all about programming yourself for better sleep. Keep your room a sleep sanctuary. Resist working in there. Or even reading. The more things you associate your bedroom with, the weaker its automatic connection to sleep is.
Read 15 tweets
Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
26 Dec 21
Fascinating that infinitely complex systems can be constructed from ONE key component. Examples:

- NAND gate and computers
- Neuron and brains/minds

What other systems are like that?
When I was designing a debugger I figured that you could construct it from one operation: STEP_IN which returns stack and other info. Then everything else could be on top of that. E.g STEP_OVER is simply a series of STEP_IN until the stack is length is equal to the starting point
It’s fun to design systems by boiling it down to one thing. But it might not be practical (eg slow). Nonetheless it gives you a better grasp on the problem.
Read 5 tweets
Amjad Masad ⠕ Profile picture
24 Dec 21
I'm fascinated by the idea of computers doing The Right thing without explicit user input.

amasad.me/right
Today this is most apparent in autocorrect, but the idea -- in a more advanced form -- goes back to the early days of computing. Interlisp shipped with a feature called Do What I Mean, which corrected spelling but also basic programming logic errors. Image
A more advanced and fascinating idea is for the computer to detect intention and act on it. Humans do it all the time; we see the intention in other people and act on it.

Software too can and should do basic intention-detection and I'm surprised I don't see it much in the wild.
Read 6 tweets

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