Scratching my own itch
How my problems become my projects
Last week, I met with Olya Morozova, the author of my beloved Expresso newsletter. It turns out that what is now a prominent newsletter with over 20,000 subscribers began ten years ago when Olya started following and understanding the news to carry on a conversation at work.
The Expresso’s story is highly relatable to me: figure something out for yourself → share with friends (until they can’t take it anymore 😅) → make accessible to strangers.
This is how almost all of my projects were born:
I wanted to think more in writing, so you are reading these words right now.
I was curious about how exactly Leicester managed to win the Premier League, so I built Replay Table.
I kept guessing when my bloody bus would arrive, with my ass freezing at a bus stop and my phone battery gone, so I suggested a new paper timetable for my hometown (a sad story).
Even at Fibery, we are building an operating system for our company first, “bootstrapping“ as Douglas Engelbart would put it.
Don’t ask me to cure cancer (yet)
I’ve heard there are people who are passionate about solving the problems of strangers. They fight homelessness despite never having experienced it, they start companies because they notice a promising niche in the market.
I’m not like that. It’s awkward to admit, but helping strangers has never been a strong enough motivation for me to sustain any serious project. I’m always happy to help with a stroller, but I’d never start a project that builds thousands of ramps around the world.
I scratch my own itch – everything else is a positive externality. If you need me to cure cancer, I’m sorry, you’re early. But if you want me to redesign how immigration services work so that everyone (eligible) gets their residence permit within a month, I’ll stop my life and do that for free.
Favourites
Things I’ve been fascinated by lately:
🎬 (2 min) It turns out, car commercials don’t require the actual cars on set. What’s surprising to me is that the technology is nine years old.
🎵 (107 + 32 min) Inspired by the latest documentary on the N.R.M. band, I’ve been listening to a lot of Belarusian music lately. So I’ve updated my non-definitive subjective playlists with faster and slower Belarusian songs.
🎙️ (4h 34m) Despite my initial skepticism, I listened to all four and a half hours of Pavel Durov at the Lex Fridman podcast. Pavel is typically in the news for all the weird reasons 🍆, but this interview is insightful and nuanced. Definitely something to learn from a person who’s built two products that have impacted my life for the better. Telegram being a 40-person company at this scale is remarkable.
Since a few people have confessed they’ve given up and watched Taskmaster (“my wife and I were cracking up; I haven’t seen anything like that in ages.“), I’ll stop putting it in every newsletter. For now 😈.
Inbox
When I started this newsletter, I committed to eight weekly essays. Guess what? The next one is going to be #8.
This will be the time for me to pause and reflect on the format, the topics, and the frequency.
If you have something to say, now is the time. Share why you are reading this, what ideas have stayed with you (if any), and what annoys you most about this newsletter thingy.
Reply to this email or reach me on Telegram.
This was issue #7, find more at antoniokov.com.