It’s been two weeks since I left Samsara, and I think it’s about time to get the ball rolling. Things I’ll talk about: what this newsletter is, what my goals are, and a revisit on exploration vs exploitation. About This Newsletter If you’re getting this, you either want to follow along with my exploration, or I’ve been sending you Holiday Update emails for the past couple years. In case you missed it, I left my job after 4 years and am now taking 6 months to burn down a long list of ideas. I’m very lucky to have a bit of financial flexibility now thanks to the IPO, and will hopefully utilize this time well!
Loved this first read. I'm curious if the exploration vs exploitation argument could be sector specific, ie I would question whether we are in exploration or exploitation territory for combating climate change -- to me this seems more exploration oriented, yet it's exciting to see VCs invest more heavily in companies (exploitation). In any case, I am realizing that I should have used my time off more wisely / thoughtfully, and I respect your approach to planning your OKRs and even weekly focuses. Keep 'em coming.
Oh that seems extremely likely that sectors go through large scale shifts between exploration vs exploitation. I suspect silicon valley is shifting more towards exploration with the funding of more and more "hard tech" problems (vs making more dashboards). Although, as we saw with Samsara... maybe there's still plenty of older industries that haven't been touched by tech yet?
So good to hear from you! Hope things are going great!
Hmm I guess I figured, $ value is the easiest thing to measure 😅 I'm not super sure how much of a pure capitalist I am though. I'd imagine the argument from that perspective would be that all impact is priced into the market already.
Existential value may be super hard to quantify. I wonder if a form of measurable value is individual capability to do certain things? Like, if we all had flying cars, our "commute radius" would suddenly go from 50 miles to 500 miles. Or, if we all had molecular-3d-printers and could manufacture anything we wanted within the comfort of our homes. Those would represent a really significant increases in individual capability.
i love giving you write access to my brain
Loved this first read. I'm curious if the exploration vs exploitation argument could be sector specific, ie I would question whether we are in exploration or exploitation territory for combating climate change -- to me this seems more exploration oriented, yet it's exciting to see VCs invest more heavily in companies (exploitation). In any case, I am realizing that I should have used my time off more wisely / thoughtfully, and I respect your approach to planning your OKRs and even weekly focuses. Keep 'em coming.
Oh that seems extremely likely that sectors go through large scale shifts between exploration vs exploitation. I suspect silicon valley is shifting more towards exploration with the funding of more and more "hard tech" problems (vs making more dashboards). Although, as we saw with Samsara... maybe there's still plenty of older industries that haven't been touched by tech yet?
So good to hear from you! Hope things are going great!
Hmm I guess I figured, $ value is the easiest thing to measure 😅 I'm not super sure how much of a pure capitalist I am though. I'd imagine the argument from that perspective would be that all impact is priced into the market already.
Existential value may be super hard to quantify. I wonder if a form of measurable value is individual capability to do certain things? Like, if we all had flying cars, our "commute radius" would suddenly go from 50 miles to 500 miles. Or, if we all had molecular-3d-printers and could manufacture anything we wanted within the comfort of our homes. Those would represent a really significant increases in individual capability.