Prologue
From the point of building this archive that I wish to preserve through these articles, I would say this is one of the more important one.
They have a word for people like me – autodidact; I did not know, neither cared, but as you read more, you often improve your vocabulary.
I most recently read a couple of essay by Paul Graham,
One being – Superlinear Returns and the other – How to Do Great Work and Increasing Returns and the New World of Business– they say this is one of the most important articles ever published in Harvard Business Review.
And from the point of view of a person, if you prefer French entrepreneur, it behoves to learn how to grow superlinearly, do great work, and increase returns in the business.
‘And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.’
– Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings
The Crucible
Machine Dalal is my personal cauldron, where I put all my forward ideas and experiment with available technology, implement new things, discard, do over again. As long as users grew, trade happened, I was okay.
Life is different now, I have raised funds, parted with equity and I am answerable to more than just my users. Now I have lords and overlords and the constant experimentation should stop, and it has. We have formalized the whole process, the works.
But- the Curiosity, the Delight, and the desire to do something impressive remains.
Original ideas come when we work on something and that adage has proven to be correct, as we build and ship.
The Flaw of Capitalism
If the product is half as good as the competitor, you do not get half as many customers, you get none. Now that’s a bummer but also the reality of it. The writing on the wall be that if Machine Dalal is not the best trading platform for the Print Industry, it will invariably fail.
This works with fame, power, military, knowledge and science. In all of these the rich get richer. It works with products. And for Machine Dalal to succeed at that scale, this law of Capitalism applies. Hence at all times, we have to focus on growth – more users, more revenue. Pretty straightforward.
My understanding is to control and capture more and more categories within the industry itself, it could be horizontal or vertical. This would be a whole article about capturing and there I can equate with Napolean, Alexandar or Genghis Khan. Magical realism and Machine Dalal, well, who knew?
“Well, Steve [Jobs]… I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbour named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”
― Bill Gates
Great Artists Steal
I stand on the shoulders of giants when we integrate ai and machine learning. I seek wisdom from industry stalwarts – sometimes travel days for a few hours meeting. I try lots of things, see what sticks; meet lots of people, learn from their learnings; read lots of books, and be excessively interested in the industry for which I build this product.
The idea is to incorporate the latest technologies and keep moving forward. This simple statement is unpliable when it comes to implementation but this recent realization that if my product is not the best, it would most definitely fail makes you carve your heart out and put it there.
Gradually. Originality, creativity and imagination become a habit. Original ideas does not emanate from trying to have original ideas, they do when we try to build something slightly too difficult.
Addendum – This article is heavily inspired by the three articles I have specified in the prologue; some sentences are aped and not attributed precisely because I have specified the source in the prologue.
Husband Your Morale
It is needless to say but that is the basis of building something best in the world. I have to nurture and protect my ambition like a living organism.
Be mindful of failures and missteps. But remember this is not war. Technology and application of technology works differently. There is a lot of backtracking involved and ‘never give up’ is seldom the right strategy. The precise way would be to not let the setbacks cause panic. So backtrack.
One more important thing – to struggle is okay, almost human. But learn to distinguish between good failure and bad failure. Good pain is sign of effort, bad pain is sight of damage. Some errors are things done wrong and should be abandoned. Happens. Some are lower expectations in the form of reduced efficiencies coupled with increased costs. This can be improved so be at it.
The Importance of Love
The people we spend our time with have the biggest effect on our morale. I can elaborate this point but I feel it is sufficient. Take care of your health. Run. Exercise. Swim. Morale is physical. We think with our body.
When I do well, it does not mean I am happier but I am happier than I would be if I didn’t.
Epilogue
I have purposefully avoided talking about the product and what we are doing. Earlier Machine Dalal was my own personal endeavour and I could be cavalier about sharing private information – for fun, for sharing information and for the purpose of raising funds.
It is slightly different now with investors.
There are two takeaways from this article. One is that it compounds and it compounds massively. I could use phrases and parables but you get it. Focus on growth. It compounds. Two, be earnest. Success isn’t promised but how we attempt to get there has some bearing on it. What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
“I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”