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Get the latest from Andy Johns.
I advise startups on growth, teach an online course on how to build and launch innovative software products, and I also write about the mind and mental health.
I've been fortunate to be a part of 8 startups each worth more than a billion dollars. I was an early employee at Facebook, Twitter, Quora, and Wealthfront. In addition to that I've advised several startups and venture capital firms such as Opendoor, Poshmark, Unusual Ventures, and Homebrew Ventures. I also occasionally invest in companies such as Robinhood, Webflow, and Reforge.
When I have the time, I also like to write a lot. Sometimes it's about startups and how to grow them. Other times it's about mental health and what we can do to manage our own mind and emotions in order to live more peacefully.
How startups can grow with a thoughtful combination of optimization and innovation.
How startups can grow with a thoughtful combination of optimization and innovation.
How startups can grow with a thoughtful combination of optimization and innovation.
How to create an engine of user-generated content when building online communities.
The human body is a tuning fork to our environment. We must ruthlessly design our environment according to what we want to be. The modern struggle is a constant battle between our inner condition and our outer condition which seeks to blind us from what is True.
Anything derived from broad societal acceptance is false. There is nothing "worth doing". That is a societal construct, which is false. The only thing to be pursued is that which is inherently and unexplainably interesting to you. If what you are doing requires finding the motivation to do it, it is not True to you.
We are endowed with a few needs that make us feel fully alive and well. A healthy body, a calm mind, and a close connection with others is enough to live a wealthy life. If we are able to devote ourselves to a pursuit that feels intrinsically rewarding, then we are uncommonly wealthy.
The natural world contains all of the intelligence and wisdom that we will ever need. If you want to seek the Truth, observe nature to find what is True.
We will never fully understand the nature of the universe and why we exist. If there is a God, where did it come from? And what created the conditions that created that God? And so on. All questions regress infinitely. Any institution, person, or decree that claims they know the ultimate Truth is either unknowingly deluded or intentionally lying in order to gain something for themselves.
Almost all of humanity goes through life unconsciously. As Carl Jung stated, "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Plato's Allegory of the Cave remains as true today as it was then.