Guides
How I’d do it.
Ten numbered points each, on things I have done enough times to have an opinion about. Short on purpose. If a point needed a page, it was not a point.
Career
Applying, interviewing, being paid properly.
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How to apply for a school scholarship
I moved 3,535 miles on one. The unglamorous awards have the best odds.
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How to apply for jobs
Ten applications you researched beat a hundred you didn't. What the pile looks like from the other side.
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How to choose between offers
Bring evidence, name a number, and pick the moment.
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How to interview well
What to do in the room, once the preparation is done and the questions start.
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How to network
Mostly it's just being useful to people, repeatedly, before you need anything.
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How to prepare for an interview
The week before does more work than the hour itself. A prep list that fits on one page.
Students
A guided path through all of it at For students.
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How to email someone you don’t know
Short, specific, and easy to say yes to. Most people will help if you make it cheap for them.
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How to write a CV with no experience
You have more evidence than you think. It is just filed under the wrong headings.
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How to get an internship
Start earlier than feels reasonable, apply narrower than feels safe.
Marketing
Getting the first people to find the thing you made.
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How to get your first 100 users
By hand, one at a time, in places people already gather. There is no clever version.
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How to launch a product
A launch is one day of attention. Most of the value is in what you built before it.
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How to design a landing page
Say what it is, show it working, ask for one thing.
Building in public
Posting the work while it is still unfinished.
Building
Startups, and the systems work that pays for them.
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How to build a consumer app
The whole thing, in nine guides -- validation through to hiring. Start here.
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How to build a startup
Ten things that survive contact with reality, mostly about shipping and staying alive.
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How to build dashboards
My day job. Most dashboards fail because nobody asked what decision they were for.
Building a consumer app, in detail
The nine parts of How to build a consumer app, in the order the work happens.
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How to validate an idea
Ten ways to find out you’re wrong before it costs you six months.
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How to build the first version
Cut until it hurts. Constraints are what get things finished.
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How to grow
Loops, channels, and why one working channel beats five half-built ones.
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How to keep people coming back
Retention is the only number you cannot buy.
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How to make money
The gap between “I’d use that” and “here is my card” is the entire business.
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How to hire your first people
I assess candidates for a living. What the first few hires decide.
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How to raise money, or not
Funding is a tool with a cost. What raising buys that time wouldn’t.
Shipping to the app stores
What the stores actually check, and what to fix before you submit. How to ship to the app stores.
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How to ship to the app stores
The whole thing, in eight guides -- review, privacy, versioning, ranking.
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How to pass Apple’s review
Demo accounts, Sign in with Apple, account deletion, and the guidelines that bite.
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How to pass Google Play’s review
The twelve-testers rule, the data safety form, and where Play differs from Apple.
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How to avoid getting rejected
The list is shorter than you think, and most of it is avoidable in an afternoon.
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How to handle privacy and data deletion
Privacy policy, in-app account deletion, AI disclosure, and the forms that bind you.
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How to version and name an app
Build numbers only go up. Bundle identifiers are permanent.
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How to go live on the app stores
An hour of this saves a week of review cycles.
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How to rank in the app stores
Downloads per day drive rank. The listing decides whether the download happens.
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How to market an app
One link, a QR code on your lock screen, stickers, and doing things that don’t scale.
Mindset and habits
The unglamorous machinery underneath everything else.
Tools & thinking
Borrowed tools, for tasks and for thinking.
The library