Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 11h

That's true! A few hours is quite bad.

Still, my guess is that just one incident is not sufficient motivation for you to learn an entire new tool that you use daily? Unless you like doing that anyway?

Normal people don't do that. 😄

1 2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 11h

I haven't written about that actually! I've talked about it on some writing-specific podcasts:

How Jason Cohen writes and rethinks his ideas | Jessica Malnik posted on the topic | LinkedIn

Ever read something that made you rethink how you think? That’s how Jason Cohen writes. This conversation breaks down why. In this episode of the Remote Work Tribe podcast, we talk about: - Why strategy isn’t a waste of time - How Jason actually captures and shapes ideas (without chasing trends) - Mental models and beliefs he had to reconsider. - What it takes to write with clarity when your thinking is still evolving 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gXif4TjA One of my favorite conversations I’ve ever had.

www.linkedin.com

1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 11h

It's always better to be running towards something than be running away from something.

One is directionless.

One is fear.

One is hope.

One is something to be proud of, even if it doesn’t work.

6

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 15h

To get into a writing mindset, I have to read high quality long form.

Books or long articles. Fiction or non-fiction, but it has to be good, fluid, evocative writing.

When I’m writing the most, I read the least; my voice is drowned out by (excellent) other voices.

1 5

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 19h

It's a nice expectation, but even AWS's SLAs are often 99.9%, which allows for over a minute of downtime every day, or over 40 a month.

The fact is, if the accounting software goes down for 2 hours, it's annoying but not fatal.

1 3

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 19h

Exactly. 🎯

2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 20h

No single SaaS metric rules all. This isn’t Lord of the Rings.

Metrics are tools serving your unique goals, timelines, and circumstances.

Here’s why it’s silly to focus on just one:

No wait, of course THAT is the single most important SaaS metric

Is it LTV? Retention? NRR? Magic Number? Rule of 40? Or: Do you need to un-ask the question.

longform.asmartbear.com

1 6

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

It's important to select products and customer segments that are compatible with what your capabilities and constraints.

If you insist on remaining solo, that's awesome, I get it, but then don't build products that require 24/7 support or timely features.

6 1 62

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

…That’s for unserious people who want to have a side-project forever and never actually build the dream.

The closer you get to this goal, the better the company.

And it’s more fun.

(8/8)

2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

But this is the goal. Not just copying crap that exists, for markets where the pain is low, or already solved, at low prices, with no idea how to get more customers, making 10 shitty products hoping one “sticks to the wall,” or nonsense lists and AI-regurgitated drivel “for an SEO play.”…

(7/8)

1 2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

Well of 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 it’s not 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 to find this market niche or implement something novel. Obviously this is hard. Profitable, defensible revenue streams are hard.

(6/8)

1 1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

4. Be delightful.

I might throw in “at least one of the things from ‘Love’ and a few things from ‘Utility’” from my WTP article (linked).

(5/8)

2 1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

Cheap growth, high profit margins, shrug at competition… this is the spot to be in, no?

So what did you have to do again?

1. Really understand the problem.
2. Be in a market where the ICP is clear and spends money.
3. Be very different, at least in UX, probably in 1-3 key features.

(4/8)

1 2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

And your advertising would be easy, your leads would convert at high rates, and your word-of-mouth would be great (from social to forums to review sites) because people would be excited to talk about it, and thus new acquisition growth would be easy and maybe even inexpensive?

(3/8)

1 2

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

…couldn’t you charge a premium for years and be very profitable and not worry about the competition?

(2/8)

1 1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

If you had a product that was dramatically different from all others (in UX and a few key features / workflows), and perfectly solved a problem in a niche of customers with non-trivial budgets…

(1/8)

Willingness-to-pay: Creating permanent competitive advantage for the right reasons

This fresh take on “Willingness-to-Pay” analyzes three types of customer motivation, leading to superior strategies for growth that also better the world.

longform.asmartbear.com

1 1 4

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

Haha, that's really funny…

1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 1d

As you get older, you realize some of those “silly” notions were deep truths all along.

And some of those “deep truths” were never true.

How can you discern this when you’re young, and with youthful energy and decades of time to apply them?

…the human condition

3 7

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 2d

I do think they often have a wider notion than just features. Moats like network effects, lock-in, cult of founder, first-but-also-remains-fastest to market, and so on.

1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 2d

Yeah, it's easy to overlook that stuff at the beginning…

1

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 2d

Talent without practice yields nothing.

Execution without love yields burn-out, and is no way to live.

Talent + Execution + Love == your purpose in life.

Even if it takes decades to find it, that’s what you need to do.

1 4

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 2d

With a gym buddy, both of you will be far more disciplined than either would have been apart.

This is one reason why cofounders are more than twice as productive.

(I’m still a loner though, but I can see both sides.)

1 10

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 2d

Criticism is easy. Creation is hard.

But the best creators seek out criticism, not to be discouraged, but to be better.

Hence the value of “Rude Q&A.”

Rude Q&A: The constructive devil’s advocate

Nothing clarifies things quite like a hyperactive, all-knowing, all-seeing, real asshole of a devil’s advocate beating the living crap out of you.

longform.asmartbear.com

3

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 3d

❤️

Jason Cohen @asmartbear.com · 3d

When you focus on ROI, the numerator often isn’t terribly different between many tasks, which means you over-weight “quick wins.”

QWs are good, but what if you never have a big impact?

I explain how to not fall into this trap in:

Fermi ROI: Fixing the ROI rubric

Traditional rubrics fail to reveal the best answers, or how to explain those answers to others. After explaining why, the following system solves both failures.

longform.asmartbear.com

1 1