Action Produces Information
Armstrong: If you're pre-product-market fit, the best advice I have from that period is — action produces information. Just keep doing stuff.
Paul Graham had this great line — startups are like sharks. If they stop swimming, they die. Even if you're not sure what to do, just do anything. Because when you do it, it'll produce some information. People liked it. They didn't.
Startups are like sharks. If they stop swimming, they die.
Ship It Wrong
Armstrong: This was very true for me. There were times where I just did something instead of debating it endlessly. Just try it. We shipped it.
There were a couple times where the minute I shipped it, I knew — we built this wrong. But now I have an idea what to do next. I only would have had that idea if we had actually gone through the exercise of building it.
The minute I shipped it, I knew we built this wrong. But now I have an idea what to do next.
The Mountain in the Fog
Armstrong: My other favorite analogy is — you're at the base of a mountain that's shrouded in fog. You're looking up and trying to think, how do I get up there? But you can only see three or four steps ahead because the fog is so thick.
So you have to take steps into the unknown. When you take three steps, another three steps will be revealed ahead of you. Sometimes you'll end up on some local maximum and have to retrace your steps. Or come up to a cliff.
But most people in life don't take the steps into the fog, into the unknown, because it's scary.
Most people in life don't take the steps into the fog, into the unknown, because it's scary.