Recently I stumbled upon the concept of Ikigai. It’s a Japanese concept that refers to the purpose in life. The most interesting piece of it to me is that it comes a good framework for finding your Ikigai – the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can make money from. Simple.

Individual endeavor can change the course of history for the better. History is a tale not of immutable forces but of human endeavors.

Ben Franklin

Michael Seibel has a nice short video on “How to Get and Test Startup Ideas”. It made me think about a couple of things:

• I really liked his making the case for keeping a “Problems” list, the same way some, like me, keep an “Ideas” list. Both the problems and the ideas are valuable and are not mutually exclusive. An idea can be based on a problem you run into. And the idea can help you find other problems you can solve.
• It is extremely valuable to have a side-kick. Someone you can discuss the problems you face with, brainstorm and bounce ideas off of. It is also way more fun. I think process of innovating should be enjoyable on its own, because waiting for the end result is too uncertain to expect your joy coming from it.
• Thinking about who your initial customers are is as good in keeping you grounded as is thinking about the current and past competition. Both valuable.

Packs tons of inspiration in just 6 minutes which is not very common these days:

Progress: the concept that individuals, and humanity in general, move forward and improve based on a steady increase of knowledge and the wisdom that comes from conquering adversity;

It’s a thought from Ben Franklin’s biography by Walter Isaacson. It’s an interesting perspective. Are we putting ourselves into situations where we conquer adversity often enough? Do we gain wisdom or knowledge from that?

Another good piece on the current coronavirus situation: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

Stumbled upon a pretty good visual simulation of the importance of physical distancing and flattening the curve from The Washington Post. You can find it here.