Hi friends,

I wrote like a maniac in January, so I have two long-form pieces to share with you soon. I'm exploring new ground with my writing. I've become totally obsessed with the mechanics of culture and company-building.

Cohort 10 of Write of Passage begins on April 17th. Since space is limited, we have launched a “Save Your Spot” program. Now you can guarantee your enrollment and beat the rush by making a deposit. (If you’ve already paid for lifetime access, don’t worry, your spot has already been saved.)

Today's Finds

​Triggering Better Ideas: The brain is like a bowling lane with invisible bumpers. We get stuck in thought-loops because we create so many unseen barriers. One way to open new territories in the mind and unleash creative thinking is to ask insane questions. Legendary music producer Brian Eno would sometimes trigger new ideas by restricting musicians to only one side of the studio. Having only half the instruments available to them forced them to innovate. This article presents some fun questions, such as, "If you were forced to increase your prices by 10x, what would you have to do to justify it?" I also like this one: "If you were never allowed to provide tech support, in any form, what would have to change?"

​Stoned Ape Theory: I'm not saying this theory is true, but it's surely interesting. Terence McKenna argued that apes evolved into humans once they started eating mushrooms because of the way they transformed consciousness. He said that psilocybin altered the brain's evolution, and in turn, accelerated the development of art, language, and technology. Small doses of psilocybin improved sight, and made humans better hunters. Medium doses increased libido, leading to reproductive success. High doses catalyzed the early formation of language and religious experiences. For more on this, here's the comedian Bill Hicks (3-minute video) and Michael Pollan, who doubts the theory.

​Gardens, an Essay on the Human Condition: Like much of my favorite writing, this piece takes a mundane concept (a garden) and make you see the depth it contains. Gardens are a metaphor for life. We are always working with nature, while fighting it too. Gardens balance order and chaos, life and death, nurture and nurture. They hold these opposites in harmonious tension.

​Graham Duncan, on Identifying Talent: I've always liked this motto: "The team you build is the company you build." That makes evaluating people one of the most important skills for a CEO. People underestimate the variation in how quickly and accurately people can identify talent. This skill is hard to measure, but it absolutely exists. And this essay gives you a feel for how to do it. One challenge is conducting a job interview. The interview is a paradox. Good interviewers talk very little while prompting the candidate to ask questions because their questions are the most valuable pieces of information you can receive. You want to get lots of questions without talking the entire time, which is tough. Look for quirky forms of excellence too. Extremely talented people often have a talent that you either can't describe or have never thought to consider. Pair this essay with Duncan's interview with Tim Ferriss.

​High Variance Management: Most management literature focuses on reducing variance. It traces back to the principles of Scientific Management, which were designed to make factory workers' outputs efficient and predictable. But sometimes, you want to increase variance. Think of the difference between a play and a movie. Actors in a play will decrease variance because there's only one take. Every experiment is a serious risk. Hollywood is different. Actors are more likely to increase variance, like trying a crazy stunt, because they can do multiple takes. The management literature is comparatively weak on how to manage creative projects with big upside but a high chance of failure. Whenever you evaluate a new hire, ask yourself, "Where does this person fall on the spectrum between low and high variance?" Let the answer influence how you speak with them.