Issue #2: New beginnings

Hey hey. How are you all doing. In today’s issue we will talk about new beginnings and how they can fool you into believing that grass is always greener on the other side. Sticking to your habits even when it’s tough goes a long way, you only make progress when you are consistent. The first step of creating any product, is figuring out what problem you are trying to solve. And if you ever visit Prague, the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square will teach you one thing or two about the transient nature of human life.

Let’s dive in.

Today in a nutshell:

• New beginnings can be a trap disguised as opportunity

• How to design and build a web app - Lesson #1: In the beginning there was the problem

• Why is it a good idea to stick to your good habits even when it’s tough

• Prague Astronomical Clock - A reminder of the unstoppable passage of time

— Sofia

TODAY’S INSIGHT

Why new beginnings can be a trap disguised as opportunity.

A couple of days before my new job starts, and I am all excited about it.

I keep telling everyone how interesting and useful the product is and how much of an impact it is making on people’s lives.

Then I start raving about the headquarters' location and the diversity of my future workmates from all over the world, thinking about how great it is.

The first day comes and I join the company’s Slack channel.

A day later, I am seriously thinking whether I made a mistake in accepting the offer.

This is a true story.

A bit of background

Nick and I were looking for fully remote roles so that we could have flexibility in our working days. We have been working in corporate offices for a long time, so a couple of years after our son was born we moved to Greece to have a better quality of life and be closer to my family.

Since we went fully remote for the first time, we swore not to go back to working in offices again.

But for a wide array of reasons, the perfect remote role eluded us.

Mistake: You expect too much from a new opportunity. You hold the belief that this one will be so much better than anything you have done before.

Allow me to explain why.

The illusion of new beginnings

A clean slate is too appealing. It’s a promise that you can reset everything that happened in the past. Starting from scratch, you have the opportunity to re-write your story.

Excitement is real. Thinking about all this potential. New codebase, new tech, new team, new workmates.

You believe that everything that went wrong in the past will not happen again. That past failure will not repeat. Or so you thought.

Lesson: Don’t fall for the illusion.

The trap disguised as an opportunity

But everything sounds so attractive. To the degree that you gloss over potential challenges and risks. Even though you ask a lot of questions at the start.

In this particular case, we both asked a lot of questions in our individual interviews. Like, a lot of questions. We even asked to speak to more senior hiring managers.

In our minds, we asked anything we could have asked and we were heading towards easy success. But later on, we realised that we were under the influence of something called “The Fresh Start Effect”.

We basically ignored all warning signs. Our expectations became unrealistic. We overestimated the potential pros of this role and underestimated the effort to actually make this thing work. Because it looked fresh and new.

Lesson: New does not always mean better.

Falling into the trap: The perils

Of course, when things did not work out how we expected, we felt disillusioned and frustrated. We felt like we were wasting our valuable time and energy.

It felt like we were repeating past mistakes, and caught into similar patterns.

It felt like taking a step back.

Lesson: When things do not work out, expect to feel disillusioned and frustrated.

Warning signs

We should have seen them. We should have noticed. That’s what we told ourselves. But the new opportunity was too shiny for us to see and notice any red flags.

When you are so carried away by excitement, you sometimes forget to do your research. To find out more about the company and how they have been treating employees. As a result, even if you have superficial conversations with some employees, you can’t be certain that what they say will apply to you. These people may not even be on your future team and there is a chance that each team will have a completely different way of managing itself.

The best thing you can do in this case is talk to people you value their opinion about any red flags you notice. See if you can anticipate any potential challenges and risks.

Lesson: Don’t ignore red flags.

Building a pragmatic mindset

To build a pragmatic mindset try these:

• Learn as much as you can from past experiences: Our mistake was that we did not write in detail what exactly worked and didn’t work with our previous roles. We should have looked carefully at what went wrong and what went right, instead of just going with our feelings when making a decision.

With more tangible data you can make better decisions.

• Keep a cautiously optimistic attitude: We kinda went all in as far as optimism was concerned. Thinking about it now, we should have maintained a healthy dose of skepticism.

Be more realistic and keep your enthusiasm in check.

• Practice critical thinking: We accepted things without more detailed evaluation. We should have scrutinised better the claims and promises and taken more things into consideration when making decisions.

Don’t just accept things blindly.

Conclusion

When starting something new, there is a significant potential for success.

But it’s really important to approach these opportunities with a careful and pragmatic mindset.

There might be traps disguised as good opportunities.

To avoid making the same mistakes again, assess the situation and manage your expectations. Not all new beginnings are the same, so take the time to evaluate them properly before getting involved.

You can’t always cover all bases but at least do your due diligence before you go all-in with a new shiny beginning.

NO-CODE, NO PROBLEM

There are a few definitions of what a software product is but I quite like the following one:

The journey of creating a product, whether it is a web app or any other type of product starts with a problem that needs solving. In order to kick off the tutorials, let’s consider a realistic problem which we can solve.

Let’s assume that a group of content creators is struggling to effectively capture and connect their ideas using existing note-taking tools. They find that their notes are scattered and disjointed and it makes it difficult for them to be creative and express their insights.This is called the problem statement.

Once you’ve identified the problem, it’s time to brainstorm solutions. This involves thinking of ways to address the pain points of our target users. While there are existing apps that solve similar problems, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Every problem is unique, and ideation is all about finding the best way to solve it.

For the sake of our tutorials, we will come up with a solution that makes sense and is easy to implement. In our case, we envision a note-taking app specifically designed for creators, one that not only allows for easy capture of ideas but also facilitates the connection of related thoughts across multiple notes. The goal is to create an app that serves as a virtual workspace for creativity, enabling users to seamlessly navigate and expand upon their ideas.

Next week, I will go through the ideation process to pick a solution that we can start implementing.

Stay tuned.

BITS AND BOBS

I found the following tweets by James Clear the other day and couldn’t agree more with what he was saying.

It is very important to continue a habit even when you don’t feel like it. When you are running out of motivation, just keep going. You may not see immediate results but don’t fall for the trap of instant gratification. Effort now pays off later.

If you can push through discomfort when things are tough, then keep going on during less challenging times is going to be a breeze. Facing challenges leads to growth.

You can only make progress when you are consistent. It’s the steady rhythm that pushes you closer to your goals. It’s easier to maintain progress than start from scratch.

Success isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Prioritise self-discipline, push through discomfort, and watch your efforts pay off.

CORNER OF THE WORLD

About 11 years ago, Nick and I visited Prague, in the Czech Republic. Prague is an astonishing city with many great places to see. Its Old Town Square is charming, but there was one particular item there that drew our attention: The Astronomical Clock or Prague Orloj, as it is called.

The clock is a remarkable example of medieval engineering and craftsmanship. It is the third oldest clock in the world (about 600 years old) and the oldest clock still functional. It was renovated and restored many times to preserve its functionality, with the most recent one being in 2018. When you look at the clock, you are immediately captivated by its details: the dials, the colours, the shapes, and the figures around it.

The first thing you notice is the mechanical clock with the astronomical dial. Apart from displaying time, it shows the positions of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, and the signs of the zodiac. I was particularly impressed by the background of the clock, which depicts the earth and the portion of the sky above and below the horizon.

Underneath the astronomical dial, there is the calendar plate with fixed holidays and the names of 365 saints depicted. The board displays allegories of the months, with smaller images representing zodiac signs.

Apart from its gears and its astronomical calculations, the clock has a profound symbolic significance. What you see on the exterior is a reflection of the human experience and the transient nature of our desires as it is decorated with symbols representing vanity, greed, and mortality. 

As we admired the clock, several figures from it began to move. It was the "Walk of the Apostles," a show that truly caught our attention. As the clock strikes each hour, animated figures depicting the Apostles and other symbolic figures emerge, along with a skeletal figure symbolising Death, who tolls a bell.

We later learned that this display was made to remind us of how time keeps moving forward and how life doesn't last forever.

It was also a good reminder for us to make the most of the time we have.

That’s all for today and thank you for reading!

If you’ve got a spare minute, we’d love to hear what you thought of this email.

Until next week,

Sofia & Nick