DHH · 2026-08-26 · source ↗ · whole document (27)
Obsessing about speed
Yes, that just makes it more satisfying. But I think this was always true. If you look at the greatest Mercedes-Benz of all time, I think it was called the W126. I saw this wonderful documentary on it. It was steered by this guy who for years had worked in Mercedes' department for safety. And suddenly he gets put in charge for the whole S-Class project, and he just puts in all of it. This is where you got the auto-retending seat belts and washers on the headlights and everything. This car was so overbuilt for the market. It was unbelievable. But you look at that and go like, "Well, I want that." In just the same way that you look at a mechanical watch and go, "It could go down to 100 meters?" Or I think Rolex has one that can go down to 4,000 meters, the, the deep ocean, the deep diver ocean... or whatever it's called. No one outside of three people in the world, whoever buy that watch, will ever put it to the test. But don't you wanna be the kind of person who is a patron of people who wanna push the human race that much forward? I want the fastest car breaking the speed limits. I want the diver watch that can go down the Mariana Trench. I want the operating system that can install in less than 60 seconds.
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And setting a grand goal is even better. When you refuse to just do what's practical and you strive for what's slightly beyond plausible, that's when the magic happens. And we should be going all in on that. This is one of the reasons... And in fact, to some degree, this specific goal was motivated by seeing others do this. I mean, Elon is the singular individual in this conversation. The guy is so out there in his goals. They seem so preposterous at first glance. I've certainly considered them preposterous on many glances. And then you realize that they come true sometimes. Maybe not always on schedule, and so what? So what? So we didn't get the self-driving car on schedule. I gave Elon a lot of shit for that back in '17. But now it's here, and who would have gotten us here except for the person who thought it was possible in '17, who is so impatient with reality that the sheer force is just gonna propel that reality to the place he wants it to be. I think that's deeply inspiring, and we need these kinds of, goalposts to be moved. We need someone to run the four-minute mile, so the rest of us realize, "Well, okay, but I guess I can run it quicker." That's what I try to strive for, and I really strive for with Omarchy because it's just more fun to live that way, to have high aspirations and ambitions. And I will say I've actually changed my mind on that a little bit.
I spent quite a lot of time speaking the other book that there are a lot of people who don't actually need those ambitions. And I also-- That's also true. We don't want 8 billion Elons running around the world. Would be rather crazy, I think. But I've come to realize that for entrepreneurs, it's healthy to have suitable chunky goals. The idea of just running the Italian restaurant can't just be that. It should be maybe I just run the one Italian restaurant, but I make the best damn pizza possible. I make the most delicious Parmesan. We have to strive for excellence to muster the motivation to keep going.