Rick Rubin & Intuition-Driven Building

`1:38:33`

— Yeah. — And we've been talking a lot about Rick Rubin, and I love his answer — Yeah. Okay. — to this, which it sounds like if I was going to ask you this question now, you would answer it in a similar way. So, he was asked the question, "Do you have an engine of constant dissatisfaction, self-criticism, that I could have done better?" And his answer was almost near... — Can I guess? — Go ahead. — I don't know what it is. — Okay. — You couldn't have done any different than what you did. Is that his answer? — Very close. Yeah. — Yeah. — So, he goes... — And I believe that to be true. Go ahead. — This is what I wanted to know, how you look at this. So, I was going to — Yeah. — ask you to answer that question next. — Yeah. — So he goes, "No, I'm pleased with the work that we did, excited to keep working. It's fun." You've said this multiple times today. — Yes. Yeah. — "I don't know what else I'd do with myself. I like making things. It's fun." That sounds like you again. — Yeah. Yeah. — "I feel like it's my reason to be on the planet, so I just keep doing it.

`1:39:20`

If it could have been better, I would've kept working on it. If it could be better, it's not done. I've done everything I can to make it the best it can be. I can't do more than that, so there's nothing to be critical of. It's almost like a diary entry." — Yes. — It's very fascinating. "Everything we make is a reflection and a moment in time. Could be a day or could be a year." — 100%. That's exactly how I see things, which is, I did what I did, I did the best I could or the worst I could, whatever it is, it was what I did, and there it goes. Now what? That doesn't mean be an asshole to people, and just... You can be an asshole. Other people remember what you did, too. So, they'll remember what you did. So you want to just be a good, honest person anyway, but

`1:40:08`

some people might hear this, that's why I'm saying this, some people might hear this and go, "Well, that's an excuse to just do whatever the hell you want. There's no ramifications to any of these things." There are ramifications to these things, but they are written in history, and that is that. I've always just tried to do the best I can. This is why... I'm going to tie this back to numbers. We don't have revenue targets, except for, like, I want to be profitable. I don't have sales targets, revenue targets, user targets. I don't have any of these things. We just do the best work we can. A target shouldn't make me do better work. I should do better work because of the pride I take in the work that I do, and the seriousness in which I take the work that I do, and the enjoyment in the work that I do. I'm going to do the best I can. That's what I do. That's all I can do. That's all I should be doing,

`1:40:53`

and I don't need something to try to tell me that I could do better had I aimed for some target. The target is the work I'm doing now. That's the best I can do. So, fully on board. He said it more eloquently than I did, but that's how I've always felt about this stuff, which is why I don't like measurement. I just like the product. The product is the measurement, not the number of things that people have done it, used it, and whatever. It is what it is. The number, the money, is ultimately like the byproduct of making something good. It's not the reason to do it. People are in search of certainty all the time, and I think it's nowhere to be found. But it makes people very uncomfortable not to know why this happened, or... And by the way, I shouldn't say it's not to be found. If you're making widgets on a line,

`1:41:41`

and the widget's supposed to have a circle in the middle, and all of a sudden the circle's off, you can trace that back to where the machine went offline. Like, you can figure out some of these things. Of course, if they're mechanical and you can track it all down, but most businesses are not mechanical in that way. They are a series of decisions, ideas, timing, market conditions, competitor conditions, perhaps, your mood on a given day, the way it rolled out, what other news was happening in the day the thing... Like, to try to pinpoint the answer and then to go, "Okay, now next time we know not to do or to do," and to feel like you now know something that you actually don't know, but to be so certain that you do because you've "figured it out," I think it's really dangerous. — Is that why I've heard you say a few times that you don't think