Where have I been?

And what to expect next...

Hey everyone!

Wow, it’s been a hot minute.

This is a short but important email giving you all a personal update on where I’ve been, what’s been on my mind, and what’s coming next.

As many of you know, I lost my mom unexpectedly late last year. This got me thinking about a lot, and ever since, I’ve been struggling to write this letter and do the necessary work to go deep and bring you value—hence the crickets in your inbox.

I’ve been back and forth between New York and South Africa quite a bit these past few months, and whenever I’ve been back in Cape Town I’ve found myself spending most of the time just sitting on the porch, staring up at Table Mountain, doing absolutely nothing but thinking, doing some scrappy personal writing, and enjoying the stillness.

I got back a few days ago from my last trip, and I think I know where to go next from here—for me, and for you.

Table Mountain as seen from the suburbs

My mom had a difficult life. And like an increasing number of people, she suffered from severe depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Something I’ve learned from her is this: Understanding the world and trying to navigate a good and happy life, one where we feel a sense of true accomplishment, is hard.

For the past few years, I’ve been writing here about how companies and products grow. I’ve learned so fucking much doing that and it’s made me a better product leader, no doubt. I believe it’s done the same for many of you too.

But through a lot of grief, guilt, and processing, I’ve been inspired to think about what really matters to me, and where I can get the most leverage from my time spent learning and synthesizing stuff. And for me, that means how do I become a better person. Me as a person > Me as a PM.

So, I want to try write about something new with all of you—something similar from a growth perspective, yet very different in terms of what we’re talking about growing :) Something I feel very pulled towards, and as we’ve seen many times in our startup playbook’s, always listen to the pull!

How They Grow isn’t being shut down and will still be right here with all our deep dives archived. If I feel the energy again, I’ll come back and post right here.

But I want to shift my focus for now (in a separate place) away from companies, and towards people.

An evolution from How They Grow to How We Grow.

I know it will allow me to be far more helpful—at least where I am right now.

Not useful because I have the answers—I’m not here to preach anything to you. But useful because I’ll be learning from some of the greatest thinkers, unpacking and simplifying research, bringing clarity to complex ideas, and writing to explore my own thoughts and beliefs. This letter will be me openly sharing all of this with you—the research, concepts, and tools—in a non-bullshitty, non-superficial, and non-toxicly positive, way.

I’ve read a lot of stuff in this arena that overpromises, blows smoke up your arse, and is written from the perspective that there’s something wrong with you that needs fixing. Like you’re not good enough, and that “guru” preaching to you from their high horse has what you need. I hate that; my mom hated that. So, this new thing will never be that.

With that, I’ll introduce you to my new writing experiment…

Good Times is a biased, but researched, guide to improving ourselves. Readers get short & practical letters on self-discovery, psychology, work, life, philosophy, and other learnings about living a good life.

Every letter covers one useful idea, aims to challenge your thinking in some way, and will leave you with one or two actionable, purposeful, and simple things you could try out.

As you’ve come to see in How They Grow, I value clarity, relevance, research, practicality, critical thinking, open-mindedness, the curiosity to look inward, and the willingness to study and put into practice old and new ideas. If you see things similarly, I think you’ll get a lot out of these weekly letters.

Inner work that has pushed me to think a little deeper about myself and my life, despite sometimes being uncomfortable, has been some of the most rewarding and impactful work I’ve done.

I’m excited to keep writing and learning alongside you, with my simple goal of leading to more good times in my life, your life, and the lives of the people we care about.

There’s nothing for you to do from here—no action needed. As said, How They Grow is staying right here. But keep an eye on your inbox for an email from me on Friday from the new letter, Good Times.

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it! 🙏

Let’s let the good times roll…