it's so crazy how for years we as an industry went on about empathy maps, persona designs, user journeys, wireframes, only for everyone to become obsessed with the idea of one-shotting interfaces with artificial intelligence.

Shenzhen is an incredible place for builders & any founder interested in hardware. But, if you're actually creating a first generation product and want to scale it, it's definitely not all daisies. Hardware is really really tough, and for founders like me who switched from software to hardware, it's a humbling experience getting used to the difference in how things work. I went 0 to 1 in the last 12 months, with about 9 of those months being physically in Shenzhen. And my advice to my past self would be to build lean for as long as you can! Avoid a more complex supply chain for as long as you can! If you can validate or ship a first batch without entering real production or larger CM/manufacturing conversations, it really is going to make life easier until you're fully ready. Which most of us aren't. Having extreme confidence in your product positioning, value prop, demand, personas, + more resources like funding & an actual team before you enter CM contracts or midsize production will save you lots of headache. Of course it's possible to jump into it if you have extreme delusion like I did, but it's not the ideal way and I personally wouldn't repeat that path if it was my first time doing hardware.

I created this ring as a solo consumer hardware founder. I would never recommend the solo path to anyone. Went 0 to 1 like this, and I'm thankful for all the lessons and resilience it built in me. But hardware is fucking hard for a reason. Doing it alone sometimes feels like masochism, so if you can, don't do it alone.

thinking: we’re quickly entering an era of contextual computing, where the next gen of our devices, operating systems, and application-like experiences (I hesitate to call them “apps”) will spawn from the context we provide them and be tailor-made to our preferences. we can imagine sensationally new types of products and super intelligent experiences, but their potential will be bound by the context we provide them. right now, we’re in the early innings of the context war, as agents seek our data, data stewards weigh the costs and benefits of allowing connectors, and customers weigh the risks of sharing. as consumers, we still lack a portable single source of truth for context, and we still don’t know who to trust and how to reconcile the trade of privacy for convenience... big opportunity.

the opportunity cost of not working on maximally fun and exciting things is too huge having fun is like a 10x multiplier on your creativity, intelligence, charisma and just overall lifeforce so everytime you are not engaging in maximal fun you are missing out on that upside and 0.1x’ing your life discipline and routine only gets you so far, it only ever helps you sustain your baseline or maybe a slight boost so 1.0-1.2x your lifeforce so there’s no time to waste, go and do the fun thing and 10x your lifeforce

What if we could make the SF's generosity accessible to more people? Launching CrashCouch 🛋️: a community connecting newcomers to SF with locals willing to offer spare space or even a couch for a short stay. free & no plan to monetize. community & safety first. i moved 5 times in my 1st year in SF. What got me thru was the generosity of ppl around me. SF is full of ppl genuinely willing to help if they see potentials within you. i want to make that generosity more accessible. referral & invite only (for now). I prioritize women feeling comfortable to be included in the community. whether you need a place to crash or have space to share in SF, welcome to join:

Introducing Ardia, the open-source Arc I've been working on this for a few months now. It's feature-complete, already used by a bunch of former Arc users, and extremely performant.

I will be releasing a new interface this month. Solo founder doing hardware for 1st time. 12 months in Shenzhen. Team of 2.5 people. <$400k raised. Since I've operated so lean, made some decisions on our pricing & open source that should make lots of ppl happy. Super excited!

can I say something without everyone getting mad these chinese component manufacturers speak my love language: - insanely prompt replies - just want to be helpful - don’t care what scale you are building for - genuinely curious what you making - don’t gate keep information