Mohammad Shaker's Blog, page 4

Week 42: A Prayer, by definition.

This is part 3 of answering a list of question (the full list is here.)

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

Why is it easier to do something for the other person than to do the exact same thing for yourself?Because we sometimes like the other person more that we like ourselves.did the person actually tell you no or did you just assume they would?That’s the first good question here. At last.who do you want to be less like?Hollow souls and trendy people.A son of a millionaire. I’m gratefully not.what would you do if you were alone in the universe?Build a ladder to get out.would you walk into a teleporter?Enough of teleportation already.what makes you do the right thing?10 years ago, I would say that I do the right thing because I follow my faith, the virtues and values I learned from parents, and customs of where I originated from. I respect all of the above (ala David Hume) but this is not completely true now. Now it’s my thinking mind first and formost.when was the last time you prayed?Every day. But that is wrong. Since I’m not actually doing prayer correctly. And a prayer is a prayer done correctly – by its own definition (ala Wittgenstein.)what are you proud of?All of my 3 sisters. And my mother. And my father. They all are better than myself in every aspect.when was the last time you did something you’ve never done before?If it counts, taking a new way home, last week.do you feel better or worse after spending time with the person you spend most of your time with?Nothing feels better than time spent with family or close friends. I love my family, close and far. And I love my close friends. We’re social beings.what are you afraid to tell to your best friend?Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.why did you do something you regret?I let the heart lead the way, not the mind. I shouldn’t. Hard decisions, easy life. Easy decisions, hard life.why not travel to your favorite city as often as you can?Because I should try another city that may be my next favorite city.am i wasting my time writing these questions?Yes. Because after writing my answers this far, I think they are mediocre questions without a connecting theme.what have you promised to do and not done yet?I’ve promised myself financial freedom which I haven’t done yet. But I’m changing this now.

Week 42: Prayer, by definition.

This is part 3 of answering a list of question. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

You can find the full list of questions here.

why is it easier to do something for the other person than to do the exact same thing for yourself?Because we sometimes like the other person more that we like ourselves.did the person actually tell you no or did you just assume they would?That’s the first good question here. At last.why do holden karnofsky and sam altman write so differently?Do they?who do you want to be more like?I would say the prophet Mohammad. But I have no prophecy. I would say the poet Almutanabbi but I’m not a poet. I would be happy if I want to be more of intellect: wiser every day.I would say closer to the qualities of God which resembles mercy, gratitude, the friend, the knowing, etc.I can also say something specific, like, my grandfather. He’s a man of his word – without saying a word. He’s a man of action. He built himself by himself. He did not wait – for anyone. And did not ask help from anyone.who do you want to be less like?Hollow souls and trendy people.A son of a millionaire. I’m gratefully not.what would you do if you were alone in the universe?Build a ladder to get out.would you walk into a teleporter?Enough of teleportation already.what makes you do the right thing?My faith, virtues, values, and customs. I respect them (ala David Hume.)when was the last time you prayed?I can say it’s every day – I’m a muslim. But it would be wrong. Since I’m not actually doing prayer correctly. And a prayer is a prayer done correctly – by its own definition (ala Wittgenstein.) I should put work on this a lot more.what are you proud of?All of my 3 sisters. And my mother. And my father. They all are better than myself in every aspect.when was the last time you did something you’ve never done before?If it counts, taking a new way home, last week.do you feel better or worse after spending time with the person you spend most of your time with?I can never feel better than when I’m there with the family. I love my family, close and far. We’re social beings.what are you afraid to tell to your best friend?Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.what’s the ground-truth measure?There’s no truth. Popper said it. You can only assert a fact by asserting it works in practice.You can’t un-assert a fact by showing it doesn’t work in practice. Again, Karl Popper.why did you do something you regret?I let the heart lead the way, not the mind. I shouldn’t. Hard decisions, easy life. Easy decisions, hard life.why not travel to your favorite city as often as you can?Because I should try another city that may be my next favorite city.am i wasting my time writing these questions?Yes. Because after writing my answers this far, I think they are mediocre questions without a connecting theme.what have you promised to do and not done yet?I’ve promised myself financial freedom which I haven’t done yet. But I’m changing this now.

Week 41: What matters, matters.

Babylon. Source: Link

We’re built into the notion of “never give up.” But only the unwise do NOT. Like myself for quite some time.

Not giving up on what do not matters pushes away from what actually does.

If what matters no longer matters, then giving up is what matters. If a business doesn’t make sense and losing money because no one is buying. Stop. Do I want to be right or do I want to be stubborn?

On the other hand, if my relationship with a friend is going south, I’ll never give up. Because it matters and it will always matter.

What matters, matters. What doesn’t, doesn’t.

Salam, peace.

Week 40: God and Fear.

What am I afraid of? No one comes to mind.

People of my faith would tell me that I should be afraid of him, God – with a capital G. But I’m not sure if that is what the God wants.

That where it ends this week.

Salam, peace.

False door in Egypt.

Week 39: Not all weeks are created equal.

This is part 2 of answering a list of question. Part 1 is here.

You can find the full list of questions here.

Why is the market capitalization of facebook, founded 15 months prior to yc by a 19 year old, larger than that of all yc companies combined?That’s not the smartest question I’ve read recently.Why not take a pen and a piece of paper, go offline for 1 hour and resolve one of them?
I do. And I’ve always loved the analog version outside the digital world. Look at my notebook.What are the key questions?Righteousness: Do I think what I’m doing is the right thing? I should ask this for every action I do.Growth Mindset: Where can I grow the most? Even if that means I’ll have to do things I’m not comfortable with or face my fears.Course-correct in smaller scale. I shouldn’t wait for things to go completely sideways. Daily and weekly checkins are tools for that. That’s why I journal.Am I following the herd or the values that I believe in? I’m a muslim. And I believe I should do good in the world. That’s essential for me and for my identity. Do I follow my own virtues and values? Am I a hypocrite asking someone else to follow virtues, values, or customs I don’t follow my self? Daily and weekly assessments are essential to correct my faults. That’s why I try to journal daily or at least once or twice weekly.What do you want?Do what I believe is the right thing to do. This is harder to do in practice that in theory. Some can do it. I can see my sister, Noor, has done it. And she is an inspiration.Is self eternal?I can obviously not say. Since I can’t remember what’s been there before I was born (but who said it is), nor expect to know what will be there in the future.What’s slowing you down the most?Staying up late.When was the last time you took 3 months completely off?Never.What’s your destiny?I can build Is 1 week 2% of the year? No. Not all weeks are created equal.Egyptian calendar.

Week 38: Outsmarting customers

This is one of the most things I hate: Outsmarting customers.

In pre product-market-fit (pre-PMF), it’s always good to ship something in 2 weeks, test with real users and let them tell you what’s wrong/right than waiting for a full cycle of 1-2 month of conducting research, designing and iterating 5 different versions, and shipping 1 at the end.

Nothing beats a user experience delivered in a user hand on a real device with a prod app. This is always turned out to be true VS trying to outsmart the users – trying to design the perfect feature. I’ve seen it failing again and again with startups.

Know when to get into action – I love people with a bias for action. And I absolutely detest the approach of “we should iterate on this for another week.” I don’t buy “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” And again, especially for products pre-PMF.

Until a startup reaches PMF, stop trying to be smart. Get your PMF and do whatever you want. Everything changes then.

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, Ludwig von Mises. This suits this blog.

Week 37: What does good future look like?

Another question I’m trying to answer. What does good future look like?

It’s very open ended. But here are top of mind.

A muslim family with kids who are adamant on doing good in the world and lead a purposeful life for themselves and others around them.Closer to my sisters (family) and my extended family.Financial freedom.Great health.A loving wife.And a loving family.Close deep relationships.Great depth and wide breadth of relationships.Friends to laugh with.Worry-free sleep.A hot beverage and book in a garden every morning.Slow prayers (what other people call meditations is equivalent to prayers in Islam.)A free calendar.Doing good on daily basis, for family, friends, colleagues and customers.Doing things on purpose. Not by consensus.A porsche (I’m human after all.)Runs under the sun.Fresh air every morning – outside cities.

Week 36: Selfishness and Spirituality

Another question I had to answer. What’s my disteny?

I can build up to the destiny I want. But I cannot tell what it is. What I’m building for is my own greed for freedom – something completely selfish.

At the same time, I’m trying to get there by doing good in the world. Being a muslim affects a lot my views of what I want and what’s the destiny I want to have. I want to do good in the world.

The balance between being selfish – aiming for my financial and intellectual freedom – and doing good in the world, reminds me of Adam Smith’s view of how individuals, following their own benefit (greed), will lift the society’s overall wealth (and worth) and speed up market interactions.

Salam, peace.

Week 35: Answering the Wrong Question

I’ve recently came into answering this question:

Why is democracy the best form of government?

That’s the wrong question. But I’ll try and answer it first: Who said it’s the best form of government and why this question is enforcing it? It shows lack of knowledge of history and how democracy came to be. One can see that Democracy is not the best form of government but the most viable form of government that we have in recent times. And that’s a big difference. Reading Popper, Von Mises, and most importantly, Bertrand Russel, will prove how wrong the question is.

Now, I’ve answered the question, here are my thoughts: I’ve learned from Peter Thiel that I shouldn’t always answer the question that’s being asked since it may well be the wrong kind of question or the wrong question. What I should do is that I should always answer the right kind of question and the right question – which entails that I should, sometimes (and most of the time these days), change the question being asked altogether.

This proves hugely important business, in management, in 1:1s and in asking what we should work on next.

Salam, peace.

Week 34: God and Future

I’ve come upon a post by Tim Ferriss. He mentioned a blog containing a list of 140 questions worth answering.

And since I love questions, I just sat and answered them. Here are the first couple of them.

What are you thinking about these days?Having and raising kids.Life at startup VS scaleups VS big companies.Short term pain (lower comp when starting something new) VS long term gain (freedom of a profitable successful startup.)Working on something I enjoy VS something that’s of benefit to winder audience VS both.Extended off-time to think.What happens to your consciousness when you walk into a teleporter?Stays the same.What’s the most embarrassing cold email you’ve sent?Nothing in mind lately. Which is a worrying sign (not being out of one’s comfort zone is worrying.)I’ve sent many sales/intro/customer-support emails/whatsapp/linkedin messages in my startup days but I don’t think they can qualify as embarrassing.Does time exist?It just did.Does god know the future?
Wrong kind of question again. Since it entails that we can understand the nature of the God or a deity. The question is asking me, a player from within the game, whether the game exists, and if it exists, whether the creator the game knows how the game works and ends. The rules within the game do not apply to the creator of the game. Our rules and notions of time, past and future, within the game itself are of no resemblance to rules and notions outside the game.

More to follow in part 2.