Welcome to Monday Dispatch, a bonus publication with follow ups, recommendations, personal stories, and other updates. Monday Dispatch used to be for premium subscribers only, but it’s currently free for all while I figure out what I’m actually writing about and how to get your support without artificially hiding what I hope are useful ideas.

Pay it forward without measuring it

Here’s a bit of advice from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant that resonates with me:

Figure out what you’re good at, and start helping other people with it. Give it away. Pay it forward. Karma works because people are consistent. On a long enough timescale, you will attract what you project. But don’t measure—your patience will run out if you count.

Notice the “long enough timescale” part. I like Naval because he explains things in a simple way without pretending they are easy.

We should be mindful of survivor and selection bias when listening to advice from successful people. What worked for them at a specific time might not work for us today.

I might be falling prey to biases as well, but I trust in Naval’s advice because it mirrors my experience with mokacoding.com.

I started writing on mokacoding.com because I was interested in software testing and wanted to get better at it. I was “good” at it and started “helping people” with how-to articles that I wrote as learning exercises. I gave them away for free on the blog and on Twitter. I kept at it consistently because there was so much for me to keep exploring. I also got lucky with the occasional retweet by respected folks—“attract what you project.” Eventually, that work led to a very modest book deal, a few invitations to teach workshops, a few more job opportunities, and, more importantly, made some great connections in the iOS community.

The time scale is the scary and frustrating part. Naval says “over a long enough timescale” and warns “your patience will run out if you count.”

This is why you should be writing—or sharing in whichever medium you prefer—to learn, first of all. If you write to become successful, and you don’t have the benefit of an existing platform, you’ll run out of patience. But if you write to share what you learn, to clarify your thinking, to solve problems, then you’ll go on forever, because you won just by writing the post. Anything else is a bonus.

Podcast: The Future of Warfare

Arjun Khemani’s interview with Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries, is inspiring on various axes.

Ethan’s defense technology, focused on decentralization and quantity, is fascinating. And so is how he thinks of Mach as a matrix of specialized teams with different capabilities that come together to build various products, instead of the usual product team structure.

But what I found truly inspiring was that he got started building as a teenager to help solve a problem he was concerned about. Imagine if more teenagers skipped school to build something instead of making a sign and sitting in front of it. How much more progress could we have made already?

Kids: Gods of the Ancient World

When I told my son I featured the castle book he’s been enjoying in last week’s dispatch, he suggested I also recommend Gods of the Ancient World: A kids’ Guide to Ancient Mythologies, so there you have it. If you are looking for a varied collection of myths to enjoy with your kids, that’s the book for you.

Remotely Productive

Monday Dispatch - 2025/03/24