70% > 100%

One of my themes heading into this new year has been "bias toward action." For too long I've let myself get stuck in analysis paralysis, overthinking things (often in a silo), and letting perfection be the enemy of just fucking ship it.

So in 2025 I've been taking Oliver Burkeman's 70% rule to heart (to paraphrase: if you're roughly 70% happy with something, you should do/ship/publish it). That means sending an email after one proofread instead of re-reading it 25 times. That means sharing a piece of work even if I'm not yet satisfied with it, because I know the feedback I receive is the only way it will really move from 70% → 100%. And that means putting myself out there—in the world, on the internet, in this newsletter—more than I have in a pretty long time.

Oliver goes on to say:

...the 70% rule – when you begin to grasp it, and to live by it – is something much more potent than that. Following it is a muscular and a muscle-building act. Moving forward at 70% takes more guts, more strength of character, than holding out for 100%, because it entails moving forward amid uncertainty, anxiety, and the disagreeable feeling that comes with putting less-than-perfect work into the world.

In a post from 2021, Sasha Chapin hits on a similar idea of "defeating the inner censor" by just writing fast and outrunning it. Sari Azout wrote last year that "the most dangerous thing you can do is play it safe." And then there is Anna Quindlen's incredible 1999 commencement speech:

Trying to be perfect may be sort of inevitable for people like us, who are smart and ambitious and interested in the world and in its good opinion. But at one level it’s too hard, and at another, it’s too cheap and easy. Because it really requires you mainly to read the zeitgeist of wherever and whenever you happen to be, and to assume the masks necessary to be the best of whatever the zeitgeist dictates or requires. Those requirements shapeshift, sure, but when you’re clever you can read them and do the imitation required.

But nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

So I'm building that muscle. It applies to nearly everything. From parenting, to hobbies, to trying to get a new company off the ground. The last eight weeks have been full of incredible feedback—and as a result, growth—thanks to me being okay with 70% (or in some cases, even less). It's a game-changer.

Alex Dobrenko wrote a beautiful piece just last month, illustrating how inaction is itself action. It was exactly the kick in the pants I needed, and he also nailed why even the pursuit of perfection in writing is kind of a fool's errand:

There isn't a right way to say anything. There is only what emerges. A feeling becomes words so it can again become a feeling. From me to you and back again.

Anyway, I'm going to try to write more. I make no promises on frequency, consistency, or content. We'll see what emerges.

What I'm Working On

Since I last wrote a lot has happened. We had a second baby. We spent a month in Europe. We've made new friends and reconnected with old friends.

And... I've started a new company. I'll save the details for another issue, but it's big idea in a very hard space. But if anyone knows any aerospace engineers, please drop me a line. ✈️

10 Things

Odds and ends from the last few weeks.

🎧 I couldn't resist the orange Powerbeats Pro 2, and I love them.

✉️ I'm testing out Cora and so far very impressed: an AI-driven email briefing that has dramatically cut down on my email time just in the few days I've been using it. My inbox feels peaceful, for once.

☀️ This sun clock is just simple and delightful.

🎵 Another music-making device that I absolutely do not need but desperately want, this time from Telepathic Instruments aka Tame Impala.

☃️ I loved Robin Sloan's newsletter, "Winter Reading". Just so good, highly recommend reading top to bottom.

🌐 I'm pretty happy with Ghost but always curious about new blogging platforms and Bear Blog seems like a delightfully minimalist option.

📓 I've switched note apps yet again, this time really vibing with Obsidian's "file over app" approach. I also really like their choice of icons, and have started using them for my own work (Lucide icons).

⌚ I almost bought this crazy Casio ring-watch and did not and now I regret everything.

⌨️ I've accidentally fallen in love with mechanical keyboards this year, and so far really gravitated to Nuphy's offerings. I have the Halo96 v2 (at my desk) and the Air75 v2 (on the go), both excellent.

🤯 Floor796 is a wildly creative solo project illustrating hundreds (thousands?) of characters occupying the 796th floor of a space station. Don't ask questions, just go look. (Courtesy of the excellent Hiro Report — go subscribe!)

Scroll Time

If I'm going to get stuck scrolling social media sometimes, I might as well share the interesting bits.

Media Diet

Ex-articles, etc.

📚 I'm trying to up my reading game this year (another theme: "always be carrying a book"), and so far so good. Since the new year I've read Airframe (shockingly good primer on aviation + a fun read), Pattern Breakers (good, new startup / entrepreneur guide), Parable of the Sower (terrifyingly prescient... set in 2024/2025 but published in 1993!), and Moonbound by Robin Sloan (an absolute, utter delight—cannot recommend highly enough).

📺 We finished Silo (so good, but second season was a little slow) and started Severance (which I love, but Miranda finds a bit stressful).

🎮 I'm playing more games this year because 1/ they are fun, 2/ they are incredible art, and 3/ they get my creative + problem-solving muscles moving. So far I've mostly been playing through the excellent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Call of Duty Black Ops 6, with a brief interlude into Diablo IV but couldn't quite get into it.

A Note on Process

In the spirit of 70%, and inspired by Dennis Crowley, I set a timer for myself on this email—60 minutes. So if there are typos, half-formed thoughts, or broken links, just know... my timer went off.