read books and workout. very simple. simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, as always. worked for me when I failed the national exam. worked for me when I was unemployed. worked for me when my startup almost went bankrupt the moment Covid hit. worked for me when nearly all my employees left. worked for me and my people every single time… hope you will find happiness and peace in life.
I’m sorry to hear that. Look, I’m not sugarcoating this one: if you think you won’t break the loop, then you will be like that forever. Maybe lets start small by: reading a book (for me, Becoming Steve Jobs was the book that saved my life when I was unemployed), taking a walk everyday (helps you think and clear your head), spend time with close friends or family or partners or whoever believe in you. Good luck, and I’m on your side! The world doesn’t like underdogs like you and me, but we need not to accept that.
I was in burnout pretty bad while working for a big bank in my country. The work was very stressful, lots of office politics even though they paid pretty well, and my boss were nice (with a lot of pressure lol). I just thought I was not a good employee because I was tired all the time, then I started my company. My gosh, the work was (and still is!) 1000 times longer, harder, everything is so so bad and need addressing all the time YET I am no longer feel burnout for a few years now (since I started my company). For me, the burnout is not related to the workload or the complexity of the work--you need to ask yourself a question: why are you doing what you are doing? Is it what you want? Otherwise you will always in burnout until you find your mission in life.
Incerto by Nassim Taleb. Best piece of work I've ever read. I'm re-reading it, and still... what a masterpiece, a mind-blowing piece of work. Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile remain my "Holy Trinity" of books. You just couldn't stop reading them.
for me, Firefox is nothing special. For privacy, I choose Safari. For extensions, I choose Chrome. Sometimes I use Brave as well. Firefox is the last option.
Stop obsessing with VC money. Focus on winning customers' hearts and souls. Do things that don't scale (but bring food to the table). Most importantly, keep your optionality, which is the ability to pivot to whatever the market needs, not YOU or YOUR TEAM or YOUR INVESTOR needs.
this is normal in my case before I became a founder, and I was the "poached" one. no hard feelings for me--but my former boss hated me since. she still hates me... in fact, I believe this is very popular, especially with companies with politics-heavy culture, like banks, hedge fund, high growth startups (>~200 employees)
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb. Changed my life and my perspective on doing business, building company and understanding luck. Such a classic.
Also honourable mention: Super Pumped by Mike Isaac. Great read on the legendary Travis' journey.
back then there were lots of virtual events from LAUNCH VIETNAM START UP club on Clubhouse, now I think they switch to Zoom events. you can find and join some from LinkedIn as well, like from Tech Founder Institute for crypto startups, or some Sequoia Surge events for Southeast Asia.
sometimes, mostly for a16z events and local tech events (Vietnam & Southeast Asia). I don't understand and don't follow the hate (overhyped, overfunding, etc.) but I think the app is very smooth and works pretty well for me.
exactly my case. this is why I sometimes subscribe but only on Apple iOS devices, which helps me cancel all those things much easier... and cheers! I also subscribe to the WSJ. A little bit biased here and there but very high quality and neutral. Reading nyt, washpost, etc. can be very exhausting.
- Reading books (most recently, Nassim Taleb's books)
- Running (before lockdowns, now home workout is a very good alternative)
- Fasting
- Philosophy (Rene Girard, ancient Roman philosophy)
- History (my home country of course... also love the story of how Mehmed the Conqueror overtook Constantinople and ended Roman empire)
- Travel (mostly due to work but I always appreciated and respect the local cultures and landscapes)
- Art
- Music
- Movies
- Cars (most favs are Porsche as a modern business, and of course Tesla)
Recently, due to lockdowns I fall in love with cooking too.
my personal story: more than 3 months ago, inspired by Jack Dorsey’s diet, I walked to my office (about 5-6km per day), and started one meal a day intermittent fasting. I didn’t lose too much weight (about 2-2.5kg max) but I gained lots of stamina and endurance. Now I’m a daily runner (~5km daily, 7-15km on the weekend) and nothing could prepare my body better than walking.
wow, this article is surprisingly good and well-written. exactly what I and my team need while building a company... less distraction and content consumption. thank you for whoever posted this, upvoted this and of course Pratik for writing this piece.
used to be like you few years ago (not YC yet but we are venture-backed). my only recommendation: find a partner and convince him/her to join with you. no need to be technical but do need to be complementary to your skillsets and characteristics. read somewhere (pg’s blog?) that cofounder relationship is like marriage but without the best part ;) so you can imagine. looking forward to your future success, don’t give up man.
CEO of a tech startup in Vietnam. Definitely used to but no longer. When Covid 19 hit earlier last year, I and my cofounders panicked and couldn’t focus on work for a while...
For me, anxiety is very bad, and often results from stressful situations, bad relationships and uncontrollable risks. My recommendation is: take notes of all your worries in the morning, try to find a way to address them; if some can’t be address then it’s no longer a problem. Friends and family also can help with anxiety a lot!
read somewhere (9to5mac or Daring Fireball, I think) that it's not related to music copyrights since the music is straight from Apple Music service; more likely from language reasons. Basically if you are not English native speakers, you likely not enjoy the service as well as them. They might slowly roll out the service in the future, though.
Hi Todd, I'm Loc from Gigantec Media. Congrats on your great YC journey! I will shoot you an email and hope I can learn a thing or two from your experience.