Dru's Notes

For years I built businesses that went nowhere. Then one took off, once I held a daily floor of experiments. Below the floor your work falls behind a drifting world. Above it, it compounds. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Pushing one habit harder than it needs steals from the habits still below the line. The durable move is the smallest version that still compounds. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

After a month without rewriting my principles by hand, the impulses they keep in check started winning. Copying them onto a fresh page each week is what keeps hard-won lessons from fading. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I count my output by what I finish, not the hours I sit. Flannery O'Connor watched the clock; Stephen King counted words. A 17-day launch burnout taught me which one to trust. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Most plans stall because several separate problems got bundled into one decision. Split them, ship the piece that stands alone and the freeze breaks. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I made the case for cutting rest days. Then the binges started: every two weeks or so, a Thursday ending at 3am, with the brain collecting the rest I refused to schedule. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

The great idea shows up after you start. Build the "dumb" one and the problems you hit along the way become your next products. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

One day the turkey wakes up and it's Thanksgiving. Comfort feels like safety, but it lets risk pile up quietly until it hits all at once. The fix is to take small risks on purpose, while a miss still costs little. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

A goal doesn't have a hurdle rate. Habits do. Break the goal into the habits that feed it. Find each one's input level. Make experimenting the habit that carries you when the destination is uncertain. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Most experiments fail, and that's the point. About 1 in 20 becomes a material win that keeps paying, and you can't tell which before you run it. So run more. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

You hit the goal and the win fades by tomorrow. The target was never fixed: reach it and you want the next one. Chess ratings and jiu-jitsu belts turn out to be the same trap in different clothing. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

A pre-sell to 7,000 subscribers got zero sales. The failure forced a free-plus-upgrade model that broke a three-year income drought and became Trends.vc. The target I missed was smaller than what the miss handed me. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

A fraud alert in a foreign country almost became a permanent rule. The real fix was a backup card. Most bad experiences don't deserve a lifetime policy. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I cut from two operations days a week to one and watched email slow down while support got faster. That gap exposed a trade-off that was never real, and a way through it. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

There are two ways to be careful with money. One group tracks what they pay. The other tracks what they get back. Only one builds wealth. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I drank tea before I meditated and the day went sideways. The habits were identical. Only the order changed. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

The anger you aim at a public figure is aimed at the wrong target. The role was open and the pay was good, so someone was going to take it. The person is replaceable. The game stays. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

A single curious question became Multi and the biggest payoff of my year. You can't tell how much an experiment will pay off before you run it, so run more of them. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Day one of a habit is an inertia problem. Day 89 is a boredom problem. The challenge changes as a habit ages, and naming the level you're on tells you which fight you're actually in. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Three weeks of planning a habit I never started. The first step felt too steep. I set a timer for one minute, worked on the launch, and did it again the next day. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

John Rawls wrote a thought experiment about the original position. Imagine you're behind a veil, about to be born, but you don't know where. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

You can be consistent and still be dying. Every habit has a hurdle rate: the minimum input it needs to clear the entropy working against it. Show up below the rate and you lose ground daily, even while the streak holds. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I ran for half an hour and ten minutes became my new normal. Most habits break because the daily target has no room above it. Put the habit on a range with a floor and a ceiling, and the ceiling buys the buffer that keeps the habit alive on bad days. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

Every rule I set to stop scrolling at night broke until I added jazz. Imperfect substitution beats failed abstinence because it leaves you with progress while pure willpower leaves you with nothing. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

I sat down to play one game of chess. Twelve hours later, I deleted the app. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.