Dru Riley
Dru's Notes
One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.
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Episodes
Launch First, Name Later 29.04.2026 1:16
I spent two days on a name and shipped zero code. Domain searches across a dozen tabs. Then I stopped, deployed on a subdomain and started shipping. The name came later. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
I Deleted Social Media. Here's What I Kept. 28.04.2026 1:21
You already know the cost before you open the app. You open it anyway. The algorithm that taught you a skill in a month is the same one eating your evenings. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Do Less, Get More: The F1 Math 27.04.2026 1:31
Most people behind on their work add more. F1 engineers know better. The math says removing weight wins. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Warren Buffett vs Y Combinator: Two Strategies, One Rule 26.04.2026 2:26
Most investors argue about concentration versus diversification. The best ones think evolutionarily. Strategy follows the environment, not preference. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
The Tardigrade Test: How to Build Habits That Last 25.04.2026 1:49
Most habits die during your worst weeks. The ones that survive share a single trait that has nothing to do with discipline. This episode introduces tardigradity. It's the probability that a practice keeps going. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
How I Get Business Ideas 24.04.2026 0:46
I have a backlog of 200+ rough blog post ideas. When I sit down to write today's post, the idea is already there. The same habit works for business ideas. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Simulation Thinking: How to Make Hard Decisions 23.04.2026 2:00
I built five books in one day to pick which one to ship. Why simulation thinking beats picking between descriptions, and why AI makes it runnable on any decision that matters. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
The Hidden Cost of Moving: Decision Fatigue 22.04.2026 2:32
Five years of moving to a new city every few months felt like freedom. The real cost was thousands of invisible daily decisions a settled person never faces. Why environment design is really decision reduction. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Time Is Not Your Most Valuable Asset 21.04.2026 1:51
Time goes one way. Money goes both ways. You can earn back a dollar. You can never earn back an hour. Treating the two as the same is a category error. This episode breaks down a seven-layer hierarchy of resources, from money at the bottom to awareness at the top. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
How to Prioritize When You Have Too Many Ideas 20.04.2026 1:39
Each day I run experiments. Most days there are more experiments in my queue than I can run. Two filters decide what gets picked first: does this remove something from the system, or does this build something future experiments depend on? Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
I Had Too Many Habits. Here's What Saved Me. 19.04.2026 2:07
Habits pile like grains of sand. Add enough and the whole stack collapses under its own weight. Here's the cap I set to stop the collapses, and the split I had to make when that cap started blocking habits I wanted to add. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Most Habit Trackers Miss the Point 18.04.2026 1:35
You can't trust your memory to measure change. I add and remove habits regularly. Three weeks later I can't remember how I felt before the change. The water temperature adjusted and I adjusted with it. My solution: forced review checkpoints. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
How I Build Habits That Don't Break 17.04.2026 1:18
For years my habits lived in boom and bust cycles. Then I replaced banking with ranges: a floor, a target, a ceiling. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
How to Close a Chapter Without Regret 17.04.2026 1:54
I ran a daily standup for six years. 2,000 days. 44,110 standups logged. Here's how I closed the chapter with a book instead of silence. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
What an AI Playing Breakout Taught Me About Reality 16.04.2026 4:33
One scene from The Thinking Game documentary stopped me. A DeepMind AI found a move no human player would try. I named it tunneling, then found nature doing the same thing for billions of years. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Why Smart People Underperform 15.04.2026 1:17
The best AI coding model writes bad code inside Antigravity IDE. The same model in Cursor or Claude Code performs much better. The same law applies to people. Environment is the multiplier. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
The Cure For Anxiety Is Doing More Of It 13.04.2026 0:28
My first blog post took hours. Three months of daily posts later, I write, publish and move on. If you're anxious about something, the answer is usually more exposure. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
We Live in the Wild. Not the Zoo. 12.04.2026 1:50
We live in the wild, not the zoo. The systems around us are built for what we buy, what we click and what can be mass produced. Our wellbeing is a side effect. Once we accept that no one is looking out for us, we start taking accountability for our own wellbeing and outcomes. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
How I Use a Paper To-Do List to Finish What Actually Matters 11.04.2026 1:40
Each day I rewrite my to-do list on paper. The things I finished get crossed off. The unfinished things only get carried forward if they're worth rewriting. The longer an item survives that process, the louder the signal: this is the one to finish. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Long-Haul Luxuries: Why I Only Buy Things Built To Last 10.04.2026 1:26
I paid $150 for a chef's knife last week. A recent trip taught me what a good knife feels like. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Why I Call Everything v0.1 Before I Launch 09.04.2026 0:53
One label manages expectations before users can form the wrong ones. It gives you permission to ship fast. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
The Second-Time Rule: Turn Fixes Into Systems 08.04.2026 1:20
The second time you do something, turn it into a protocol. One-time work that pays off each time. A rule for turning fixes into lasting systems. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
What 2,000 Days of Building in Public Proved 07.04.2026 1:38
546 founders wrote daily standups for 2,000 days. The most committed founders wrote the most ordinary first entries. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Do Less, Get Better: I Removed a Good Chapter 07.04.2026 0:47
I cut a chapter from my habits book. The chapter was good. The book is better without it. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Why the Simplest Version Takes the Most Work 05.04.2026 0:54
Simple code is easier to fix, easier to read, easier to maintain. Getting to simple is the hard part. Watch on YouTube Read the full post Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
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