Rasul Kireev

perfect time tracking is an illusion. time tracking is not a lifestyle, it's a diagnostic tool.

Use it for a week or two when you feel overwhelmed to see where your time is really going, then drop it. Get the clarity without the perpetual distraction.

Complexity is the enemy of growth.

Do fewer, bigger things.

Focus on outcomes, not activities.

The companies that win aren't the busiest—they're the ones that find the right levers and pull them hard.

The mindset shift is crucial.

Embrace uncertainty, run toward surprises, expect non-linear progress.

"Nothing...nothing...bang" is normal.

If you're learning, you're winning.

Growth sprints replace endless optimization with hypothesis-driven experiments.

Score ideas on Key driver impact, potential Impact, and Effort.

Test the riskiest assumptions first.

Learn fast, document everything, iterate.

"Jobs to be Done" interviews with recent buyers reveal the real triggers and anxieties driving decisions.

Not what people say they want, but what actually made them switch.

These insights often uncover non-obvious channels and messaging angles.

The growth model concept is brilliant.

Start with your North Star Metric, identify key drivers, find your rate-limiting step.

If doubling one metric would double your business, that's where you focus.

Everything else is distraction.

Matt introduces a simple framework: map the customer journey as Struggle → Search → Selection.

Most startups focus on Selection when the real leverage is often in Struggle (why people even start looking) or Search (how they find solutions).

Understanding this changes everything.

The book argues early-stage companies need to become "instruments of discovery" rather than execution machines.

You're not looking for marginal gains.

You're hunting for step-change breakthroughs that categorically transform your business.

Just finished reading "Growth Levers and How to Find Them" by @matthlerner

The core insight: 90% of startup growth comes from 10% of what you try.

Most founders are optimizing when they should be discovering.

The fear of not "making it" is often just the fear of not keeping up with others.

But comparison is the thief of joy. Stop copmaring yourself to others and enjoy your life.

Compare yourself only to the person you were yesterday.

The ability to forget isn't a bug; it's a feature.

Tweet of the week:

x.com/jmduke/stat...

Yet another awesome idea that I would love to build. Someone should definitely get on this.

Cool person I discovered this week: Wassim Alhajomar @Wassimulator

He's a fascinating combination of software developer and physician.

Currently completing his residency in General Surgery while pursuing his passion for systems programming and game development.

We're constantly exposed to other people's definitions of success and naturally assume we should want the same things.

But the real challenge isn't achieving success - it's figuring out what success actually means to YOU.

Here's a quote that really hit me this week from @morganhousel:

"The ultimate success metric is whether you get what you want out of life. But that's harder than it sounds because it's easy to try to copy someone who wants something you don't."

I've been saving all my project ideas in Google Keep, and there are tons of them.

It kills me that I don't have time to work on all of them.

But I need to focus on making existing projects profitable first, otherwise they're just a waste of time.

Also working on Marketing Agents, but I realized I was overcomplicating it.

Instead of trying to build an entire marketing suite, I'm simplifying it to focus on automatic blog generation and posting.

Sometimes less is more.

Been focusing on Ask HN digests recently.

Summarizing Ask HN questions is way more useful than I initially thought.

I've done everything I wanted with it, so now I'm thinking about monetization and driving more traffic.

If you have ideas on this, I'd love to hear them.

Just send issue #36 for my newsletter.

Haven't sent it in a while, but I'm back with some updates and interesting finds from this week.

Let me share what I've been working on lately.

Are you a burnt out engineer?

The problem could be the industry, not your profession.

Try to find meaning by building software for real-world use cases. With current market it might be hard to do, but definitely worth it.

I'm struggling with naming my side projects

I know that a memorable name is a hook; your landing page does the explaining, but...

I often get paralyzed searching for 'perfect' name. A good enough, available name is better than one that stalls your project.

Anyone has something similar?

Worried AI assistants are dulling your coding skills?

Don't just accept suggestions.

Treat the AI like a junior pair programmer:
- question its logic
- review its work
- use it for brainstorming.

This keeps you in the driver's seat and your mind sharp.

To stop seeing AI slop on YouTube, starve the algorithm.

Go to your settings and disable both watch and search history.

Your homepage will go blank, leaving you with just your trusted subscriptions and direct searches.

"Directed Stupidity" is a more honest term than "Artificial Intelligence."

It correctly frames the tech as highly directed for specific tasks, yet lacking the common sense and general awareness of true intelligence.

It's a powerful tool, not a mind.

Ultimate source of truth for a developer isn't the manual, it's the source code. Docs describe intent, but the code defines reality.

Want a tech career without a STEM degree?

Build a killer portfolio!

Your ability to ship projects and contribute to open source is what gets you hired.

After that first job, your experience and skills matter far more than your original major.

Performance improves when you break your code down into smaller, more manageable modules or functions.

A good rule of thumb is under 500 lines of code. This allows the model to focus on a specific piece of logic without being overwhelmed.

Lastly, work with smaller code blocks.

Language models can struggle when fed a massive, monolithic script.

Try different platforms to see which one aligns best with your style.

The best AI for one developer's workflow might not be the best for yours.

While some find success with ChatGPT and Claude, others have noted that Google's Gemini provides better results for their specific coding needs.