You Can Build Things That Matter

A letter to myself—and anyone else who needs to hear it

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I've spent the last week diving deep into what the greatest builders of our time actually think about building. Paul Graham. Naval Ravikant. Marc Andreessen. Balaji Srinivasan. Y Combinator. Research on founder psychology.

What I found changed something in me.

Not because it was new information—I'd heard bits and pieces before. But because when you see it all together, a pattern emerges. A philosophy. A path.

And that path is open to anyone willing to walk it.

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The Greatest Lever in Human History

Naval Ravikant identifies four types of leverage: labor, capital, media, and code.

Labor is using other people's time. Capital is using other people's money. Both require permission—you need to hire, to fundraise, to convince.

But code and media? They're permissionless. You don't need anyone's approval to write software or create content. You can start tonight.

"Code and media are the leverage behind the newly rich," Naval writes.

Instagram sold for $1 billion with 13 employees. Minecraft was created by one person and sold for $2.5 billion. These aren't flukes—they're what becomes possible when individuals gain access to infinite leverage.

Learning to code—or learning to work with AI coding tools—gives you access to the most powerful lever in human history.

Not necessarily to become a full-time developer. But to gain agency over technology rather than being subject to it.

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The Transformation is Real

I found Dylan Oh's story on DEV Community. He spent years cycling through jobs—sales, marketing, interior design, management training. Salary stagnant. Direction unclear. Ambition without outlet.

Then a conversation at a New Year's Eve party changed everything. A friend mentioned he was a self-taught software engineer at IBM. No computer science degree. Just dedication and online resources.

Dylan started January 1, 2019. His investment: a $15 Udemy course. His routine: coding 8 PM to midnight on weekdays, 10 AM to 2 AM on weekends, while keeping his full-time job.

Five months later, he had his first software engineering role.

Today, his salary is four times what it was before. But more importantly, he found purpose. "Debugging felt rewarding. Daily learning stimulated my intellect. The career provided the growth trajectory and meaningful work I'd been seeking."

Five months. A $15 course. Complete transformation.

This pattern repeats in story after story. History majors becoming tech leaders. Service workers becoming engineers. People from any background gaining agency over the most powerful tools of our age.

The transformation isn't just financial. It's psychological. It's about moving from consumer to creator. From subject to agent.

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Software Already Ate the World

In 2011, Marc Andreessen published "Why Software Is Eating the World." His prediction: software companies would fundamentally transform every industry.

The evidence is overwhelming:

• Enterprise software spending: $269B in 2011 → nearly $600B today
• Cloud costs: $150,000/month → $1,500/month (100x reduction)
• Global broadband: 50 million → 2 billion users

Amazon replaced Borders. Netflix disrupted Blockbuster. FedEx became "a software network that happens to have trucks."

But here's what most people miss: the transformation is not complete.

Andreessen identified healthcare and education as industries "primed for tipping." Those opportunities remain. Government, insurance, real estate, legal services—massive industries still running on 20th-century assumptions.

The question isn't whether software will transform remaining industries. It's who will build the transforming products.

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The Founder Mindset is Learnable

I used to think great founders were born different. Some innate combination of vision and risk tolerance that couldn't be taught.

The research says otherwise.

Three anchors define resilient founders:

Self-awareness: Regular reflection on emotional states, energy levels, and decision clarity.

Adaptability: Seeing pivots as evolution rather than failure. Testing, iterating, evolving.

Connection: Building support networks with mentors, advisors, and peers.

These aren't gifts. They're practices.

Wharton's research identifies six elements of entrepreneurial success: Reason, Relationships, Resilience, Resources, Results, Recombination. Each can be developed.

Even setbacks can be transformed into differentiators. The challenges you face aren't obstacles—they're material for building something no one else can build.

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Paul Graham's Seven Lessons

Y Combinator has funded Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit. Paul Graham's essays distill what works:

Release early. Launch minimal but functional products quickly. Early releases expose problems before they're embedded.

Pump out features. Continuous improvement is both strategy and marketing. Stagnation signals decline.

Make users happy. Startups can't force adoption. Explain your product compellingly in one sentence.

Fear the right things. Not established competitors—unknown startups with similar hunger. And especially: don't ignore user feedback.

Commitment is self-fulfilling. Determination matters more than intelligence.

There is always room. Markets aren't zero-sum. Skepticism about saturation has repeatedly proven wrong.

Don't get your hopes up. Be optimistic about capabilities, pessimistic about external factors.

And from "Do Things That Don't Scale": You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them. Manual effort creates learning. Unscalable actions build the foundation for scale.

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Scratch Your Own Itch

Y Combinator's motto: "Make Something People Want."

The best startup ideas come from problems you personally experience:

• Airbnb's founders needed rent money and noticed hotels were full
• Stripe's founders found payments were a nightmare
• Facebook started because college students needed a digital directory

Don't chase ideas. Notice problems. The best opportunities come from things you're already complaining about.

"Solving a problem you genuinely care about makes it easier to stay motivated when things get tough."

What do you complain about? What frustrates you that technology could solve? What problems are you uniquely positioned to understand?

Those questions aren't idle curiosity. They're the starting point for building something that matters.

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The Only Question That Matters

I've read thousands of words from the greatest builders of our time. Here's what it all comes down to:

You can build things that matter.

Code gives you leverage. Shipping gives you feedback. Users give you purpose. Failure gives you lessons. Time gives you compounding.

The founders who succeed aren't fundamentally different from you or me. They're people who:

• Noticed a problem
• Committed to solving it
• Shipped something imperfect
• Learned from feedback
• Kept going when it got hard

Naval's question: What feels like play to you but work to others? That's your edge.

Paul Graham's insight: Determination matters more than intelligence.

Y Combinator's philosophy: Start with problems you experience.

Dylan Oh's proof: Five months of dedication can transform everything.

The path is clear. The tools are ready. The barriers have never been lower. The leverage has never been greater.

AI can help you code. Communities can support you. Knowledge is free. Distribution is global.

What's your excuse?

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A Note to Myself

I'm writing this as much for myself as anyone else.

It's easy to consume. To read another essay, watch another video, save another link for later. Consumption feels like progress.

But it's not.

The transformation begins when you ship something. When you commit to solving a problem you care about. When you put something into the world, however imperfect, and learn from the response.

Dylan Oh's $15 Udemy course didn't change his life. What changed his life was the commitment to finish it, build a portfolio, and ship.

I have problems I notice every day. I have ideas I've never acted on. I have skills I've started building but never finished.

The research is clear: there is always room. The market isn't saturated. The tools are accessible. The leverage is available.

The only thing missing is commitment.

So this is my commitment, written publicly:

I will notice my problems. I will build solutions. I will ship imperfect things. I will learn from feedback. I will keep going when it gets hard.

The question isn't whether this path works. The evidence is overwhelming that it does.

The only question is: What will I build?

And the same question applies to you.

What problems do you notice? What frustrates you? What would you create if you believed you could?

The tools are ready. The leverage is available. The path is clear.

What will you build?

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If this resonated, I'd love to hear what you're working on. The best ideas come from conversations, not isolation.