170. Hangzhou Spring

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The cover photo was taken over the weekend in my residential area. Hangzhou’s spring is beautiful, but it’s quite short—it feels like winter just a month ago and it’ll be short-sleeve weather next month. The current temperature is lovely, so it’s best to get out and enjoy it before the May heat sets in.

Record the down-to-earth trending technologies seen every week, and publish them here after screening. If you find it good, you can follow this weekly to get update notifications.

Technical Learning

Modern C++ Tutorial
https://learnmoderncpp.com/
A great introductory course for self-learning modern C++. Updated as recently as January 2024.

Web Development History
https://webdevelopmenthistory.com/index/
For those interested in the web’s past, this site feels like walking through a digital museum of “antiques”—even though most of it is only ~30 years old.

Trending Tools

Morse Code Learning Tool
https://www.perry.qa/morse
Want to learn Morse code? This tool makes it fun to learn the system of dots and dashes used for communication. It feels straight out of a spy movie.

Awesome Front-end Mini-interactions
https://drams.framer.website/
This site showcases beautiful physical-style UI effects (like buttons and toggles) with cute sound effects. Perfect for inspiration on fun web micro-interactions.

Hacker News Daily Top 10
https://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/
If you like Hacker News but don’t want to browse everything, this site aggregates the top 10 most popular posts of the day. Saves a lot of time.

Just Looking Around

How to Do Things if You’re Not That Smart or Talented
https://adaobi.substack.com/p/how-to-do-things-if-youre-not-that
This piece is interesting, and the English is easy to follow, so I recommend reading it directly.

Sam Altman’s Playbook for Startups
https://jxp73q7qjsg.feishu.cn/docx/WCNZdKDa4o2eUrxK5ElcfBXEnah
Sam Altman’s startup playbook is well worth a read. Startup success comes down to a great idea, a great team, a great product and excellent execution. Execution is indispensable and takes a lot of time, yet most people hope to skip it and turn an idea straight into success.

My Quick Summary of the Notes

The playbook gives first-time founders a set of practical advice, covering how to come up with and validate an idea, build a team, develop the product, execute, grow and raise money.

Startup Ideas

• The first goal of a startup is to make something users love.
• Successful companies all start with a product that early users love.
• Founders need to be able to explain their idea clearly and concisely.
• Understanding your target users and solving their urgent needs is essential.
• A good way to test an idea is to launch the product and see what happens, or to try selling it.

Building the Team

• A great team is the foundation of a great company.
• Founders need unstoppable determination, toughness and resourcefulness.
• Choose your co-founders carefully, it is one of the most important decisions you will make.
• Settle equity splits early to avoid disputes later.

Product Development

• A great product is the one thing all great companies have in common.
• Build a “product improvement engine”: keep talking to users and keep improving the product.
• The product should be simple, easy to understand and easy to use.
• Product work should focus on solving users’ real needs.

Execution

• Sustaining growth is the key to executing well.
• The CEO’s job is to make sure the company wins, staying focused on its vision and strategy.
• Hire great people and spend a lot of time on hiring.
• When managing the team, value aptitude over experience, and let go of people who are not a fit quickly.

Growth

• Growth solves every problem, and a lack of growth can only be solved by growth.
• Keep up momentum and focus on the key growth metrics.
• Avoid vanity metrics and focus on retention and revenue growth.
• Set an internal cadence to keep growth going.

Fundraising

• Raise money when you need it or when the terms are good.
• Successful fundraising is built on having a good company.
• Run fundraising in parallel, and do not let the process drag the company down.
• Choose good investors, they can add enormous value to the company.

Competitors

• Founders should focus on their own problems rather than worrying too much about competitors.
• Most startups die of their own problems, not because of competitors.

Profitability

• Find a way for people to be willing to pay for your product or service.
• Watch costs and customer lifetime value to become profitable.

In the end, startup success comes down to execution. A good idea, a strong team, an excellent product and outstanding execution are what make it work.

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