Some things you just have to learn from experience.
Today I was reading Indie Hackers and I was reading several articles about building a startup and how the same effort can actually produce different kinds of outputs.
I saw, for example, that the content they are producing is pretty good. On the other hand, last night I was reading about product-market fit. It's pretty good as well, but I noticed something really fundamental: the way it is for me is completely different.
For example, the article will always say that market is number one. It's true, but the number one goal is still building products. The thing is, the way I think about it, the way I see it, versus the way the author of these articles sees it, is going to be very different.
I know about that, which means that knowledge has to be fitted to each individual executor, which in my case will be me. This is very similar, which means that some things we just have to learn from experience.
I thought about it: how can we really learn? Can you really learn from an article?
In most cases maybe for other people it's possible. I'm not really sure, but in my case I noticed that there are some things that you really have to learn from trial and error and from experience.
In fact, looking at different kinds of articles, even though the article seems like it's going to help you, is actually more detrimental or worse in terms of the impact that it's going to give you than when you do not have any guidance at all.
Here is the case: want to build an enterprise? The only way to do it is simply just trial and error about it until you actually make it. At each step of the way you learn as much as you can so that you do not make the same "mistake."
Having different kinds of articles is giving you, "Oh, here's the way."
The truth is, even though that can be the case for other people, the way one will think around that idea is going to be very different.
The strategy that fits me will not be the strategy that fits you.
It's really subtle, but it's quite important.
On the other hand, let's talk a little bit about job interviews.
I started with this concept back years ago when I started with job interviews.
In the beginning I would look for articles on how to do great job interviews, what to answer, and so on and so forth. I did that with that technique and it didn't really get me far.
The one that got me far was when one day I'm like:
"Every time I go on a job interview I ask myself what the recruiters want."
Then I make my CV around it, I make my planning of conversations around it, and I go on the fundamentals, which is human psychology.
That worked really well.
That worked better than if I would just look at how to deal with interviews.
I'm not really entirely sure why this is the case and how come that, for several things (particularly with interviews, dealing with people, and for example building enterprise, which is one of the hardest things, building a system, and also building a product, which takes time and stuff like that), it just seems like learning from experience is actually much more important.
That is why I also really would prefer to look at many, many businesses and see what they are actually doing.
Assume that I'm not better, and see if those kinds of situations that they are dealing with are generally acceptable for me.
For example, if things take 3 months, the question would be:
"Will 3 months be fine for me, right?"
Or what do they do? Specifically what market do they choose and so on and so forth.
After that, reflecting again, that learning itself wouldn't really lead you to the good directions on what to question.
There are several questions that are quite detailed.
For example, at the beginning of Apple 1, Steve Wozniak was actually working on the Apple II for 10 months before it actually came out and then after that all the struggle.
You cannot relate unless you are actually in the grind or in the struggle.
It's quite interesting.
Some things you just really have to learn from experience and really see it.
I really cannot see how you can be better without these repetitions and simply just by looking at articles, and then after, "Okay, I can do it."
I think it's a bit hard.
That being said, I had two sources that I sort of thought:
"Okay, I will read this every day."
- Indie Hackers, which contains a lot of articles about how to be successful, I guess.
- Product Hunt.com, which actually has a lot of products and that's so much more enjoyable to look at different kinds of products.
I see more and more products that actually have a similar idea.
In fact, they are already much earlier, like years ahead of Kira, because now Kira is also AI customer service.
The good thing is, let's be honest, they are not in Indonesia, so it's a completely different market, but there are a bunch of things that I can learn.
For example, I saw that the platform is not simple enough.
It's very easy to make a CRM quite complicated, and that's not the goal.
Also, there are a lot of questions from people's comments, in which I do want to congratulate them as well and also give comments.
I think that's a really fun platform to be in, but there are a lot of questions.
For example:
"Oh, can it qualify leads?"
"What platform do you notice is the hardest to deal with?"
"It's like WhatsApp."
"Can it, for example, when it qualifies, route it directly to a human agent specifically for this specific task?"
Those kinds of questions are something that even Kira can learn from.
It's amazing.
It's a little bit more specific, right, but actually it's kind of executing in a way to building a product.
Other than that, there are also other cool products like AI NPC on GTA, so I might be able to even filter out and just hang around Product Hunt and just look around maybe comments and slowly build up credentials.
It's amazing.