I lack (but I would like to find) a relatively objective mental model for thinking about determination in practice. This post is an RFP for such a framework. I am hoping that someone may be able to point me in the right direction to gain one (or ideally, several) practical mental-models on determination.

I hope to use this framework when hiring new team members (as a pre-hire test/assesment), or when training existing team members (as a framework to aide coaching, and/or a framework they may adopt in self-directed learning). Or simply anywhere the topic of determination comes up, and someone wants some practical help to increase it.

Hello, all - it’s time for another blog post. It seems I’ve got it in me to write a blog post perhaps once every 3-years, or so… ;)

Today I want to write about my habits.

Partly inspired by Sam Altman’s post on his own productivity, and partly because I hope some friends may offer feedback to improve the habits I have, or suggest some useful new ones.

In 2011 I went to a dinner at a friend’s - one of my old high school teachers - and at some point in the conversation he asked “How’s your job?” I had a great job, but I really wasn’t happy being in Halifax anymore. I remember answering that “my job’s awesome, there’s no other job I can imagine that could be better…but god, I really just want to work on my own stuff. And I wish I could travel.”

It was a feeling that had been building up for a long time.

Last year was hard for money. The whole year was tough, but particularly hard was the last time I was raising cash for our startup Vectr in San Francisco. At that point we had two angel investors, but that money was just about gone and we were still primarily bootstrapping the company; I was in SF to raise VC money to keep us going.