malacled

my new way of staying in touch is outsourcing minor life decisions to my friends to reduce my cognitive load I'm just a girl in the world

had a call with a friend this morning who's working on his project and he's had a few direct competitors arise in the same niche a lot of entrepreneurs around me (imo) don't have much respect for competition, usually disparaging them or not feeling threatened much. whenever they see competitors doing dumb things, they feel good about the current state of the company (whether it's an uzbek company, a yc company, or even doing a couple hundred thousand MRR, they all seem to fall into the same sinkhole). but it doesn't matter what opponents are doing wrong, I think focusing on that is kind of a waste of time and gives one a false sense of security. I prefer the opposite approach: -figure out what they're doing right. -steal it.

it has less to do with how hard you row, and more to do with which boat you’re in

2-1 who

something about this street and the snow gave me such intense flashbacks to middle school. isn’t odd how everything is fine until some minuscule detail, some corner in your house, some bus stop you hadn't seen in a while, completely takes you to another place, another vision, another sick, twisted feeling that google ai labels "nostalgia"? 2016/2017 really was the time. ugh. I feel old.

prefer things with a past thank you to @ozdemir_bahar for the topic, thank you to @gapyearingdoesntsuck for holding me to my word 🫡 I think I may have gone a tad bit too far with this one, at parts it feels like making a big deal out of nothing, but here's to hoping you'll read it at the right time when it will resonate well. happy monday :)

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so all people do is mock me 💔💔 I hate leetcode with a passion, there is nothing there that I feel actually helps deal with larger codebases or legacy code or anything along those lines. it feels like having to prove I was awake during sophomore year classes but then the hard stuff is actually so diabolically time consuming for me sometimes that I just feel dumb for a solid hour (should just add it to my to-do list as that: "feel stupid"). leetcode hater for life. if I did leetcode the way I did wordle, I'd be a full time hire by now.

leetcode is fun

yesterday we onboarded a cognitive science professor (who also happens to be head of an ai lab) at the startup I work at. we were touching base today when we started discussing dangers of over-optimization. she said she was super into bio-hacking in her 20s and accidentally realized that she's immune to mushrooms. is that not the coolest thing ever? party trick.

I'm a tad bit disappointed, it was a serious question. on another note, I really dislike this bland sense of humor that is based around simply being crude or "humorous" in serious contexts. I make jokes in these scenarios all the time, the type of humor I'm referring to actually does nothing. make me think. make me laugh. even if it's at my expense. your humor should actually be funny, for pete's sake. I wouldn't have such an issue if it weren't a prevalent issue I'm seeing throughout media, it's not localized to this scenario. not really angry—just using this as an excuse to talk about this pattern of behavior.

when did you feel the most alive?

the more famous people you have as mentors or supervisors, the lower your chance of success. your bravery to make mistakes (and subsequently innovate) goes down dramatically since these people have a lot to lose and it’s in their interest to be conservative.

the part of being self-taught no one talks about: the constant feeling that I’m cheating people out of their money. like......you’re paying me to do things I was just messing around with for fun when I was 11? it's been years at this point, but that feeling never really goes away. I feel like I'm cosplaying as an engineer, just coasting and googling and bs-ing my way through it. I've been told this is a girl thing but I truly believe it's more of a "no formal structure" educated person thing attached is my boss at our startup (who is an extremely no nonsense type of person) somehow making my day last time I was doing last minute interview prep 😭😭😭

every tree starts as a plant everyone wants to be a tree but isnt ready to be a plant

was going through all unreads so I don’t miss anyone’s messages, sorry for late repost I guess I just have been inactive since this was posted that being said I feel like I can feel myself losing brain cells sometimes after a 12-14hrs of nonstop active reading 😭😭😭 hopefully post deadlines my brain will somehow function normally again

🎉 Congratulations to Madina on her acceptance to Wharton! We're thrilled to celebrate Madina Abdurashidova, a senior from Washington State, who has been accepted to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with an outstanding $400K+ scholarship! ✨Throughout her college application journey, Madina participated in Freshman's Admissions Program, receiving guidance from Malika, Valera, and Dr. Lyusyena. She successfully navigated the competitive QuestBridge application process while developing her unique voice through reflective and creative essay writing. Reflecting on her experience with Freshman Academy, Madina shares: "The program taught me the value of starting early and being intentional about my story. The reflection questions helped me relive past experiences and understand them in new ways. 💡What made the biggest difference was the mentorship from the team. They showed me that great college essays don't always have to be formal or purely academic. Sometimes, being informal in the right way makes your voice stand out. Freshman Academy gave me more than application support. It helped me discover and articulate who I truly am." 🚀 As Madina embarks on her journey at Wharton, our team is excited to see her thrive in business and entrepreneurship. We're confident she'll make meaningful contributions to her community and the broader business world. Here's to your bright future, Madina! @freshmanblog

happy new year :) https://open.substack.com/pub/malacledmusings/p/learning-to-indulge-learning-to-fall?r=637n51&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRc8wTikknD/?igsh=MW1pMHZ3ZTRvY216Mg== black swan (the startup I work at) made it to the residency btw, it’s taking everything in me not to quit uni and just go this video is giving me major fomo it just feels like the 100 day rejection day challenge from high school all over again