#046: Learning to Love Rejection, Consistently Building Viral Consumer Apps, Metaphysics of Math

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This week, we will take a look at the benefits of embracing rejection, the employee handbook from a multibillion dollar video game publisher, how to consistently build viral consumer apps, and more. Let's dive in:

'Learn to Love Rejection'

​Tyler Bruno is a CS Undergrad at Dartmouth, and one of my favorite writers on Twitter. He posts screenshots of short, blog-like essays that usually center on a theme within the world of tech or human psychology. One of his latest posts explores how we can shift our mindsets around rejection. Here's a short excerpt:

One of my personal favorite quotes from somebody very near to me, is 'if you never ask, the answer will always be no'. Ironically, the more relaxed you are with the idea of being rejected, the less rejected you usually find yourself. If you would like to read the full post from Tyler, you can find it here.

The Handbook of $10 Billion Video Game Company

​Valve Corporation is the developer, publisher, and distributer behind some of the biggest video games of the last two decades. From a 2019 report, the total equity in the company came out at $10 billion, but recent estimates may value the company at much more. One of the more fascinating things about the company, is that Valve uses a flat organizational structure, and employees decide what to work on themselves.

​Zach Pogrob, obsession-extraordinaire, recently discovered the handbook for new employees at the company. It's subtitle is 'A fearless adventure in knowing what to do when no one's there telling you what to do'. It's a great look at how to be disciplined while building an organization that is simultaneously an extension of yourself and complimentary in areas of weakness.

You can find a few snippets here from what Zach shared on Twitter.

Supercharging Your STEM Knowledge

​@burny_tech recently caught our attention on Twitter by posting screenshots of two YouTube channels with one simple tagline for each: watch everything. The two YouTube channels in question? The first is math & physics teacher Richard Behiel, and the second is computational neuroscience & machine learning researcher Artem Kirsanov.

These are both heavy, heavy channels filled with dense material. We'd be lying if we said we understood all of it. But the channels contain both explanations for some complex phenomena such as why relativity breaks the Schrodinger equation, backpropagation in machine learning, as well as fun videos that break down how they make the science animations.

How to Consistently Build Viral Consumer Apps

​Nikita Bier is one of the most in-demand viral growth engineers, and his recent interview on Lenny's Podcast is a goldmine of information on all things related to consumer apps. Nikita is the co-founder of TBH (sold to Meta for more than $30 million) and Gas (sold to Discord for millions more) and has helped advise tons of other consumer apps that hit #1 in the app store, like BeReal, Captions, Flo, Citizen, Eight Sleep, and more.

If you are interested in building a consumer app in the future, this is an absolute must listen. Bier explains the inside stories of how his apps achieved massive growth, the best strategies for building viral consumer apps, why teens are such a great audience, and more.

If you don't have time for the 1.5 hour podcast, you can find an abridged version here explaining the key takeaways.

Why You Don't Understand Math & What to Do About It

I recently came across a thread by David Bessis, a self-proclaimed 'rogue mathematician', who wrote about the challenges of learning math. Part of the issue comes with how we define math itself. He argues that the classical definition of math being 'the science of numbers and shapes, or logical deduction' obscures the true nature of math.

His perspective comes from a metaphysical standpoint - the first I have ever encountered or read about when it comes to math. He claims that math is similar to a kind of meditation, and explains where we go wrong with it:

He argues that the secret art of math is making the symbols and formulas intuitive, and expands on this by quoting mathematician William Thurston, "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems by themselves."

The three final pieces of advice that he beautifully expands on in the thread, are:

1. Be persistent - How much is a billion minus one? You instantly see the answer in your head..but this relies on your intuition of numbers that took years to build. This timescale is typical of what ultimate mathematical comprehension requires.
2. Embrace your cluelessness - Toddlers love math because they're used to being wrong all the time...They can't figure out why the square block won't fit in the round hole, yet they swallow their pride and go back to it, month after month.
3. Be curious - Seek clarity...Whenever there's something that troubles you...try to articulate exactly what it is. Think freely, seek mischief & then only use logic as a referee.

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