It’s tempting to look at any dot com success and assume that all the features they have today are what made them take off. It’s almost never the case.

In fact, most of the success stories launched with what seems to be an impossibly small set of features. For example, when Basecamp launched in 2004, it didn’t support file uploads. Their solution was to let you upload a file to your own server, and then hotlink it. Sounds ridiculous now, doesn’t it? Nor for that matter could you receive notifications by email, edit a comment that has been posted, reply by email, or assign a date to a to-do item. Put simply, they didn’t start out the way you see them today. They were just getting started.

Similarly Amazon launched in 1994, but only added book reviews in 1996; they focused on getting users first. They didn’t add CDs until 1998, and it was 2001 before they even posted a profit. It’s easy to ignore this, and look at their success from this point onwards, but you’re not starting out where they are today. You’re just getting started.

I need to remind myself of this sometimes. We are just getting started. There are must-haves and there are nice-to-haves. And the things that are burning in your heart to get into the product may not always fall into must-have.

That being said -- keep rolling.

Review this chart to help you determine the best Sleep Discipline for you. Notice that the more naps you take during the day, the less sleep you will need at night. Conversely, the shorter your core sleep, the more strictly you will need to follow your schedule. The less Total Sleep you get, the more severe the sleep deprivation in the adjustment phase will be, however the more sever the sleep dep., the quicker your body will adjust to the Discipline.

# 20 min Naps	Core Sleep (hrs)	Total Sleep (hrs)	Net Benefit (vs 8 hrs)	Nap Sched. Flexibility	Nickname
0	8	8	0	n/a	Monophasic
1	6	6.3	1.7	+/-3 hr	Siesta
2	4.5	5.2	2.8	+/-2 hr	Everyman
3	3	4	4	+/-1 hr	Everyman
4 or 5	1.5	2.8	5.2	+/-30 min	Everyman
6	0	2	6	+/-30 min	Uberman

This is actually fascinating. I've never seen so concisely laid out with the actual options you could go with.

You should follow me on twitter here.

The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.

I was just thinking this recently. I think PG was prompted to write this quick essay due to a recent poll on Hacker News regarding whether people were theists, deists or atheists. I think it was 3 to 1 atheists to theists.

When I was a teenager, I liked to watch documentaries about the New Left of the 60's. I considered myself liberal by all accounts. These days, I feel less like ascribing to a single worldview than ever before. It doesn't make sense to call yourself a liberal when all it means is rubber-stamping ideas on a panoply of vaguely related issues in current times.

Of course these days the proper word for liberal is progressive. But I'm not a progressive, nor am I conservative. I'm just me, and I'd like to think I can try to read and understand any given issue and not be clouded by a particular lens. PG is right. Labels are dumb. Think for yourself.

I'm not saying I don't see the world through a particular lens. But it's a fool who always uses a lens pre-crafted for them by talk radio (of either wing) or what it means to be conservative or liberal or theist or atheist. At least try to craft your own. Somehow, I think we'll be all better off.