The Dragon
We gotta talk about the dragon. And I don't mean a fairytale beast of scales and flame. This one's real, it's deadly, it's stalking us.
This is a dragon of suffocation, of slow decay. It's not interested in flashy displays of fire and destruction. It's subtle. It kills gradually, out of sight. Punishing all great endeavors with constant setbacks and missteps. Talent trickles away week by week, finances dwindle month by month. All while those in charge struggle in vain to rekindle that original spark. The one that attracts all dragons.
This dragon is patient. It's cunning. It can circle for years, slowly poisoning our resolve, driving wedges between us, sowing seeds of doubt and discontent. It doesn't go for the quick kill. It's not trying to defeat us. It wants to break us. It wants to see us flounder, fail, fall. It'll invite us to dance and set the floor ablaze. It'll serve a feast, and tell us we’re the main course. And then, when we're broken, it will snuff out everything we've worked so hard to build.
It kills the spirit not the body.
It's daunting, facing this beast. We won’t win with fire and fury, it'll take world-class execution. Defined by the three C's, because you know how I feel about alliteration.
Clarity. Knowing our product like the back of our perfectly smooth, definitely not hairy asses. What are we building? When are we building it? Why the hell are we building it? These aren't just questions, they're our compass. They're what keep us moving in the right direction.
Cohesion. Our product isn't a bunch of features slapped together. It's a well-oiled machine, each part working seamlessly with the next. To build the product we aspire to build, we'll need behave like players of a championship team. Each of us knowing our role and executing it to perfection. Hold me to that.
Commitment. The path ahead is littered with the bodies of those who quit too soon. We've gotta stick with it, even when it feels feels like sandpaper. Loss after loss. We've got to dig deep, push harder, keep moving forward. Because that's how the world is changed. Because that's a lot more fun.
The wins are earned, this is how we starve the dragon.
P.S. Look, I know the dragon metaphor doesn’t fully land. Thing is, I had this dragon illustration paid for already, and I was trying to think of something to do with it to end the 2023 Product White Paper. And then it became a work that felt much bigger than the original prompt. And I never thought to free myself of the prompt.
I'm too lazy to do that now, I mean, you've already read it. You get what I was going for.
Updates to our vision
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