Erik’s Newsletter: Execution Over Innovation
Issue #81
Doing “dumb” work brilliantly keeps beating novel ideas. This month’s notes double‑down on execution: why Faraday‑cage offices kill creativity, how metrics reveal nonsense, and why your next assistant might cancel your gym membership before you remember you have one.
🗓 Today at a Glance
Quote: "Do what makes mornings exciting and nights peaceful"
Reading: Lies per Second, Meetings per Decision Ratio
Podcast: Lenny’s Podcast – Building PM Operating Systems
Tweet: “If you fit in, you disappear.”
Product: Pine AI (autopilot for life admin)
Idea: An “Inbox Zero” agent that cleans your email
💬 Quote I’m Pondering
"Do what makes mornings exciting and nights peaceful." — Shane Parrish
Whenever I’m feeling off, I revisit my mornings/nights.
🧠 What I’m Thinking About
Winning often means copying a proven model then out‑executing incumbents.
Gifting hits harder when it’s unexpected.
If I need ideas, I walk. Offices feel like creativity blackholes.
Better prompting = breaking down the problem and letting the model tear it apart.
📚 What I’m Reading
Lies per Second, Meetings per Decision Ratio
//andrewchen
Great writeup on how growing orgs drift into busywork. Track these metrics to stay honest.
The Work Behind the Work Is Dead
//nikunjk
The PRD is dead, just a one-pager. Here’s my take on it.
Communication Is the Job
//boz
Boz nails it: if people don’t understand you, nothing else matters.
Letter to a New Product Manager
//founderstribune
PM success is choosing the right battles, not shipping the most features.
🎧 Podcasts Worth Your Time
From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products | Peter Deng
//lennyspodcast
Building PM Operating Systems: This episode breaks down how elite product teams actually run. Some gems in how they run failure reviews.
The Side Hustle King: “I’m making $8K/DAY from easy businesses”
//mfm
Scaling Niche Side Hustles: Chris Koerner quietly turned Disney-exec skills into real ecom cashflow. Fun listen.
Google
//acquired
Inside Google’s AI Stack: Mostly infrastructure. Good reminder that model building is the easy part.
🐦 Tweets That Made Me Stop and Think
You shouldn’t try to fit in: Tobi (Shopify CEO) reminds us: if you blend in, you get ignored. (https://x.com/tobi/status/1937509810167226830)
Instant GUIs from Prompts: The future is generative interfaces. Less deterministic, more probabilistic. (https://x.com/karpathy/status/1935779463536755062)
Track What They Did, Not Tried: When hiring, care more about what someone shipped than what they meant to. (https://x.com/evanlapointe/status/1935788153895559311)
“Crocs” Purse is doing $100M this year (https://x.com/anothercohen/status/1935547333795594554)
🛠 Product I’m Loving
Pine AI is basically a life admin agent. It cancels stuff, negotiates bills, and files complaints like a robot executive assistant.
Inbox Zero Agent: This Zapier bot triages email, drafts responses, and kills noise. Finally we can have inbox zero.