The initial stage of the thinking process

It was scary and fascinating to realize that I don’t actually know the true definitions of the terms I use on a daily basis.

I mean, most of the definitions feel intuitive to me. I learned them through my interactions with objects, information, and other individuals. However, they may not be entirely accurate compared to what is stated in Wikipedia.

Why is this important?

Defining something is the first crucial step in the thought process. It’s where your mental walk begins.

How can I develop a marketing strategy if I lack a clear understanding of what “marketing” and “strategy” truly mean?

Now Wikipedia provides me with the meaning.

Free tool. Receive daily OpenAI API usage report via email

I have 2 public projects and a few scripts using OpenAI API. Every day I must monitor my expenses for it.

So I created a script that emails me a daily report. It provides spending details for yesterday, this month, and the past 100 days.

Here’s how you can set it up for your API keys too:

• Copy the script https://opryshok.com/apiusage
• Add your API key
• Execute a setup function
• Enjoy the report daily at 7 am

Principles I follow when working on projects

Since I started working full-time on creating and selling web businesses, I developed some basic principles to follow.

They remind me how I want to work, optimizing for both joy and output. I reread them at the beginning of each month.

Here they are:

1. Focus only on topics that matter to you.

• This may seem obvious until you realize you are pursuing money or launching a project simply because of new technology.

• It takes months of self-discovery to identify what your areas of interest are. A long-term strategy.

• I am passionate about yoga, investing, and deep thinking. I understand the significance of these elements in my life and actively practice them. Developing projects serve to enhance my comprehension of these topics.

2. Always search for non-obvious ways to do things.

• When solving a problem, creating content, looking for a distribution channel, or figuring out a business model, don’t blindly copy others.

• Instead, speak from your heart and be true to the world.

• I found mental models significantly changed my view of the world. My goal is to familiarize people with these ideas, but not through blog posts, a newsletter, or a book. That is not my style. I am creating a tool mentalwalk.com for this purpose.

3. Launch within a month or never.

• Create a simple product using no-code tools or collaborate with a technical partner.

• Developing the majority of MVPs generally takes 1-2 weeks.

• Allocate an additional 2 weeks to implement a basic marketing campaign.

• Identify 5 channels and create 10 micro-campaigns for each to have a total of 50 opportunities to attract users.

• Have multiple business models ready to experiment with upon launch.

• Maximize automation.

4. Minimize your budget.

• My preferred toolkit consists of Google Sheets + Apps Script, Trello, Gmail, Netlify, Carrd, Mixpanel.

• Not more than $100 per month for all experiments.

5. Devote 80% of your time to customers.

• That includes support, marketing, and sales.

• If you have a technical partner, 80% is a feasible expectation. If not, aim for at least 50%.

6. Monitor on autopilot.

• I find it counterproductive to constantly monitor statistics.

• Instead, I have a recurring email for every project with significant metrics. This helps me keep track of the progress even if I’m not actively working on the project.