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Years ago, I wrote an essay called The Calm Company. It came out of watching startups burn people out with 80-hour weeks while quietly running out of money. That essay ended up shaping a lot of how we built Transistor.
Transistor has given me a foundation for calm. We don’t track hours, we pay well, and if your kid’s home sick, you go take care of them. But getting Transistor off the ground was incredibly hard, and staying competitive is still hard.
So lately, I’ve been wondering if the essay needs a revision.
So lately, I’ve been wondering if the essay needs a revision.
I reached out to my friend Jesse Hanley (Bento, PostShiba) and he sent back a voice memo that reframed the whole thing for me:
"A calm company isn’t a destination. It’s a side effect of running a company whose revenue isn’t under threat."
In this episode I play Jesse’s memo, then think out loud about competition, the pace of work in the AI era, and why I still feel grateful to work in software.
This is also the first video I’m publishing to Spotify using Transistor’s new video publishing feature, so you should be able to leave a comment right there on Spotify. I’d love to hear what you think.
Timestamps
00:00 Why I’m revisiting The Calm Company
00:50 Calm vs. working on the hardest thing
01:10 What I asked Jesse Hanley
02:15 Transistor is still hard to compete with
02:55 Jesse’s take: calm is a side effect, not a destination
03:45 When your market gets squeezed (Bento + launching PostShiba)
05:00 Calm as a “passive buff”
05:50 Don’t forget, you’re running a business
06:30 Some perspective: plumbing, retail, and digging ditches
07:40 Rereading the original Calm Company essay
08:45 The pace of work in the AI era
09:35 First video published to Spotify with Transistor
00:00 Why I’m revisiting The Calm Company
00:50 Calm vs. working on the hardest thing
01:10 What I asked Jesse Hanley
02:15 Transistor is still hard to compete with
02:55 Jesse’s take: calm is a side effect, not a destination
03:45 When your market gets squeezed (Bento + launching PostShiba)
05:00 Calm as a “passive buff”
05:50 Don’t forget, you’re running a business
06:30 Some perspective: plumbing, retail, and digging ditches
07:40 Rereading the original Calm Company essay
08:45 The pace of work in the AI era
09:35 First video published to Spotify with Transistor
Leave a comment on:
📺 YouTube
🟢 Spotify
This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm
Creators and Guests
What is Justin's brain?
Hi, I'm Justin Jackson. Here, I'm sharing brief thoughts on building a better life, bootstrapping, improving society, growing older in tech, being a dad...