10 Strengths and Weaknesses

 When reflecting on my own strengths and weaknesses in building my company, I think the following is the best summation I can come up with. This is all within context, mind you, and I’m specifically reflecting on building a “company”, rather than some other economic arrangement. This context is in play, and I would write a different set of strengths and weaknesses for other endeavors in life. These are my strengths and weaknesses if I were to take on being a corporate entrepreneur, not my strengths and weaknesses as a human being in general.

Strengths:

• Curiosity 

• I’m always willing to learn new things, constantly asking questions, while also seeking 

  answers. Curiosity is the seed of endless potential, rather than being stuck in a given 

  set of knowledge. One can be intelligent, but without curiosity, the growth of one’s 

  intelligence will be stunted – which is exactly why curiosity is one of the best traits 

  that one can have. 

• Logistics

• One should never overlook the power of optimization. Organizing physical systems 

  and processes to efficiently accomplish the movement of goods minimizes the labor 

  needed for operations while maximizing results. It’s one thing to move things from one

  place to another, but a completely different thing to do it efficiently. To design efficient 

  logistics systems you need to be able to familiarize yourself with every individual role

  or process, along with its constraints, bottlenecks, and general material context 

  – while at the same time, seeing how each individual process or role fits into a 

  cohesive whole. 

• Information gathering and management

• Research is important. Better information leads to better actions. Likewise, bad

   information leads to bad decisions. This is why it’s important to gather and manage

   information. Much focus on gathering information but many don’t put proper stock 

  into managing it. This is problematic because just because information gathered

  during research isn’t immediately relevant or useful, it could be in the future. 

  This is where information management comes into play. Information that is the most 

  important for the current moment can be put at the forefront, while tangential information 

  that isn’t immediately applicable can be cataloged for later reference.
  
  That way, when information becomes relevant due to changing business scope or 

  evolving directions, it isn’t just lost to time and it doesn’t need new research to be 

  rediscovered.

• Broad technical abilities

• I can 3D print. I can perform basic 3D modeling. I can assemble components to build 

  custom machines. I can code. I have a wide range of technical skills I can draw from,

  and I’m always able to leverage many e-learning resources to pick up a new skill quickly 

  at low cost.

• AI experience

• I’ve made my own AI agents and run my own custom LLM implementations on my own 

  computer. It’s a big reason why I’m good at so many different technical tasks, is because 

  I’m good at leveraging AI to learn new skills. I originally developed these skills as an 

  undergraduate research assistant working for the government, so I have learned these 

  skills through the mentorship of experts. This experience allows me to narrow down the 

  focus of a model to a certain use case, and make it more performant at that given task, 

  rather than get stuck waiting on the major players to upgrade their models. 

• Creative frugalness 

• Do I really need to buy something, or is there a way to accomplish this with what I have? 

  Sometimes all the ingredients to do what you want to do are already in your hands, you

  just need to put them together. There’s no reason to buy a fancy mount when some duct 

  tape will do the trick.  

• A “maker” mentality

• If a certain device is needed, I’ll always find a way to DIY. Oh, that fancy drone is $20,000?

   I’ll find a way to make it myself for 1/20th of the cost. I’ll spend all the time importing the 

  components myself, design a way for it all to fit together, and make something that will 

  get the work done. It might not have the shiny polish of a product made for the market, 

  but it works.

• Internationalism

• I think globally more than locally. Borders won’t stop me from traveling to make new 

  connections or find a better deal. 

• Ability to identify strengths and potential in others

• Being able to put people where they are most effective is an important part of 

  management. At the same time, potential needs to be identified and fostered as well. 

  When it comes to people, there are skills and there are dispositions. Skills can be 

  taught easily, but it is much harder to change people’s dispositions. These dispositions 

  will often determine where someone’s ceiling lies, where their skills are more of an 

  indication of their current ability.

• Data-driven

• Narrative and vision are cool, but what does the data say? There are all sorts of quack 

  theories about different phenomena, and many aren’t true. If your narrative doesn’t fit the 

  data, you need a new narrative. I always challenge my own assumptions and make sure 

  my own understanding can explain the data I’m seeing.

Weaknesses: 

• I don’t care about money

• Turn a profit? Why? I just want to help people and I don’t care if it costs me. 

  I will teach a man to fish every time, I don’t care if it ruins my business plan.

• Ideology

• Businesses are capitalist, I’d rather start a worker's cooperative. 

• Motivation

• Why do this? It seems like this is all about making money. It’s hard to stay motivated to 

  develop a business when I don’t care about the things most entrepreneurs care about. 

  Legacy? Power? Money? I’d rather take the same time, and spend it with my community.

• Competing commitments 

• If I have 20 hours of free time in a week, I’m spending 40 hours of it organizing. 

  You read that right. When it comes to mutual aid programs, community gardens, 

  and other community projects, I go hard. If a community member has a good idea,

   I will be the one that makes it a reality. I will move mountains if I have to, and there’s a 

  portion of my life where I quit my job and lived out of my car just to go all in on 

  something I was passionate about. 

• Lack of wealth

• Savings? Intergenerational wealth? Don’t have it.

• Non-traditional background

• I grew up in group foster care. In pretty much every way, this meant starting from ten 

  steps behind everyone else. Setbacks like not being allowed to attend high school due 

  to budget and security concerns, never getting support from any sort of parent nor role 

  model, and never getting taught the sort of lessons that those sort of figures would 

  teach a child. My background has been a setback time after time. Even in my education, 

  I had to go to countless years of remedial classes, to fulfill so-called “basic 

  requirements”, just to be allowed to start a normal four-year college degree. 

  In the realm of business, this means I don’t have access to the intergenerational 

  wisdom that those who came from accomplished, or even normal, families have.

• Short attention span

• I jump between interests quickly and frequently. I’m more interested in jumping in on other

  people’s projects and jumping from project to project depending on where I can have the 

  biggest impact in a given moment. 

• Limited social battery

• I love socializing, up until a point, and then I just need time alone. I’m not like some people

  who can socialize for hours and hours, but I’m not anti-social either. 

• Sales

• I hate it. If the product is good, shouldn’t it sell itself? Sales always feels so slimy to me 

  – and I say this as someone who has spent most of my early life doing sales. 

• Spontaneous Stubbornness

• I’m flexible until I’m not. It’s one thing to work with someone who’s just stubborn, as a 

  certain expectation can be formed. It’s another thing when someone has a general aura 

  of flexibility but then unexpectedly digs their heels in. My deepest convictions often catch 

  people off guard when they randomly come up in work, yet they don’t come often enough 

  to allow people to set expectations.