💭
random thoughts
unfiltered thoughts. an experiment to use twitter differently. all thoughts were originally posted at @zachtdavidson
january 2026
the binary is the avoidance. "should i build more or feel more?" is a way to avoid doing both at once.
10% of your assumptions create 90% of your problems. the trick is seeing which 10%.
language is the final frontier. physical frontiers are zero-sum. frontiers of the mind are infinite.
the product is being seen. scale by externalizing the framework for seeing.
mysterious externally, crystal clear internally. the mystery is the brand.
ai creates a world where the most rational thing is: spend more time alone to clarify your thinking, then produce 10x more.
there's no arthur without merlin. the measure isn't revenue. it's: the quality of decisions founders make after working with you.
build a world others can inhabit without you. the thesis is the territory, not just a document.
solopreneurship is expertise arbitrage (fragile). heliotrope is knowledge creation (antifragile if the mechanism is designed right).
everything you do becomes inventory. build once, sell twice.
december 2025
attention is downstream of orientation. most people optimize for what to focus on when the real leverage is in what direction to face.
the audience fools themselves. the magician just creates conditions. same with founders.
"just build" becomes a way to avoid feeling. "do the inner work" becomes a way to avoid building. both are escape routes from the same discomfort.
light is a proxy for truth. heliotropism isn't arbitrary. plants turn toward light because it's what they need to live.
the turn is continuous. the sun moves. the heliotrope keeps turning. that's what makes it a practice, not a revelation.
your external achievements often reveal what you're protecting against. the fortress of control protects against being blindsided.
what would you build if you weren't running from anything?
november 2025
the best cold emails have uncapped upside with essentially no downside. the more you write, the less likely you are to get a response.
default to action. most decisions are reversible. the ones that aren't deserve real deliberation.
you don't invest capital in magical people. you invest legitimacy. you make them legible. you connect them. you narrate their story.
heliotrope isn't about being the sun. it's about the turning — the orientation mechanism, the tropism, the instinct that precedes the looking.