Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:23:42 · Lenny Rachitsky, Adam Ward
[01:23:42] S0: I love that for most people that show is very stressful, and for you it's calming, because it's less stressful to your life. [01:23:47] S1: Just the relative nature of things is helpful. [01:23:51] S0: Have you watched The Bear? Because I feel like that'd be another example. [01:23:54] S1: Yeah. I think if I was probably a Chicago guy, that would probably resonate. Although I have seen it. Yeah. [01:24:00] S0: Oh, man. Okay. A few more questions. Your favorite product you've recently discovered that you really love other than Cursor? [01:24:07] S1: Yeah, I think there's two. I think one is semi-recent and one is... I'm a huge Granola fan. I think I was super early on Granola, and I love that they continue to innovate and really just great product decisions, easy to use. They're great on feedback too. If you've ever given them feedback, they're phenomenal. The second I've been using a lot is Wispr Flow, and just trying to get out quick notes to my team. I am better this than this on terms of my thoughts. And so Wispr has been amazing on the go to drop notes to my team. [01:24:44] S0: Listen to this, Adam. You may not know this. [01:24:47] S1: I don't. [01:24:47] S0: Subscribers to my newsletter get a year free of not only Cursor, but also Granola and Wispr Flow. [01:24:48] S1: I did not know that. [01:24:57] S0: And 30 other incredible products, Replit and Google and Lovable, and it's out of control. [01:25:04] S1: I love that. [01:25:04] S0: So if you like any of these products, ladiesproductbest.com.
01:25:04 · Lenny Rachitsky, Adam Ward
[01:25:04] S0: So if you like any of these products, ladiesproductbest.com. [01:25:08] S1: That was not a place at all. Yeah, I did not know that. [01:25:10] S0: It's just we have all the best products for free for a freaking year, including Cursor. So there you go, ladiesproductbest.com. Okay, two more questions. Do you have a favorite motto that you often come back to in work or in life? [01:25:22] S1: Yeah, I think there's three things that I come back to and I try to instill in my kids too. One is, work hard. I think the value of hard work is hard to understate and something I grew up in. Second is, do great work. So let's not confuse the two. And third is, be helpful. And I think one thing I've really tried to do, and maybe part of the reason I was able to help build this team is I've really just tried to be helpful. And if you talk to founders out there, anyone, I will answer their emails. I will jump on a 10-minute call with them. And I want to think that people come to me for help and advice, and it's the right ones. I'm now getting to reap some of that of people who want to come to the work on the team. So those three things I really try to live by.
01:25:22 · Adam Ward, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:25:22] S1: Yeah, I think there's three things that I come back to and I try to instill in my kids too. One is, work hard. I think the value of hard work is hard to understate and something I grew up in. Second is, do great work. So let's not confuse the two. And third is, be helpful. And I think one thing I've really tried to do, and maybe part of the reason I was able to help build this team is I've really just tried to be helpful. And if you talk to founders out there, anyone, I will answer their emails. I will jump on a 10-minute call with them. And I want to think that people come to me for help and advice, and it's the right ones. I'm now getting to reap some of that of people who want to come to the work on the team. So those three things I really try to live by. [01:26:22] S0: That is an awesome set of principles to live by. Clearly it has contributed to your success. I'm going to steal them all. Those are really good. That's a good tripod of things to be focused on. You talked about being a dad. Final question; People said you're an expert on the importance of a well-placed dad joke. I'm not going to ask you to do a joke unless you want to, but more so, just what's something you've learned about raising kids? Because I'm a dad of a three-year-old. What's just a thing you've learned about raising great kids?
01:26:22 · Lenny Rachitsky, Adam Ward
[01:26:22] S0: That is an awesome set of principles to live by. Clearly it has contributed to your success. I'm going to steal them all. Those are really good. That's a good tripod of things to be focused on. You talked about being a dad. Final question; People said you're an expert on the importance of a well-placed dad joke. I'm not going to ask you to do a joke unless you want to, but more so, just what's something you've learned about raising kids? Because I'm a dad of a three-year-old. What's just a thing you've learned about raising great kids? [01:26:53] S1: It's humbling. They will challenge you in ways you don't expect. They are many mirrors of you sometimes. So it's a feedback mechanism. And it's such a joy, honestly. And I'm very lucky to have an amazing wife and partner who most times takes the unfair load of it. But yeah, it's definitely my greatest joy. [01:27:26] S0: That's such a good summary. That's exactly how it feels. Very challenging at times, but the greatest joy. [01:27:32] S1: But just think about your career though, when you look back on your career of your most enjoyable times, you were a little bit over your skis. You were thrown into something unexpected that you weren't ready for, and you figured it out. And in the moment, it was a series of ups and downs, stacking S-curves. But you'll look back and I'll be like, wow, that was one of my career highlights, but you are really over your skis.
01:27:32 · Adam Ward, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:27:32] S1: But just think about your career though, when you look back on your career of your most enjoyable times, you were a little bit over your skis. You were thrown into something unexpected that you weren't ready for, and you figured it out. And in the moment, it was a series of ups and downs, stacking S-curves. But you'll look back and I'll be like, wow, that was one of my career highlights, but you are really over your skis. [01:28:00] S0: Molly Graham, who's been on the podcast and done a couple newsletter guest posts, she has this concept she calls the J-curve, which is your best roles are just you join and then you go way down and suck at it for a while, and then you come back up and that's the best experience you've ever had. [01:28:16] S1: Yeah, Molly has gold out there, for sure. [01:28:18] S0: She's so incredible. Working on a new guest post right now might've come out by the time this comes out. [01:28:22] S1: Love it. Love it. [01:28:23] S0: With that, two valid questions. Adam, what do you want to plug? Anything you want to point people to? And how can listeners be useful to you?
01:28:23 · Lenny Rachitsky, Adam Ward
[01:28:23] S0: With that, two valid questions. Adam, what do you want to plug? Anything you want to point people to? And how can listeners be useful to you? [01:28:29] S1: I think they're one and the same. I mean, I would love people to try Cursor. I think it's incredibly exciting things that we're coming out with, and we're really proud of it. Some things in the pipeline too. I'm not super out there online. I think I'm on LinkedIn a little bit, but I really honestly try to let my work and our team speak for what we do. But I'm always down to be helpful back to the last point. So I really do get pure energy and joy from helping people. And so I know at some point that will come back in some way or form. Don't expect it to, but that's just where I get that drive for me. [01:29:11] S0: Just to plug Cursor a little bit, not only is just the design and experience of Cursor awesome, the best feature for a lot of people is you could just switch between models extremely easily. So instead of getting hooked on Codex or Claude Code, you use Cursor and then a new Opus comes out, a new GPT comes out and you could switch and just play around with it immediately versus switching the product.