Steph Smith

Remote work, continuous growth, and tech.

January 02, 2025

Happy New Year! 

It’s the perfect time to reflect, reset, and set goals - and Steph Smith’s timeless essays are the ideal inspiration to get started. Her best essays are particularly relevant to anyone thinking about, or working on goals and resolutions. (Resolutions have been around in some form or another for over 4,000 years!)

Speaking of resolutions - here’s a fun list of Woody Guthrie’s resolutions from 1942 (relevant again after the release of the Bob Dylan biopic - A Complete Unknown) 

BIO
Why Steph Smith?

We've been on a pretty big Steph Smith kick recently. An indie maker, self-taught programmer, creative, podcaster, writer, etc - she was early to remote work and has written extensively on the topic. 

Occasionally a little ‘productivity guru’ vibe but we can look past it for her writing about side projects and self reflection! + her Twitter is a pretty good follow. 

She is also the host of the a16z podcast and Sh*t You Don’t Learn in School

Topics: Nomading, Careers, Programming, Entrepreneurship, Health, Remote Work

3 ESSAYS TO GET YOU STARTED
1 - How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably

One of Steph Smith’s most read and shared pieces. (+ we like that ‘repeatably’ is not a real word)

“Try to remind yourself as you’re iterating, that there are new levels that you can’t even conceptualize right now. Regardless of how far along you are, know that these new levels of success will appear as you work towards the next one or two. And soon enough, you’ll be 10 levels ahead of what you could have ever imagined.”

Her first really viral piece. A generally inclusive and encouraging essay about working on your own projects. We love that the title leaves off the object (Smith explains in the comments: “I left off the object for the very reason that everyone will want to make different things.”)

“Working in my “day job” allows me to continuously learn from people who are smarter than me, and get paid for it. I’m also faced with challenges that I simply wouldn’t encounter with my side projects and I often need to learn how to solve these challenges alongside others.” 

An early advocate for remote work - this is a still relevant essay (from 2019) for companies trying to force the move back to the office.

“Here’s the thing that a lot of people don’t acknowledge about offices: you literally have no incentive to improve. When your day is ultimately tethered to the number of hours you need to be there, why decide to be more efficient?”

BONUS
# Year in Review Posts

She has written a few really thoughtful (and actionable) ‘year in reviews’ - we love this style of essay and both 2018 & 2019 are great in different ways.

WHAT IS WORTH CHECKING THIS WEEK?

Some of our favourite things we found on the internet this week:

  • This Dead Startup Toys hall of shame by MSCHF is pure pop culture art (Dead Startup Toys)

  • The cost of gene editing has dropped so significantly that you can now purchase ready-to-use equipment at an impressively affordable price (The Odin)

  • The most popular (English) Wikipedia articles of 2024 

  • Your Name In Landsat - see your name spelled out in NASA’s Landsat imagery of Earth

SUGGESTION BOX

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Enjoy Steph Smith’s writing & see you next week! 🙂