American style uses double typographic quotes “ ”, British style uses single typographic quotes ‘ ’, and technical documentation uses straight quotes " ". In American style, punctuation goes inside the quotation marks; in British style, placement follows meaning. But even in American blogs and technical books, punctuation is often placed by meaning rather than inside.

The apostrophe is either straight ' or typographic ’. For articles and posts, the typographic apostrophe is recommended. But if you look at popular news outlets or blogs from large tech companies, you’ll often find straight and typographic apostrophes and quotation marks mixed even within the same article. Some AI agents can’t use typographic symbols and replace them with straight ones.

Straight quotes are always easier to type than holding 3 keys for typographic ones. On top of that, with straight quotes the opening and closing mark is the same character, while typographic quotes use different ones. Smart auto-replacement to typographic symbols can be set up on a laptop, but most apps ignore that setting. If you write in different languages or for different styles, smart replacement will not help. You can set up a script to replace them before publishing articles, but if the article contains code examples, you can’t replace them there. You can also replace them manually before publishing, but when replying to comments you end up with straight ones again. Some fonts render the straight apostrophe beautifully, but you control the font only on your own site. Some websites automatically convert typed text into typographic marks, but if you paste text, they leave the straight ones in.

Statistics say that 90% of startups shut down in the first few years. But this only applies to venture-backed startups. Startups with other kinds of funding may have a 50% chance of success, and your own odds may be even higher.

If you’ve already launched 5 startups, even if all of them shut down, your next startup will have better odds of success than someone on their first startup. And if some of your startups became profitable, your next startup will have better odds than someone whose 5 startups all lost money. With each new attempt, you improve your odds of success.

You can read all you want about psychedelic states, panic attacks, or being drunk. But no description can convey what they actually feel like. Only by experiencing something like that yourself do you realize how big the gap is between merely knowing about it and actually feeling it. And how hard it is to find the right words to describe those sensations.

How do you explain to someone who’s never had a dream what dreaming feels like?

Right now I have over 10K tasks written down across all my projects. If I completed one task every day, it would take me 30 years to complete all of them. But when I do a task, I get new ideas and write down a few more new tasks. My task list will never end. The number of tasks in it only grows every day.

Writing down a task doesn’t mean I have to do it. It just frees up mental space. When I write something down, I don’t spend time assigning priorities or deadlines. An idea comes up, I save it to a file right away, and I’m done thinking about it.

The most profitable project of my life hasn’t been built yet.
My most viral post hasn’t been written yet.
I haven’t met the most wonderful person yet.
I haven’t come up with my strongest idea yet.

I believe that the best is yet to come, and that the best of the past will eventually stop being the best. That’s why I keep working on new projects, even if my current ones are at their revenue peak. I keep writing new essays, even if a recent one brought in the most readers. This helps me avoid getting attached to past successes and makes it easier to handle setbacks.

I have doubts not only while making a decision, but also after I’ve made it. I publish a post, and the next day I already want to change the wording. I put an unpromising project on hold, and a month later I want to continue working on it. I come up with a cool name for a product, register the domain, and claim the social media handles, but a week later I no longer like the name. I publish an essay, and a year later I want to delete it so no one can see it anymore.

No matter how many hours I spend thinking things through and making a decision, the doubts won’t go away. I just make decisions knowing that I may no longer agree with them in the future.