Week 2 - 4/13/26
This week I completed MVP phase for two of my projects. Temerity Holdings and Systematic Poker. They are explained in more detail on their websites. Brief explanations:
- Temerity Holdings - building a quant trading fund comprised entirely of AI agents. I manage the fund. This week I created the first agent. It is doing basic research and trade recommendations for prediction markets.
- Systematic Poker - building a tool to help me improve my poker game. I wrote a script that parses my hand history and computes some basic stats. Reviewed stats and some specific hands.
The next steps for each of my projects are the following:
- get the content production side of the project up and running.
- begin iteratively improving by enhancing MVP
Content Creation
Documenting my projects and growing an audience is crucial for getting these projects off the ground. Content creation about the projects will be my initial means of monetization beyond the specific alpha (that may or may not be) generated by the projects themselves.
More importantly than initial monetization, an audience will provide valuable feedback on the direction of the project, which I expect will be key to long term success. Many startups pivot from their initial idea one or several times after feedback from their first customers. I intend to bring my projects to market in some form or another in a future stage, so I anticipate my projects will be no different. I have many ideas for how to scale each of my projects, and an audience will provide insight into where to focus my efforts as I iterate.
This week I will put together a “content roadmap” for each project. I dont know exactly what this looks like, but it involves getting my vision for the project on paper. I want plan how to express my project ideas and initial work on them to the public.
Possibly the most crucial aspect of the content creation is to do it effectively without letting it monopolize my time. I see a distinction between being a content creator and using content as a marketing and revenue pipeline. I want to use content as a marketing and revenue pipeline while remaining focused on my projects. This will be a challenge because I am inexperienced and cost conscious. My priority for this week is to understand and practice using the tools at my disposal for planning, recording, editing, and distributing content and how to integrate them as seamlessly as possible into my workflow.
Project quality takes priority in this stage. I can iteratively improve the the content as I go by refining, automating, and outsourcing. I believe that prioritizing the content over the projects is equivalent to procrastinating.
Iteratively Improving
I completed the MVP for two of my projects. Now I have concrete next steps for improving them, which I will do this week. After these improvements I want to strategize the next steps for growing each project, which I expect will go hand in hand with the “content roadmaps” I want to work on.
Overcoming Overwhelm and Distraction
My biggest productivity headwind this week was overwhelm. Getting from the idea stage to doing the thing involves trial and error. I struggle with the tendency to “over-plan.” My strong and overwhelming desire is for everything to turn out exactly as I envision. I have to remind myself that nothing will turn out exactly as I envision, and this desire is getting in the way of actually accomplishing anything.
My overwhelm was particularly challenging this past week because there are so many unknowns that I wanted to figure out before proceeding. Even at this early stage, I have to learn lots of new tools and skills to accomplish all the aspects of these projects that I want to. I made a list of all the new tools I need to teach myself: Claude Code, choosing and learning an orchestration layer such as Paperclip, creating website(s), recording and editing video. Putting this list into written form helped me realize that it is finite and actionable, instead of infinitely churning in my head.
After I wrote down the list, I was able to look at each item and decide exactly how to approach it.
- I set up and began experimenting with Claude Code. I am not a power user yet, but I am now able to effectively use it for my projects which will naturally improve my skills. Side note: Claude Code is very easy to set up and start using, My initial impression is that it will be superior to GitHub Copilot—my prior coding agent of choice.
- I deferred orchestration until a future phase
- I created my websites and will use Claude Code to enhance them as needed
- I determined that OBS Studio is a good recording software for my work. I downloaded it and tested it out.
Overwhelm and distraction go hand in hand. When overwhelmed with work, especially without a clear direction for that work, our brains seek a distraction. Distractions are everywhere and can quickly create a vicious cycle of procrastination and more distraction seeking.
I like Time Blocking to prevent these cycles because it forces me to focus on a clearly defined task for a manageable amount of time. Then when the time is up, I can do something else. The Pomodoro Method is a great time blocking approach to focused work. Another benefit of time blocking is that awareness of a time block cultivates awareness of focus on the task at hand. Like meditation, this trains the “focus muscle” to mindfully identify and ignore distractions.
Another strategy I like for preventing overwhelm is physically removing distractions from the space where I am working. The two big things I like to have out of sight are my cell phone and clutter. I don’t have to try as hard to ignore them if they are out of sight (or even in another room for the cell phone) which frees up some mental capacity to focus on my task
Back next week with some more progress on these ventures.