Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in our chaotic world. AI adoption is a spectrum and it's dangerous to calibrate your urgency off your closest peer or the best in the world. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. The Myth of AI Adoption My wife works for a frontier AI company. She's an engineer, working 80-hour weeks, deep in the weeds of the most advanced AI tools. When I look at her screen,...
20 days ago • 5 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in our chaotic world. I've spent the last few years giving entrepreneurs the same advice over and over. I recently distilled it into ten myths about business, persuasion, and building that trip up otherwise capable people. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. 10 Myths of Entrepreneurship I've been spending a lot of time lately with entrepreneurs in the early...
27 days ago • 6 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. I recently sold a palm tree from my front yard on Craigslist. Since then, I've become obsessed with selling stuff online. Here's how to sell used stuff from around your house on Marketplace and Craigslist, and why you should. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. How to Sell Stuff on Marketplace In the last few months I’ve made $3000 selling...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. I use AI to draft Responsive Conference copy and Facebook Marketplace listings, because that work isn't supposed to sound like me. This newsletter is different — typed manually, because that's the point. Here is how I write with AI, and some rules to guide your thinking. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. How I Write with AI I use AI to...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. Over three years of writing Snafu, I’ve documented a lot of self-experiments. Last November, I gathered the best of those pieces into This Might Work: A Collection of How-Tos. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. The Best of My Self-Experiments One of my favorite courses in college was a course on self-experiments with behaviorist Allen...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. SpaceX went public on Friday. I know people whose lives will be changed by the Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs later this year. This week, fresh off my 40th birthday, I've been thinking about the races worth running. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. Run Your Race SpaceX went public on Friday. I personally know a couple of people whose lives...
2 months ago • 7 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. Tomorrow is my 40th birthday. Instead of 40 lessons in 40 years, I wrote advice I wish I'd had at 8 — the age when much of what still matters to me today was already taking shape. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. Advice to My 8 Year Old Self For the last few years, I’ve used my birthday to write down what I’ve learned: 37 lessons at 37...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. A couple of years ago I discovered a little known Zoom hack – and get more praise for this on a weekly basis than practically anything else I do. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. Upgrade Your Zoom Waiting Room A couple of years ago I discovered a little Zoom hack – and it gets more unsolicited praise than almost anything else I do. It...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to Snafu, a newsletter about authentic influence in a chaotic world. You've told your story dozens, even hundreds, of times. A few years ago, helping companies find that story took me 40 hours. That process now takes 40 minutes. If you're enjoying Snafu, it would mean the world to me if you would share it! Was it sent to you? Subscribe here. Use AI to Discover Your Story I started Zander Media because I wish I had done more storytelling in my previous businesses. We quickly realized...
3 months ago • 4 min read