Essay · 3 min read

Project Resistance

Seth Godin · Seth's Blog Free Beginner

Godin names the exact failure mode our answer warns about: work that could ship but does not, dressed up as caution. It is short, but it is the clearest gut check for the question underneath 'is my soft launch a cop-out': are you actually still building, or are you just avoiding the moment someone sees it.

  • Resistance disguises itself as more preparation, not as fear
  • Unshipped work has made no contact with reality yet, however good it feels privately
  • Naming the avoidance is usually enough to break it

The question it answers

  1. What does a 'soft launch' actually look like, and is it just a cop-out for being scared to ship?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. Video · ~13 min How to Plan an MVP Michael Seibel (YC)
  4. Basecamp's battle-tested, opinionated system for shipping meaningful work in fixed cycles without endless backlogs, a primary... Basecamp / 37signals Book · free online book Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters Ryan Singer
  5. The definitive talk that reframes launching from a one-shot event into a repeatable tactic, exactly this category's thesis. YC... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Launch (Again and Again) Kat Manalac (Y Combinator)
  6. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
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