It's Only Modesty When You're Good
What I've Been Thinking About Lately #36
Dan Romero, Co-Founder of Farcaster, recently announced their $150M fundraise. He did it via a simple sentence in a note shared on socials. No fancy graphics, pre-planned articles, or website banners, just a note.
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Questions to myself:
This is unconventionally very cool, why?
My best answer is because this is a great achievement that onlookers understand is a big deal and the Farcaster team did nothing to try to overstate it. In an era where self-promotion and influencer tactics are rampant, humans feel refreshed when they are not being sold something.
How do I emulate Farcaster's modesty here?
First do the work of building something that people really deeply care about (incredibly difficult), and then don't be loud about it. Modesty is hard because you can only be modest if you are so damn good that your reputation precedes yourself. If you are modest and not good then you are not modest, you're just quiet.
Reminders to myself:
There are no shortcuts to building something great
Resist the temptation to generate attention for attention shake
Genuine modesty often requires years of toiling away, mostly invisibly, before your achievements command attention on their own
