CRAFTED.

🎉 CRAFTED. podcast turns two today! And in honor of that I'm sharing some favorite moments... Here's one that neither Hilary Mason nor I expected... After talking about AI and such we surprised ourselves by getting into philosophy and soul and why "make number go up" is a terrible way to build. As Hilary says:  "Doing the data work without a soul or without philosophy is, at best, meaningless and at worst, harmful." This ethos is why at Hidden Door, which Hilary is co-founder & CEO, there is no "objective function" to measure whether they've made a great game. We really went in unexpected directions in this interview, which is fitting because Hidden Door is all about non-linear storytelling and immersive worlds, built with GenAI. Episode link in the comments. There's also a link to a short survey that will help me make CRAFTED. even better this year. I'd really appreciate you taking 5m to fill it out. Thanks!

Love food? Love data? Love building from zero to one? Wonderful! Because on the this CRAFTED. we go deep on Wonder and their quest to be a "super app for mealtime." Founded by legendary entrepreneur Marc Lore, Wonder is rapidly opening new stores that, as they put it, feature 30 restaurants in one spot. You can get a burrito, a poke bowl, a nice branzino... all in one order. The theory is that these stores will be 30x as profitable as a similarly sized restaurant. And the operational software that powers them could also be its own product (a la how Amazon's AWS started as an internal tool). On this episode VP of Product Rich Przekop shares how and why Wonder is building custom software and data products to power its stores, its supply chain, and its big ambitions. Lots here for you data nerds and anyone who loves to hear how a great product thinker thinks. Listen or watch! 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/en59tZC8 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/ezyRrZCD 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/e6JAP3sK --- And huge thank you to my sister Ilana Blumberg Scher! While Rich is building software and looking at spreadsheets, Ilana is out there with a hardhat physically opening those new Wonder spots at an unbelievable pace.👷 --- CRAFTED. is a podcast about great products and the people who make them. This season in partnership with Docker, Inc.

🤩 Amazing guest alert! I'm interviewing legendary developer Kelsey Hightower on CRAFTED. on Monday! What would *you* like to ask?? The crux of our conversation will be, as Kelsey put it, on ways for engineers to advance from "Hello, World to Hello, Revenue." i.e. We'll discuss ways that engineers can distinguish themselves (Kelsey was literally a "distinguished engineer" at Google) by focusing on those harder-to-quantify innovation efforts that comes *after* — sometimes looooong after — a product has gone from Zero to One. So... what question do you have about: innovation, leadership, scaling and monetizing, how to give an amazing demo, or... [insert your topic here]? And... subscribe! 👉 crafted.fm This episode drops this summer and this season of CRAFTED. is in partnership with Docker, Inc. 🐳 Meanwhile, there are 40+ incredible CRAFTED. episodes about great products and the people who make them for you to enjoy and learn from. All episodes are designed to make *you* a better builder. (And, all brag, no humble, the show has been honored two years in a row by The Webby Awards as a top tech podcast. :) *** Kelsey is a legendary developer, open source champion, and mentor to many. He's also known for his incredible live demos. Just yesterday he was on stage emcee'ing the 10th birthday bash for Kubernetes 🙌 Can't wait for this conversation!