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I've been listening to David Senra's podcast lately. He keeps quoting Joshua Kushner:  "If you have to pick between the person who's the smartest, the person with the most experience, or the person who wants it more, you always pick the person who wants it more."That idea really resonates with me. If you're going after a big goal, like building a product or starting a business, you can't afford to build something average. Why? Because customers don't look for mediocre products; they look for "the best." So you need to be honest with yourself: can you be in the top 5% in your category? Are you going to be the person who wants it the most? And then the follow-up question: if you make it, is it going to be worth it? You could be the top restaurant in your town and find out the prize for winning is a business that puts you deeply in debt. In this episode, I talk about power laws, figuring out what you truly want, why AI is making some rare skills average overnight, and what my friend Ruben Gamez says most marketers are getting wrong about AI. Plus a note from future me: wanting it the most doesn't mean killing yourself working too hard. It means focusing on the stuff that actually moves the needle. Chapters: (00:00) - The Power of Wanting It Most (00:59) - Aiming for the Top 5 Percent (02:56) - Defining What You Truly Want (04:28) - Adapting to Changing Skills and AI (06:01) - Focusing on What Actually Matters Mentioned in this episode: David Senra episode of FoundersRuben Gamez's marketing advice tweet This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

I've been scrolling Twitter again. A lot of it is driven by this desire (fear?) to stay current on what's happening with AI.  A lot of people feel the need to capture as much information as possible to get some sort of edge in this new economy that's brewing. Our fear is that if we don't, we're gonna get just bulldozed over.  A lot of folks are worried about losing their careers to AI. I think that feeling is justified. Like, if ChatGPT can edit your videos, you don't need Adobe Premiere or a video editor. In this example, AI eliminates the services side (which many of us depend on) and the tool side (software). It's concerning.  And unfortunately, it feels like the answer (in this new economy) is that you can't be average. Chapters: (00:00) - Fear of Missing Out on AI (00:25) - AI Threat to Economy and Jobs (01:00) - The End of Average Product Videos (01:39) - Marketing Must Rise Above Average (02:26) - The K Shaped Economy Future This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

There's a great quote from a 2020 Hacker News thread: Sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible, or you can simply walk up and hit the ball. I've been leading and building sales orgs for almost twenty years, and my advice is to walk up and hit the ball.I keep coming back to this quote. In software, it's so easy to over-engineer things, to ask "what if?", to try to prepare for every eventuality. But more and more, I'm realizing, for most things, you just need to walk up and hit the ball. Chapters: Links: 2020 Hacker News threadTransistor: podcast hosting and distribution platformSavvyCal: scheduling service for booking meetings This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

Last episode I recorded a voice memo on my walk home, dropped the file into Claude Code on my laptop, and said "publish this episode." It normalized the audio, made a transcript, wrote the show notes, uploaded it to Transistor, and published it. Easiest podcast publishing I've ever done. So now I want to know if I can do the whole thing without the laptop. Just the phone. This one is attempt two: recorded in the Dolby On app, which normalizes right on the iPhone, then handed off to Claude on my phone. [00:00] One command on my laptop did the entire publishing workflow [00:53] Attempt two: can I do all of this from my phone? [01:56] Why Caleb records several episodes back to back. Once you take away the friction, you can feel the inspiration happen. You have a thought, you get it out, you move on. An hour later you have another one. [02:33] Steven Robles has some magical iPhone shortcut that does a lot of this. I want to try it. [03:10] Auphonic stripped out the trucks and airplanes behind me, which is impressive because it was loud. What it couldn't strip out is me wheezing up a steep hill in wildfire smoke. Next time I'm recording in the car. This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

What's the minimum viable podcast publishing experience? I decided to test this out by recording it in Voice Memos on a walk home (with plane and truck noise included). Feels like if you can record a show quickly on your phone and just hit "publish" on it, you're far more likely to actually hit publish. This episode is the experiment itself: after I was done recording this voice memo, I just handed it to Claude to clean up the audio, write the notes, and publish it using Transistor's MCP. A lot of my feelings on this are inspired by Caleb Porzio, who has a really minimal workflow for recording his show, Notes on Work. And then yesterday, my friend Chris Enns decided to try publishing a podcast episode every day. Chapters (00:00) The friction in publishing (01:26) Caleb Porzio and Chris Enns (02:56) Testing the easiest thing Links: Transistor's MCP announcementCaleb's Notes on Work podcastChris' Daily(ish) podcast This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

A lot of people have been messaging me after seeing wildfire footage on the news — so here's an update. There are three fires burning west of us here in the Okanagan Valley, and the lakes are acting as a wall between them and the city. The fires aren't the problem. The smoke is. Smoke gives me headaches, burns my eyes, keeps me indoors, and wrecks my ability to think and work. So my son and I got in the car and drove out of it — through a mountain pass where the air quality index hit 1,000, over to Vancouver, and onto a ferry to Victoria. Along the way: a band in karate outfits that put a spell on an entire festival crowd, a full day working in person with my Transistor colleague Josh Anderton, and a walk-and-talk with Mike Vardy, one of Transistor's longest-running customers. Plus a growing suspicion that remote work, which I've championed for years, still has no answer for what happens when you sit beside someone. Chapters  00:00 Why everyone's been messaging me 00:21 Three fires, and a wall of lakes 00:43 Smoke doesn't respect borders 00:56 What the smoke does to my head 01:10 Hitting the road with my son 01:46 An air quality index of 1,000 02:10 Over the pass, the air clears 02:32 The ferry to Victoria 02:49 The Thoons put a spell on the crowd 04:05 A day in person with Josh Anderton 04:28 There's no equal to working beside somebody 04:59 Catching up with Mike Vardy 05:34 Don't take clean air for granted  This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

Hey friends, wanted to give you an update on what we're building over at Transistor.fm. The big thing I'm really excited about is video podcasting. Transistor customers will soon be able to publish video podcast episodes on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and any other apps that support HLS video. We have a waiting list here if you're interested --> We were one of only about five hosting platforms to get an HLS video show working inside Apple Podcasts, and uniquely, Transistor is the only one that also placed the HLS feed inside the RSS tag, meaning independent apps like Pocket Casts and Fountain can also pick up and play those HLS video feeds. We also just shipped a Ghost integration that connects Transistor to one of the most popular platforms for independent publishers. The integration was born out of a real overlap in customers (like 404 Media and The Lever), and the partnership was sparked by a lunch conversation with Ghost's John O'Nolan at Laracon. Links: Apple's launch of HLS video podcastsDoes Transistor.fm support video podcasts?Transistor's integration with GhostThis is a clip from The Panel podcast. Listen to the full episode here. This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

AI coding tools like Claude Code are blurring roles on software teams. As Marc Andreessen said on Lenny's podcast: " There's a Mexican standoff happening between those three roles: product manager, designer, and coder." Links referenced in this episode:→ Mark Andreessen on Lenny's Podcast→ "The Five Stages of Losing Our Craft"→ Kent Beck's tweet on 90% of skills becoming irrelevant→ Good vibes, bad vendors This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

I prototyped a full video podcasting app in a couple of days using Claude Code, and it's completely changed how I think about building new features for Transistor (the podcast hosting product I co-founded). 🔥 Timestamps:0:00 – Why you should build fake products first0:27 – The podcast countdown timer experiment0:56 – Taking on video podcast hosting at Transistor1:08 – Just start building it1:47 – Demo: the video podcasting prototype2:32 – What people actually want vs. what I assumed (HLS vs. simple upload)3:53 – "Usage is oxygen for product realizations."4:54 – Live demo: one-click publish to YouTube + Transistor5:57 – Scheduling episodes and real user testing (the church sermon use case)6:39 – Handling 15GB video uploads7:25 – Why everyone should be building fake products7:49 – Private podcasts → unlisted YouTube playlists8:28 – The FreshBooks "compete with yourself" story9:44 – How does this change your product process?10:17 – Claude Code + Slack: anyone on the team can start a PR14:05 – YouTube analytics vs. audio downloads in one view14:51 – Freedom to use a fresh tech stack15:18 – Night and day: old codebases vs. new ones ★ More about me: ★I'm Justin Jackson. I co-founded Transistor.fm (a podcast hosting and analytics platform). I write, podcast, and make videos about bootstrapping, startups, marketing, calm companies, and business ethics. My blog: https://justinjackson.caBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/justinjackson.ca This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

My friend Adam Wathan has a new podcast called Adam's Morning Walk, and in the last episode he talked about how he's thinking about building with AI: How can someone sit in front of a text area and explain what they want in enough detail that the AI is gonna produce something good?I was listening to this episode last night and it brought up all sorts of thoughts for me. So I opened up telegram and sent him a series of (slightly inebriated) voice memos. I'm publishing these here in case they spark some thoughts/ideas for you as well. F-stop example If you have a response, let me know! Reply on Bluesky This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

Successful startups don't create demand. They position themselves in the path of existing demand. In a good market, customers provide their own motivation. Your job isn't to create customer motivation; it's to find where it already exists and then build something that satisfies it. Timestamps: 00:00 I was listening to the Offsite podcast. 00:20 What does it take for a customer to take out their credit card?00:46 How high is the customer's desire for the product?01:23 When will a customer buy even when there's friction?01:59 The pitfalls of optimizing a product when there's no demand02:45 A framework for assessing Market Demand03:21 Conclusion Watch the whole episode of Jordan's conversation with Ruben. ★ More about me: ★ I'm Justin Jackson. I founded Transistor.fm (a podcast hosting and analytics platform) with Jon Buda. I write, podcast, and make videos about bootstrapping, startups, marketing, calm companies, and business ethics. My blogBluesky This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

There's a strange relationship between the effort you put into something and the outcome you get out of it. You could invest thousands of hours in a project, only to get a tepid response to what you've made. Read the blog post: "The effort-outcome asymmetry"  Have thoughts? Reply on Bluesky This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

"I used to be more skeptical than I am now. Especially when everyone was talking about 'one-shotting' and 'vibe coding.' But then I forced myself to download Cursor and build an entire project without typing any code, making the computer type the code for me. I had to throw myself in the deep end." All three of us (Adam, Brian, Justin) give our honest takes on AI and software development, and how it's going to affect our businesses. "AI is like keyboard shortcuts on steroids for the things I am an expert in." 🎧 Listen to the whole episode on The Panel:https://panelpodcast.com/11 Adam and Brian share how AI lets them program more, not less, by eliminating grunt work. They think experienced developers will have a huge advantage in this AI era.  We also dive into the business implications: how AI is already affecting traffic and sales for Tailwind UI, why building an audience is more important than ever, and what Adam is building next. This conversation actually got me curious to try Claude Code and Cursor AI. Chapters00:00 - Adam's Initial AI Skepticism01:15 - The Cursor Experiment: Building Without Typing Code02:45 - Why You Need to Be Specific with AI03:15 - The Evolution of AI Models (Claude Sonnet 4)04:00 - Cursor Rules: Training AI to Match Your Style04:45 - The 90% Grunt Work Problem06:30 - AI as "Keyboard Shortcuts on Steroids"07:15 - Why AI Fails for Learning New Technologies08:15 - Using ChatGPT vs Cursor: Learning vs Coding09:00 - The Future of AI in Every App10:15 - How AI Should Work in Design Tools (Figma)10:30 - How AI is affecting the Tailwind business (traffic is down)14:00 - Keeping JavaScript Commercial This Time14:45 - New Ventures: Video Editing Software16:30 - Removing Grunt Work from Video Editing17:45 - The Paradigm Shift and New Opportunities19:00 - AI for Custom Personal Tools20:30 - Building AI Automation Flows22:00 - The Future: AI Pull Requests for Tailwind 🔗 Links:Bryan's new Rails components: https://instrumental.dev/Bryan's SaaS: https://clarityflow.com/Integrate Open AI and Anthropic APIs into your Rails applications (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dW1Kkx7utQRob Walling's Stair Step approach: https://robwalling.com/essays/2015/03/26/the-stair-step-method-of-bootstrappingVercel's new V0 AI tool: https://v0.dev/Thorsten Ball's article: How to build an agent https://ampcode.com/how-to-build-an-agent ★ More about me: ★I'm Justin Jackson. I founded https://transistor.fm (a podcast hosting and analytics platform) with Jon Buda. I write, podcast, and make videos about bootstrapping, startups, marketing, calm companies, and business ethics. My blog: https://justinjackson.caBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/justinjackson.ca This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

My friend Jeremy Enns and I recently had this conversation about a quote by Thelonious Monk: "A genius is the one most like himself."We explored this idea about what it means to find your zone of genius and why being authentically yourself might be the key to your greatest work. I ended up writing a blog post about this too: Finding your zone of genius This conversation was a part of a longer episode we did for PMT Explained. This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm

I think a lot of folks assume that people who create content (YouTube videos, podcasts, screencasts, public speaking) are mostly extroverted. But this conversation I recently had with Aaron Francis, Marie Poulin, and Brian Casel on the Panel Podcast calls that into question. 🔗 Listen to the full episode here: https://panelpodcast.com/4 Timestamps: (00:00) - - Are most content creators extroverts? (00:50) - - Marie's journey from YouTube-resistant to YouTube creator (02:07) - - Brian on the paradox of being quiet in person but public online (03:33) - - Aaron: introvert who loves the stage (05:11) - - It's not about attention, it's about resonance (05:53) - - Am I the only extrovert here? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Are you an introvert or extrovert?🗣️ Leave a comment on Bluesky This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm