Who else has tried to keep up a personal blog, only to have a mountain of content build up in the drafts folder? For me, it is time to fix that. I had a goal earlier this year to write more, and I did… I just never actually published much of it. I even wrote most an entire Ghost theme just for this purpose, but in the end repurposing that code for something else (honest-ai.com). Substack is the path of least resistance. The least formatting. The least potential to have me waste time on anything but publishing. This entire thing took ~5 minutes to create, including picking the name.
So it is time to take myself off mute.
What can you do for longer than others without it feeling like work?
That is the simplest way to find what you will really enjoy working on. For me, the answer is easy: I can pursue new.
New ideas, concepts, products, businesses, and strategies. All spark that intrinsic curiosity that requires no additional motivation to explore. This is what led me to work around startups & product development for most of my life. I honestly love creating things, regardless of the thing itself. The sad reality is that the good parts are always accompanied with the a bad. I am not a long-term person. I will get distracted, or completely lose interest over time. There is always something new demanding my attention.
This begs the question: how can you explore in a meaningful way, without significant ongoing commitment to any one thing? Well, that is what this project is meant to be. A portal into worlds you may be interested in, but don't have the time to explore in depth. A compromise of sorts. Many small commitments that form a larger, overarching image.
My name is Tyler Lastovich and I am a generalist. Technical and creative. For better or worse.
About
I have a degree in computer engineering and previous experience working at supercomputing firm Cray. I have founded and worked at a few different small tech companies doing a variety of things from information structuring to mobile development. Today, I work on creative emerging technology products across all sectors for my new product studio, Lastly Studios. That means I spend a long time in discovery mode researching AI, the metaverse, data summarizations, and investing. I also do some work on strategy & product launches for Generated Media and Icons8.
A war on hidden assumptions
Exploration takes your understanding from 10% to 50%. Summarization tacks on another 10%. Creation fills in the rest.
In my experience it is really hard to know what the 'gotchas' are in a market without having operational experience working in the trenches. That means it is paramount for me to apply what I learn directly, whenever possible. It is trivial as an outsider to say 'why couldn't you just ...' when in practice the effort to build something is much more intensive. Much of my writing here will be from things that I discover as I build and launch real products.
Muscle memory
Just like with physical training, getting faster at building or advising takes exercise. This is my exercise in public speaking and seeking feedback. I have zero goals for this, and rarely set them anywhere (See this good explanation of why that is).
Just get better and enjoy the ride. Simple as that. I invite you to steal what I learn, apply it yourself, then share your results!
Fun fact: The ‘Hello’ image above is one of a few I took of my pre-order iPhone X in 2017. I threw the images on Unsplash, and now they have been viewed 50M+ times and used in multiple major publications.