A field manual for the unknown
Just
Start.
17 years of navigating chaos, distilled into the only playbook you need when the ground won't stop moving.
$10 · Digital access
Everything you thought you knew about your career is about to be wrong.
I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm saying it because I've been living it for 17 years — dropped into rooms where nobody knows the answer, hired to fix problems in industries I'd never touched, building planes while flying them. Over 75 organizations. Fortune 500s, startups held together with duct tape and delusion, blockchain protocols, cannabis brands, enterprise SaaS, a bakery in the Hudson Valley. Every single time: “We don't know what to do. Figure it out.”
So I did. Over and over.
The people who win aren't the smartest ones in the room. They're the ones who start before they're ready.
Right now, the entire world is in that room. AI is rewriting the rules of every industry simultaneously. Your job title might not exist in three years. Your “expertise” might be a commodity by next quarter. The playbook you spent a decade mastering? It's a pamphlet now.
And everyone's frozen. Waiting for clarity. Waiting for the “right” framework. Waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
This book is for the people who are done waiting.
I'm not going to sell you a system. I'm not going to give you a 7-step process or a cute acronym. I'm going to tell you what actually works when the ground is moving under your feet — because I've been standing on shaky ground my entire career, and I got really, really good at not falling down.
Table of contents
33 chapters / 4 phases
Introduction
Act: Start Ugly
- 06Starting a company after being laid offFree preview
- 07Embrace curiosity, embrace mistakesFree preview
- 08Dedicate yourself to the craft of learningFree preview
- 09Show your work; don't wait for perfect
- 10When to plow through a mistake
- 11The Ugly Surfboard
- 12Don't stop; iterate fast
- 13Chase the Whisper
- 14SpaceX tents: optimize for learning, not polish
- 15Failure is progress
Sense: Endure Reality
- 16Most opinions are trashFree preview
- 17You'll get stuck and frustratedFree preview
- 18Embrace unstructured problem spaces.Free preview
- 19It won't be straightforward
- 20Resilience mitigates pain
- 21Being different is an advantage
- 22Thumbtacks vs. Landmines
- 23Embracing discomfort.
- 24Your work might be bad, fix it
- 25Simplicity as strength
- 26Complexity buys time, not value
- 27The List of Instructions Is the List of Things You've Designed Incorrectly
- 28Function over form: fire hydrant vs. Guggenheim
- 29Let go of aesthetic fantasies
- 30Good design is humble.
- 31Fucking Around vs. Finding Out
- 32Twig Toothpicks and the Absurdity of Recreational Cannabis in California
Respond: Build to Last
Final chapters coming soon.
About the author
I'm a User Experience Consultant who has partnered with 75+ organizations across every domain imaginable — from Fortune 500 boardrooms to startups running on fumes to one of the most popular games in the world.
I founded Thought Merchants. I've shipped products, brands, and strategies across blockchain, cannabis, fintech, enterprise SaaS, DTC ecommerce, food, sports, and nonprofits. The throughline: getting dropped into unfamiliar terrain and figuring it out under pressure.
Designer. Fabricator. Technologist. Surfer. Based in Venice, CA.
Stop waiting.
Just start.
A field manual for chaos. Stories, tactics, and hard-won lessons from two decades of professional uncertainty.
$10 · Digital access
Digital access includes all chapters, readable in your browser.
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