Limited imagination vs unlimited potential

Don't let the backwards thinking of the few limit the future of what will be accomplished by the many.

I may be delulu for thinking it’s more productive to let and help those around us reach their potential, in whatever way that is, in the unexplored and yet to be imagined ways they can do that.

When fire was discovered, when the wheel was invented, we didn’t end civilization there.

Don’t be part of the crowd that saw a new wheel and said, that’s it everyone, I’m done. Say it out loud, how can any VC or other self-proclaimed pundit accurately assess the future potential of what is to come without knowing the learnings that compound along the way to that future time. I’ve seen fortune cookies with more imagination. I’m not saying they’re all like that, I’m just saying they’re people too, who can be influenced by things like say, stock price drops that are sudden. Reality-wise most people who have something to lose who see large stock price changes want to seek answers for the direct and indirect consequences that will have on their personal wellbeing.

All this said, something I constantly remind those who are close to me and around me, in personal and profesional settings. You can set goals, you can say, in 5 years I want to be (this thing), remember when you do that, you are implicitly saying you can accurately assess the potential you will have in that timeframe at that future time, which mathematically speaking, you’re not in a position to do well. You will probably directionally get it right, but when you set that goal, you may also be limiting yourself to what you can imagine today. A lot can happen in 5 years, if you choose to start learning something today and work at it for the next 5 years, you’ve just spent half a decade learning and growing. DO you think maybe, just maybe that you will be capable of doing something different at that point than what you’re imagining today? Probably.

Back to the potential of the many, there is so much potential yet to be unleashed on all problems, big and trivial, so many people held back by the limited imagination of their luddite leaders and intellectually recalcitrant boards. The future belongs to those who build, not to those who cower. A better future yet, will be one where we enable companies and organizations of all sizes to solve the problems they are solving - exploring the local maximum of what they can achieve, in a way that wasn’t possible in the last two decades. So much technical talent and resources were hoarded by the few biggest companies in every industry, those companies applied technology in any way they could (both to great failure and to great success), we know what that movie looks like, we’re living in it. We are also seeing the fear in their eyes start to show, we can see the cowering that they are doing, with their RTOs, and their inexplicably backwards thinking in 2026. Their margins are shrinking, their toplines are flat, their AEBITDA isn’t impressive. Their promise of relentless platform-enabled growth with zero marginal transaction costs are being challenged in many ways.

I’ve sat in the meetings, made the annual plans, aligned the stakeholders, convinced the division CFO, company CFO, committee of somebodies and nobodies, big companies had been biding their time, believing they were always one API-first strategy away from glory. Arguing whether their layoffs because of “AI” are real or not, is besides the point, they were going to layoff people for any reason - maybe AI stands for A(ny) I(maginable) reasons.

I can’t wait to see the smallest nonprofits and businesses around my local community take advantage of the changes taking place across the tech industry and seeing how they can better achieve their goals. I can’t wait to see the smartest individuals I’ve ever worked with leave big companies by choice / or not to go build in smaller companies - where TBH - they wanted to go to anyways. The redistribution of building and enabling of builders in so many ways is so much more exciting than the silly narrative that we’re all doomed because we’re going to be TOO productive, TOO capable, have TOO-many things to build. The incredible spinning of the narrative that you should just give up now because no one will need you is intentional, conditioning so you believe you are incapable. It’s easier to sell products exploiting vulnerabilities and fear. If twice as many people were meaningfully able and equipped to solve problems than yesterday, there will be meaningful and material impacts.

Let that sink in, go build something, share it with someone, and get out there (not back to the water coolers of your old bigco job who wants you in office to spontaneously collaborate with remote colleagues in other offices via Zoom calls).

I cannot wait to see what every single laid off employee in the last few years goes on to build. Don’t let dumb dumbs write the future of what you will achieve, you’re going to build great things and we’re all here for it.

If you’re solving problems in 2026 instead of listening to the limited imaginations of the few, lets go build together!

I’m going to be YOLO’ing my thoughts and conversations into Much Potential, a never-ending conversation about helping everyone imagine more.