Synthetic Ryan 2.0 is born

If you’re new here: Hi, I’m Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and early-stage investor at Weekend Fund. I also helped write Hooked and occasionally publish essays. This newsletter highlights my latest experiments, essays, and curiosities. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe alongside 20k others here. :)

1. Synthetic Ryan just got an upgrade. Last year I introduced Synthetic Ryan. A few weeks ago HeyGen reached out to me to create a new avatar that you can talk to. Be nice to him. :)

2. I recently reflected on my values. It’s a useful exercise for better understanding oneself and filter for where to spend time and with home (socially, romantically, and professionally).

3. One of my biggest mistakes investing: Focusing too much on v1 of an early startup's product. That's not to say product doesn't matter. Ofc it does. But it will change. I still prefer to see a demo > deck, but primarily to understand their thought process and design thinking.

4. I’ve been in SF for the last week. It’s been energizing. I went climbing at Benchmark and Dogpatch Boulders; joined friends for a wholesome home-cooked dinner; hosted a welcome event at my place for Vedika; did a talk at Founders Inc; went to a soundscape listening event with friends; and saw fire dancers perform on my buddy’s rooftop (picture proof below).

5. With the rise of remote work, many of us are no longer confined to a single city. I’ve adopted a multi-city lifestyle, particularly in the last six months. It’s a trend among my peer group that I want to explore more of. A related trend: co-living. My friend, Gillian Morris writes the de-facto newsletter on this topic called Supernuclear, alongside Phil Levin.

6. Porter Robinson’s third album releases tonight. I know you’re probably sick of me gushing over his music, but he’s one of the few artists that I’ve truly resonated with. This redditor describes the theme of Porter’s latest album based on the first four singles: “The way I see it, the whole Smile album so far, Cheerleader, Knock Yourself Out, Russian Roulette, and Kitsune Maison Freestyle is all about... smiling. Being happy with yourself and satisfied with who you are and the things around you.” :3

7. Alex MacCaw recently shared a list of logical fallacies surrounding capitalism. Much of our political divide can be explained by these.

8. I’m glad to see more consumer hardware exploration. TinyPod launched last week, bringing back the nostalgia of the iPod-style scroll wheel to the Apple Watch. It’s an example of “retrofit hardware”: products that augment existing hardware. Another example: Clicks, bringing Blackberry-style physical keyboards to the iPhone.

9. A friend organized a soundscape with the Olo founders. We laid on a mat, equipped our blindfolds, and sunk into sound. It was remarkable how “real” every drop of water and crack of thunder felt. I won’t be able to do justice to the experience. You’ll have to try it yourself.

10. Notion just announced that it reached 100M users. I remember when they first launched on Product Hunt in 2015. In a recent thread, the CEO Ivan shares, “We started in 2013, but it wasn't until 2018 w/ Notion 2.0 @ProductHunt launch that we saw signs of traction.” I love hearing stories like that. It’s also fun to see Product Hunt become an internet archive for tech over these 10+ years.

11. A few days ago Founders Inc. hosted me at their beautiful location in Fort Mason. It’s been a while since I did a talk like this (mostly because I’m an introvert that gets exhausted at big events where I have to be “on”). It was really fun. The turnout was great. Video recording coming soon.

12. Soft White Underbelly is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Its creator, Mark Laita, hosts honest conversations with an incredibly wide range of people from the crack-addicted homeless to proud pimps to violent gang members. Mark was recently interviewed about his backstory and motivation behind the project. The man is incredibly disciplined and driven. He speaks to the heart of the issue that plague so many people: broken childhoods. I couldn’t help but tear up hearing his story.

13. This is growing on me. The first rule of cold plunging is to tell everyone you cold plunge.

Until next time,
Ryan ✌🏼