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Fried: Approaching projects with zero domain knowledge yields more original work

Jason Fried · Musings of a Legendary Entrepreneur · Jan 5, 2024 · at 12:12

Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, discusses the creative value of maintaining a beginner's mindset and deliberately avoiding competitor analysis.

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“One of the reasons why I don't go looking at other people's work is because once I have their work in my head, it's hard to have original ideas. I actually prefer the newbie approach. Like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I think people who go into something not knowing anything about it tend to make more interesting things because they're not like, this is how it has to be done. This is how it's been done before. These are limitations.”

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