just your average Joe
about
hi, i'm Joe.
writings
how to use a flip phone
on temptation, intentionality, and painting pictures only you can see.
carlotta magic
on speed, spectacle, and a desert oasis built on "Carlotta Magic."
jobby jobs
Wefunder
YC-backed platform to help startups raise money from their communities.
Job "titles":
- Started as a fundraising intern
- Joined full-time as Account Manager
- Switched to Product Engineer
Lessons learned:
- Always ask the folow-up question
- Hiring for aptitude, attitude, and alignment - not qualifications
- Separate planning from execution
- Just because someone else thinks something is an emergency doesn't mean it is
- Community is something you give to, not take from
Skills gained:
- Intentionality
- Focus
- How to say no
- How to interview someone so you actually know if they're good
- How to turn ideas into scopes, scopes into Figmas, Figmas into code, and code into features for users
Backroads
(coming soon)
favorite media
album: The Crux
catchy melodies, retro indie sounds, and funny lyrics. feels like angst that's good for you.
book: A Visit from the Goon Squad
i'm a sucker for stories with expansive plotlines that all intertwine
book: The Overstory
"people have no idea what time is. They think it’s a line, spinning out from three seconds behind them, then vanishing just as fast into the three seconds of fog just ahead. They can’t see that time is one spreading ring wrapped around another, outward and outward until the thinnest skin of Now depends for its being on the enormous mass of everything that has already died.”
beliefs
SEC v Ted Cruz is dumb
In 2022, SCOTUS said this is ok:
1. Ted Cruz loans his campaign $260K of his own money ($10k over the legal limit)
2. Cruz wins his election
3. AFTER he wins the election, donors continue to give him money (because, obviously?)
4. Cruz uses that money to pay off his campaign loan with interest
Basically, I can give money to a newly-elected politician, and they can put it right in their pocket. If that's not corrupt, I don't know what is.
I have many issues with this case, but two issues more generally:
1. I don't think money = speech. So I dislike the slew of bad caselaw we've build atop that principle.
2. I dislike that Supreme Court justices so often analyze questions they so clearly have no expertise in and seek no evidence. e.g. "Do loan repayments from donors to candidates affect voting behavior? Does the American public perceive these actions as corrupt?"
attention is valuable
(coming soon)
Contact
joe berusch [at] gmail [dot] com