Behind the Newsletter
The Cost of Trust
A few weeks ago I wrote a newsletter on the cost of trust (here). I write my newsletters for me first: to figure things out and think deeper on a position I hold. I dig into an idea all week, try to get it straight, probably spend way more time than you expect, and then send it Sunday.
I get a lot of replies and I respond to almost all of them. The ones I love reframe my thinking, argue a point, dissent from a view, or add something to the conversation. The ones that make me wish I had included the point in the original email.
The newsletter that started it
StartUp Founders: Cheat?
Game theory says cheating is the best strategy in a one-shot game. But startups are an infinite game made of finite battles. Finite battles reward transgression. Infinite games reward trust. The founders who win know when the game changed.
Read the full newsletterA reply worth keeping
After I sent StartUp Founders: Cheat?, one of my readers, Coen Olde Olthof, wrote back. Made me smile. Short and clear. He said what I'd been dancing around: trust isn't the same as certainty. If you can't get hurt, it's not trust.
Could have been the whole newsletter. I'm posting it here so Coen gets the credit, and so you see what a useful reply looks like.
The newsletter it prompted
StartUp Founders: Trust?
Trust is not certainty or politeness. It is a conscious bet where you can get hurt, informed by context and evidence, calibrated between isolation and reckless openness.
Read the full newsletterThank you, Coen.
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