#043 - Michael Mayer on Self-Disgust, Media, Tech, Failure, & Durability

Audience of One

Michael Mayer is the co-founder and CEO of Bottomless and owner of a popular pseudonymous Twitter account. We talk about Twitter and media, habits and cultivating a sense of disgust, failure, technology and startups, distinguishing what’s important from the noise, and more.

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(00:56) Caring too much about social media & audiences; taking a year off Twitter

(05:23) Changing habits & cultivating a refined sense of disgust

(10:09) Leaving Twitter leaves a hole in your habit structure; news, reading, silence

(15:25) Habits

(21:28) Planning too far out in startups is harmful

(25:37) Failing is painful but uncertainty is where the rewards are

(34:43) The media’s portrayal of innovators & change makers

(45:08) Just make a better product

(48:28) AI is advantageous for the incumbents, unless you find a different use case

(52:45) Every company is a series of companies

(56:35) AI CRM

(59:23) Spaced repetition social network

(01:03:43) Not paying attention to the news; Redirect energy from “the current thing” to something more productive

(01:09:58) Decide what's fundamental & interesting vs. a fad

(01:18:03) Think for yourself

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Michael’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/micjm

Bottomless: https://www.bottomless.com/

Spencer’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/SP1NS1R

Spencer’s Blog: https://spencerkier.substack.com