My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
The Art of Noticing Framework
Developing heightened sensitivity to details, inconsistencies, and opportunities that others ignore or take for granted
How It Works
Works by training yourself to question obvious things, notice small details, and find what's mispriced or misunderstood in plain sight
Components
Question obvious social conventions and accepted truths
Keep a running list of things that seem weird or don't make sense
Read broadly to increase pattern matching ability
Practice observational exercises like Seinfeld premise generation
Look for what experts ignore because they're 'too close to see it'
When to Use
Essential for comedy, investing, entrepreneurship, and any field requiring pattern recognition or finding overlooked opportunities
When Not to Use
Can lead to analysis paralysis if you notice everything but act on nothing. Not useful for execution-heavy tasks requiring focus.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Ben Horowitz wondered 'why did slavery end?' - a question most people never ask because they accept it as obvious moral progress. This led him to discover unique historical examples like Haiti's slave revolution, giving him insights into how entrenched systems actually change that inform his investing in transformational companies.”