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The podcast Revolutions by Mike Duncan is probably my favorite one these days. It follows the history of different revolutions, starting with the English Revolution in the first season and continuing through to the Russian Revolution in the current and final season.

Episode 100 of the Russian Revolution season is titled History Never Ends and it tells the story of how Lenin and the Communist Leaders, in the aftermath of the October Revolution, continuously sought a “breathing spell”, when things would calm down and they could implement Communist principles and begin improving the lives of the people. From the show:

This was the logic behind the treaty of Brest-Litovsk: make peace at enormous cost because we need a breathing spell. This was the great prize to be won during the civil war. If we defeat all our enemies, we shall be able to finally work in peace. But this breathing spell they yearned for was a mirage. And it's always a mirage. We all know from our own daily lives, that fabled next week or next month or next year, when we will finally be able to do all the things we have to put off today because we're too busy, too harried and dealing with too many other emergencies, big and small, sudden deadlines that force us to drop everything, unexpected events that just upend our lives, except when we get to that next week and next month and next year we find the same set of unexpected emergencies, often the same type in category that have stalked us throughout our lives. And we are forced back into our natural state of scrambling a reaction and improvising a response.

So what are the implications for leaders?

• You have to learn to differentiate between the different types of crises. One potential frame here: do you have more momentum or problems? Another: if you look across all the products and companies you know of, how would this season rate? If it’s not obviously a time of major crisis, it’s probably a time of minor crisis.

• You have to make the time and space to work on the long term. The time when it will be easy is never going to come and if you don’t do it today, it won’t be easier tomorrow.

• Expect a background level of chaos and messiness. Learn to perform at a high level in the midst of it.

Notes:

1. In my observation, companies tend to make some of their worst decisions in their moments of least crisis

2. An unrelated fact I learned from this episode: the reparations placed on Germany by France at the end of World War I was calculated to be the same amount plus interest that Bismark had placed on France after the Franco-Prussian War. How did Bismark get this number? By calculating an amount identical to what Napoleon imposed on Prussia in 1807.

Shoe Dog is the story of Phil Knight and the founding of Nike through the first 12 years of its existence. It’s a great entrepreneurial story, one that I would recommend to anyone starting a business, because of how honest it is about the journey.

Another thing I appreciated about this book was getting to know Nike before it was dominant. All my life, Nike has been the premier sportswear brand. I had no idea that it began life as Blue Ribbon. Or that it started out importing another company’s shoes, basically taking advantage of outsourced production. Or that it only launched the Nike brand when its production partner tried to go around it to distribute in the United States.

One final story from the book: the name almost wasn’t Nike. Knight’s most trusted lieutenant had observed “that seemingly all iconic brands—Clorox, Kleenex, Xerox—have short names. Two syllables or less. And they always have a strong sound in the name, a letter like “K” or “X,” that sticks in the mind.” Despite this insight, he very nearly named the company Dimension Six.

1: A benefit of having an executive team of distance runners: they have a high tolerance for pushing through pain towards a goal.

Often when I find myself stuck, it’s because I don’t have conviction about how to move forward. One option gives me part of what I think is important, another option gives me another part, but no option gives me everything I want. I can spend a lot of time churning with indecision, looking for an additional option that doesn’t exist.

Oddly, I find these situations harder to deal with in my personal life than in my professional life. It seems that at work I expect to be faced with choices where there is no ideal outcome, but running into this situation in my personal life is more distressing.

Recently I’ve been struck by the power of laying out the options that exist and “simply” choosing the least bad one. In practice, this looks more like:

1. Lay out the options

2. Make sure no other options exist

3. Identify the least bad one

4. Is there anything I can do to make this option even less bad?

5. Pick the least bad option

6. Decide to revisit the decision and/or how to move towards the ideal option in the future

So here’s to the least bad option: humbler and less satisfying than the best option, but powerful nonetheless.

1: I think of this Jon Gruber column about how Apple rolls, which I revisit about once a year.

I’m really excited to finally show the world Stripe Apps.

Stripe apps lets developers customize a user’s Stripe experience. They can make workflows simpler, like the Intercom app, that makes it easier for a support agent to see who they’re refunding a payment for and reply inline. They can make collaboration easier, like the Render app, that makes it easier for a company that uses Stripe to process payments to make that data accessible to PMs or Analysts on the team. Or they can make it easier for businesses to get financing based on their Stripe financial data, like FounderPath, that helps SaaS founder access capital more easily.

This has easily been the most ambitious launch that I’ve ever worked on. Recruiting 35 launch partners seemed impossible when we started and yet here we are with more than 50. I’ll probably write more about what I learned while doing this in the future, but for now I’ll just say that ecosystem product management reminds me of the way I felt when I first started being a platform PM.

There’s a fair amount of terror, that comes from not having direct control over people’s roadmaps and decisions. There’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with understanding how to use a focus on the user and attention to detail to get people to move in the same direction. There’s a thrill that comes with making something much higher impact than any one team or individual could make on their own.

You can see the entire list of amazing launch apps here or start building an app here. You can find coverage of Stripe Apps in the Stripe Newsroom, Hacker News, Tech Crunch, and Venture Beat.

Update: Stripe Apps covered by Ben Thompson in Stratechery.

The last major thing I worked on at YouTube has finally shipped: a way for Creators to find inspiration for videos using YouTube data on what people have been searching for.

This feature is particularly useful if you’re trying to find your niche on the platform. You can brainstorm topic areas and then use those to find search terms where there isn’t enough good content today, allowing you to get started.

I’m proud to have played a small part in bringing this into the world.