How I work
For me, building a company and reading a hard book are the same habit. Both are ways of finding out what holds up.
I read history, science, philosophy, Islamic thought and business. I'm looking for ideas that keep coming back in different clothes, because those are the ones that still work when I bring them into a meeting on Monday.
This site is my notebook, kept in the open. Some pages are finished and some are still rough. I show the work as it stands and keep improving it.
What I care about
Thinking for myself
I try to reason from what I can check. When the evidence points away from the crowd, I go with the evidence, and I accept being wrong in public if it turns out I was.
Reading seriously
A good book is years of someone's work handed over for a few days of attention. I treat that as a bargain and read accordingly.
Changing my mind
When I'm wrong I want to know quickly. Then I fix the note and move on.
Principles first
What I take from an author is how they think. Biographies tend to polish the failures away, and the failures are usually where the lesson is.
Looking for the loop
Most problems I meet at work are symptoms. I look for the loop that keeps producing them, because fixing the loop fixes a lot at once.
Working in the open
I share how I got somewhere along with where I ended up. Writing for other people is the fastest way I know to find the holes in my own thinking.
What I do
Building companies
I founded Konstelar and Akselera Tech and lead both today. I've been starting businesses since 2013, in education, services, construction, e-commerce and transport. Each one taught me something about incentives, about people, and about how small decisions add up.
Reading and research
I read across history, science, philosophy, psychology, business and Islamic thought. The book notes here are what's left after the reading: what the author argues, where I think they're right, and where I'd push back.
Writing
I write essays to find out what I actually think. They're about decisions, about building things, and about the questions I keep coming back to.
Building tools
Some ideas work better as something you can click through. I've built small tools for decisions, like an inversion helper and a business idea check, and I keep adding to them.
Along the way
Founder
Started my first business in 2013. Since then I've built companies in education, services, construction, e-commerce and transport. Today I lead Konstelar and Akselera Tech.
Reader
Started reading seriously and keeping notes on everything I read. The book notes on this site grew out of that habit.
Writer
Began writing essays to think problems through where other people could see them.
Tool builder
Started turning the mental models I use into small interactive tools.
Talks
Places where I have spoken.
- 2024
Integration of Technology in Islamic Pedagogy
Spoke about artificial intelligence at an international seminar hosted by STIT Nurussalam.
Read the event report
People who shaped how I think
What I took from each of them is a way of thinking. That's what I list here.
Charlie Munger
Collecting models from many fields, and solving problems backwards
Ray Dalio
Writing principles down and checking decisions against them
Nassim Taleb
Fragility, skin in the game, and taking asymmetry seriously
Shane Parrish (Farnam Street)
Clear thinking and second-order consequences
Robert Greene
Human nature, and how power actually works
Ryan Holiday
Stoic discipline applied to ordinary days
Get in touch
If you'd like to talk about building companies, a book, or an idea on this site, I'm glad to hear from you. LinkedIn is the fastest way to reach me.