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Nat Friedman

Nat Friedman

@nat-friedman · 9 positions · On ppll ↗

Investor and engineer; CEO of GitHub from 2018 to 2021, co-founder of Ximian and Xamarin, and funder of the Vesuvius Challenge to read the Herculaneum Papyri.

Nat Friedman did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

2 of Nat Friedman's claims fit 2 mental models. Most often: Feedback loops, Incentives.

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Feedback loops

Shorten the loop between doing and finding out; whatever a loop rewards is what you become.

Used by 62 others

Doing things fast is important because you make contact with reality more often

  1. Nat Friedman Investor and engineer; CEO of GitHub from 2018 to 2021 It's important to do things fast You learn more per unit time because you make contact with reality more frequently Going fast makes you focus on what's important; there's no time for bullshit Nat Friedmannat.org · 4 Sept 2026
    It's important to do things fast You learn more per unit time because you make contact with reality more frequently Going fast makes you focus on what's important; there's no time for bullshit

Incentives

Look at what people are rewarded for; it explains more behaviour than what they say, your own included.

Used by 85 others

Where you get your dopamine predicts your behavior

  1. Nat Friedman Investor and engineer; CEO of GitHub from 2018 to 2021 Where do you get your dopamine? The answer is predictive of your behavior Better to get your dopamine from improving your ideas than from having them validated Nat Friedmannat.org · 4 Sept 2026
    Where do you get your dopamine? The answer is predictive of your behavior Better to get your dopamine from improving your ideas than from having them validated