Why most founders do fake work
Sam Altman: Slack creates a lot of fake work
Sam Altman has time and again said that it’s surprisingly common for founders to shy away from challenging decisions, opting instead for “fake work” – tasks that are more enjoyable but less critical to the company’s success.
He even said that Slack creates a lot of fake work, and that he dreads the first and last hour of his day because of it.
Most founders (including me) / ProductGeeks are guilty of this - when you run the treadmill, sweat it out and realise that you haven’t gone anywhere.
In this (<4 minutes) video, I break down a simple venn diagram to help you audit your work - whether it is fake or real and what’s the danger zone.
What we cover:
Why Sam Altman dreads the first and last hour of his day.
The “Slack Trap”: Why internal communication feels like progress (but isn’t).
The Danger Zone: Premature scaling and “Political Theater.”
The 24-Hour Rule: How to filter your tasks for Real Work.
The Bottom Line:
We don’t fail because we are lazy. We fail because we choose comfort over truth.
This one hits hard. The Slack trap is so real\u2014its easy to confuse constant communication with progress, when really your just avoiding the uncomfortable decisions. That danger zone venn diagram nails it. I've caught myself doing premature scaling too many times, building features nobody asked for cause it felt more exciting than validating the core problem. The 24-hour rule sounds like a solid filter for cutting through the noise.