What’s with the title? It’s a reference to two Tool songs I really like.
What did Maynard James Keenan say?
“Something kinda sad about the way that things have come to be. Desensitized to everything. What became of subtlety?”
It’s been 4 months since I entered the AI SaaS space. We built the product in 3 months, and for the past month we’ve been trying to improve it. On the marketing side, we’ve been experimenting to find product–market fit. So what did I learn in these 4 months?
First, I realized I had missed being fully focused on work. For the first time in years, I felt like I could breathe again. There’s something inherently beautiful about moving through uncertainty—if you find a way to enjoy it, it starts to feel like you’re inside a series. That makes the journey more engaging. And many of the layers of fog in front of you at the beginning start to clear as you keep moving forward.
Moving fast and shipping quickly was important to me. I was even proud of it. But then I realized something: at the end of the day, you have to sell the product. And the moment you reach that point, everything you previously considered an achievement resets to zero. This matters. If there are no sales, there is no success.
Over the past 4 months, I placed serious importance not only on building a good product but also on operational maturity. My compass was clear: The E-Myth Revisited and Built to Sell. I tried to apply their teachings as much as I could. This mattered to me. But in the end, I realized something—something a more experienced founder had warned me about: I had been too romantic. Operational maturity is not something people really care about. At least not at this stage. Of course, there’s also the possibility that I haven’t found the right sea yet. I don’t know.
Dreaming is beautiful. Living inside that dream is dangerous. There’s a fundamental truth in entrepreneurship we have to accept: everyone is doing what they do to gain something. The goal is to make money. I build products to make money. Users want to make money. People who want to join the company want to make money. That’s why staying rational in every aspect and pursuing a formula that works for everyone is critical. Very few things matter beyond that.
Now let’s combine these two realizations: value-driven awareness and operational reality. Can they be combined? They can—but a dilemma emerges. The “sad” part appears exactly at that intersection. You just have to look a bit deeper to see it.
And that brings us to another deeply philosophical line from Maynard:
“I know the pieces fit ’cause I watched them fall away.”
This is hard. It’s not easy. To keep the tank full, you have to face harsh realities early.
