Dead Darlings

My grad school advisor once told me to put a chapter of my thesis which I absolutely adored, but that didn't advance my argument, in a "dead darlings folder" on my computer. Save it somewhere safe, and special, but move on. It will be waiting for you if you need it. That was 7 years ago, I’ve never once looked at it again… But "pitch it with love" was perhaps the most impactful professional advice I've ever received, and I've passed it on to dozens of coworkers and mentees. It feels like a little ceremony to honor the work I put into something before I let it go.

I keep coming back to it now as I talk to clients about the apps they and AI have spun up in a day, ideas they love, but that no one seems to use or buy.

Here's what I think is happening: for the last few decades product teams have generally tested assumptions with users before anything was built. Our assumptions felt hypothetical, so it was easier to move on to the next idea. Now we're testing assumptions with full, working apps that we, the builders, may already be attached to. This is an extraordinary shift in mentality, one that requires a new, very human emotional muscle. Building is no longer the bottleneck, letting go is.

Just because you can create a full-fledged app doesn't mean people need or want it. The discipline isn't building anymore, it's knowing when to move something to the dead darlings folder.

Or, as my dad would remind me: if you realize you're riding a dead horse, dismount!