Nat Friedman's personal creed: "Slow is fake," a week is 2% of the year, and the EMH is a lie
alexeyguzey · x · 2026-09-25
Alexey Guzey resurfaced former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman's personal site, calling it "extremely important" and saying "never bet against Nat." The page lays out Friedman's history (GitHub CEO 2018–2021, Herculaneum Papyri work) and a sharp set of personal beliefs that have circulated widely in tech circles:
- It's humanity's right (maybe moral duty) to reshape the universe to our preferences, and technology — really knowledge — enables it; work on raising the ceiling, not the floor.
- Speed above all: going fast means more contact with reality per unit time; "slow is fake"; a week is 2% of the year; time is the denominator.
- The efficient market hypothesis is a lie — the best things occur where EMH is wrong; the world is often better modeled as 500 people than 8 billion.
- The taboo on micromanagement is harmful: great individuals should be fully empowered; smaller teams are better — faster decisions, fewer meetings, no room for mediocre people (and you can pay more).
- Large engineering projects are more soluble in IQ than they appear; the goal is uncorrelated excellence, not avoiding mistakes.
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