Zero to 0.5: The Hardest Part of Building Anything

If you’ve worked in tech or games over the past 10 years, you’ve probably heard someone drop the phrase “Zero to One” — yeah, that one, from Peter Thiel’s book. I’ve always felt like there’s a big missing piece in that framework.

See, most of that book is about what it takes to launch a product or company — and don’t get me wrong, that’s cool and helpful and very Silicon Valley. But for people like me, who start lots of projects from literally nothing, the hardest part isn’t launch. It’s getting from idea soup to something real enough to work with. I call this phase Zero to 0.5. Halfway to somewhere.