Slipping Through It: A Parisian Startup Lesson
Getting going in the face of adversity
It happened on a narrow street in the 9th district of Paris; one of those half-pedestrian lanes lined with parked scooters, café chairs, and an improbable number of poodles. A woman in a crisp beige trench coat was walking ahead of me, unhurried, elegant even. Then, without warning, their right foot found it: a perfectly camouflaged heap of animal excrement. By the proportions of it, a big dog.
Now, I am not going to let you think I was hoping the person in question would find their shoe gravitating to the giant puddle of bowel waste on the sidewalk- I barely had thousands of a second, as I registered a head wearing Apple AirPods Max, and my mind went to think of how come hasn't there been an update for those- when the imagery of the elements started compounding, it was too late.
At this moment, time slowed. The shoe made first contact, and that was when the slide began. Half ballet, half panic. Arms waved in both disbelief and cartoonish navigation of balance. For a few glorious seconds there was full commitment to the chaos, a surfing of the inevitable. And then, miraculously, they were upright again. Dignity intact. They looked back, down at the damage, shook their head once, and kept walking. Paris carried on as if nothing had happened.
I’ve thought about that moment more times than I’d like to admit, mostly while building software. Because honestly, that’s exactly how it feels most of the time. You plan your steps carefully, you think you’re moving forward with style, and then suddenly you’re sliding through something you didn’t see coming. There’s no time to stop. You just wave your arms and hope friction returns before you fall flat.
The trick, I think, is to treat it like that woman did- without outrage, without drama. Just acceptance. Paris teaches you that some things are part of the landscape: pigeons, traffic, bureaucracy, and yes, dog crap. You can’t avoid every mess. What matters is not pretending they don’t exist, but learning to glide through them and keep going.
It happened on a narrow street in the 9th district of Paris; one of those half-pedestrian lanes lined with parked scooters, café chairs, and an improbable number of poodles. A woman in a crisp beige trench coat was walking ahead of me, unhurried, elegant even. Then, without warning, their right foot found it: a perfectly camouflaged heap of animal excrement. By the proportions of it, a big dog.
Now, I am not going to let you think I was hoping the person in question would find their shoe gravitating to the giant puddle of bowel waste on the sidewalk- I barely had thousands of a second, as I registered a head wearing Apple AirPods Max, and my mind went to think of how come hasn't there been an update for those- when the imagery of the elements started compounding, it was too late.
At this moment, time slowed. The shoe made first contact, and that was when the slide began. Half ballet, half panic. Arms waved in both disbelief and cartoonish navigation of balance. For a few glorious seconds there was full commitment to the chaos, a surfing of the inevitable. And then, miraculously, they were upright again. Dignity intact. They looked back, down at the damage, shook their head once, and kept walking. Paris carried on as if nothing had happened.
I’ve thought about that moment more times than I’d like to admit, mostly while building software. Because honestly, that’s exactly how it feels most of the time. You plan your steps carefully, you think you’re moving forward with style, and then suddenly you’re sliding through something you didn’t see coming. There’s no time to stop. You just wave your arms and hope friction returns before you fall flat.
The trick, I think, is to treat it like that woman did- without outrage, without drama. Just acceptance. Paris teaches you that some things are part of the landscape: pigeons, traffic, bureaucracy, and yes, dog crap. You can’t avoid every mess. What matters is not pretending they don’t exist, but learning to glide through them and keep going.
It happened on a narrow street in the 9th district of Paris; one of those half-pedestrian lanes lined with parked scooters, café chairs, and an improbable number of poodles. A woman in a crisp beige trench coat was walking ahead of me, unhurried, elegant even. Then, without warning, their right foot found it: a perfectly camouflaged heap of animal excrement. By the proportions of it, a big dog.
Now, I am not going to let you think I was hoping the person in question would find their shoe gravitating to the giant puddle of bowel waste on the sidewalk- I barely had thousands of a second, as I registered a head wearing Apple AirPods Max, and my mind went to think of how come hasn't there been an update for those- when the imagery of the elements started compounding, it was too late.
At this moment, time slowed. The shoe made first contact, and that was when the slide began. Half ballet, half panic. Arms waved in both disbelief and cartoonish navigation of balance. For a few glorious seconds there was full commitment to the chaos, a surfing of the inevitable. And then, miraculously, they were upright again. Dignity intact. They looked back, down at the damage, shook their head once, and kept walking. Paris carried on as if nothing had happened.
I’ve thought about that moment more times than I’d like to admit, mostly while building software. Because honestly, that’s exactly how it feels most of the time. You plan your steps carefully, you think you’re moving forward with style, and then suddenly you’re sliding through something you didn’t see coming. There’s no time to stop. You just wave your arms and hope friction returns before you fall flat.
The trick, I think, is to treat it like that woman did- without outrage, without drama. Just acceptance. Paris teaches you that some things are part of the landscape: pigeons, traffic, bureaucracy, and yes, dog crap. You can’t avoid every mess. What matters is not pretending they don’t exist, but learning to glide through them and keep going.
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