[Founder Notes] John Carmack and John Romero

Team of two. Frugal: enough money to code, eat pizza, and drink Coke. Focus on making each percent matter. That was Carmack.

If someone doesn't "get" your vision, move on. After Doom 2, lifestyle inflation marked the beginning of the end.

After Doom, Romero wanted to rest on his wins. Carmack wanted to keep pushing. Romero ended up getting voted out because Carmack kept building.

3 programmers, 3 artists, 3 game-levelers can make the best games in the world. Independence matters. Carmack: "There must be a lot of people who don't like their jobs."

Romero believed too many people = success. False. More people means more time to completion.

Dangers of large teams: too ambitious, lack of focus, loss of speed. In the information age, the barriers are just not there. If you want to create something new, you need a small group, shared belief, and the combination.

— Jay